SANTA ANA  (AP) — A Southern California man who killed two people and dismembered one in a scheme to steal money and cover his tracks was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder.
A jury found Daniel Wozniak, 31, guilty of killing two Orange Coast College students on May 21, 2010. The Orange County jury must now decide whether to recommend life in prison or the death penalty.
Wozniak was deeply in debt, needed money for his upcoming wedding and faced eviction when he concocted a plan to kill a neighbor, Samuel Herr, and steal $50,000 that the Army veteran had saved from his service in Afghanistan, prosecutors said.
Wozniak shot the 26-year-old Costa Mesa man in the attic of a Los Alamitos theater where Wozniak performed in community theater productions — including playing the lead in a musical the night after the killing. He later dismembered Herr and dumped the remains in a park.
Prosecutors said Wozniak used Herr’s phone to text the victim’s friend, Julie Kibuishi. He pretended to be Herr and got the 23-year-old to come to Herr’s apartment to talk so he could shoot her and make it appear that Herr had raped and killed her before fleeing.
Wozniak was arrested days later at his bachelor party.
At trial, Steve Herr testified about walking into his son’s apartment and finding Kibuishi.
A 16-year-old boy testified that Wozniak hired him to use Herr’s ATM card to withdraw money from the victim’s bank account.
Jurors also saw video of a police interview in which Wozniak confessed to the double killing.
Asked about his motive, Wozniak replied: “Money and insanity.”
“I don’t know why I did it,” he added. “Mainly it was the money, and it seemed so easy.”