Daniel Wozniak was convicted by a jury in the Orange County Superior Court of the murders of Samuel Herr and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, who died in Costa Mesa, California, in May 2010. The jury returned its verdict on December 16, 2015, and the court sentenced him to death on September 23, 2016. The prosecution's case rested on two special circumstances, multiple murders and murder for financial gain. In California a death sentence leads to an automatic appeal to the state's highest court, and that appeal is still undecided. No one has been executed in the state since 2006, and in November 2026 the outgoing Governor announced that he would convert every death sentence in California to life in prison without parole.
Samuel Herr was 26 years old. Juri Kibuishi, known as Julie, was 23. They are the two people Wozniak was convicted of killing. Both died in the third week of May 2010, Herr on May 21 and Kibuishi on May 22. The jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts, and at sentencing four members of the victims' families addressed the court under the state's victims' rights provisions.
Wozniak was 26 when the case began. He lived in Costa Mesa, and the Costa Mesa Police Department led the investigation, with the District Attorney's investigators, the FBI and several other agencies.
He was arrested on May 26, 2010. Two days later, on May 28, the Orange County District Attorney's Office announced that he had been charged with two felony counts of special circumstances murder. The charging announcement listed the special circumstances as multiple murders and murder for financial gain, together with a further sentencing enhancement, and it said that if he were convicted he faced a minimum of life in state prison without the possibility of parole. He was held without bail.
On June 10, 2010, the District Attorney's special circumstances committee decided that the office would seek the death penalty, and the District Attorney announced the decision the same day. The case was assigned to the Homicide Unit as a special prosecutions case, prosecuted by a senior deputy district attorney. A continued arraignment was set for June 25, 2010, in the Central Jail courtroom in Santa Ana.
On May 3, 2012, the Orange County Grand Jury indicted Wozniak on the same two counts of special circumstances murder, with the same special circumstances and enhancements. The case moved through the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana.
The case took more than five years to reach a jury. The first trial dates were set for 2013, and they were moved several times. In January 2015 the judge who had set those dates stepped aside after the defense filed accusations against the prosecution, and a second Orange County judge was assigned the case on January 29, 2015.
The defense, led by a deputy public defender, argued that the District Attorney's Office had acted improperly. On August 26, 2015, it filed a motion to dismiss the death penalty on the ground of outrageous governmental conduct. Other judges heard motions to disqualify the trial judge and to quash subpoenas during 2015, and the appellate courts and the California Supreme Court denied related petitions from the defense.
On October 30, 2015, the trial judge denied the motion to dismiss the death penalty and several other defense motions. His written ruling stated: "This court finds that defendant failed to show that outrageous government misconduct occurred in his own case." He also found the accusations against the District Attorney's Office untrue. The trial followed that autumn.
On December 16, 2015, the jury found Wozniak guilty of two felony counts of special circumstances murder, and it found true the special circumstances of multiple murders and murder for financial gain, along with the further sentencing enhancement. The Orange County District Attorney's Office gave the charges, in its words, as "two felony counts of special circumstances murder with sentencing enhancements."
California capital trials have two stages. The first decides guilt and the special circumstances. A second stage, before the same jury, decides between death and life in prison without the possibility of parole. On January 11, 2016, after less than an hour of deliberation, the jury recommended death.
Sentencing was set for March 11, 2016, in a Central Justice Center courtroom in Santa Ana. It did not take place on that date. In May 2016 the District Attorney's Office announced that newly discovered jail records, called Special Handling Logs, had to be produced and reviewed, and that sentencing would be set after status hearings on May 20 and June 10, 2016. The prosecution said the records did not appear relevant to the merits of the case.
On September 23, 2016, the trial judge sentenced Wozniak to death in the Orange County Superior Court. The judge told the court that Wozniak "was willing to kill two young people to accomplish that goal," a reference to the financial gain on which the special circumstance rested. The defense asked the court to bar the death penalty because of alleged government misconduct and to order a new penalty phase, and the judge rejected both requests. Four relatives of the victims gave statements to the court. A restitution hearing followed on September 30, 2016. Wozniak entered the state prison system on October 3, 2016.
One other person was convicted in connection with the case. Rachel Mae Buffett, 31, of Costa Mesa, was charged on December 20, 2012 with being an accessory after the fact. A jury found her guilty on September 12, 2018 of two felony counts of accessory after the fact, for lying to Costa Mesa detectives in May and June 2010 to protect Wozniak. In November 2018 she was sentenced to two years and eight months in county jail. She was not accused of taking part in the murders.
A death sentence in California is reviewed automatically by the California Supreme Court. At the time of sentencing an unusually long appeal was expected. California has a large backlog of capital appeals, and many condemned prisoners have waited years even for the appointment of counsel.
On April 15, 2026, the California Supreme Court granted Wozniak's appeal attorney more time to file the appeal of the 2016 sentence. The court has not decided the appeal.
Voters in California upheld the death penalty in 2012 and again in 2016. The 2016 measure aimed to speed up executions by shortening the appeals process but did not provide adequate funding for defense lawyers for the condemned. The state has carried out 13 executions since the death penalty returned in 1977, and the last was in 2006.
On March 13, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order halting executions, which remains in force. Wozniak was sentenced after the 2016 vote and before the moratorium, and he is among the more than 200 people sentenced to death in California since the last execution.
On November 5, 2026, in a letter announcing his decision, Newsom said he would convert all 548 death sentences in California to life in prison without parole, writing that "state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values." The commutations are not final for everyone. The state constitution requires the California Supreme Court to approve clemency for people convicted of more than one felony, which covers 382 of the 548, and the Governor-elect has said he will extend the moratorium when he takes office in January. A legal organization has pledged to challenge the commutations before the California Supreme Court.
The defense claim of misconduct by the prosecuting office was rejected in writing by the trial court on October 30, 2015. The grounds of the pending appeal are not yet public, and no court has found any error in his conviction or sentence.
May 21 and 22, 2010: Samuel Herr and Juri Kibuishi die in Costa Mesa.
May 26, 2010: Wozniak is arrested.
May 28, 2010: Two felony counts of special circumstances murder are filed.
June 10, 2010: The District Attorney announces that the office will seek the death penalty.
May 3, 2012: The Orange County Grand Jury indicts Wozniak.
December 20, 2012: Rachel Buffett is charged as an accessory after the fact.
January 29, 2015: A new trial judge is assigned.
August 26, 2015: The defense moves to dismiss the death penalty.
October 30, 2015: The motion is denied.
December 16, 2015: The jury finds Wozniak guilty on both counts.
January 11, 2016: The jury recommends death.
March 11, 2016: Sentencing is postponed.
September 23, 2016: Wozniak is sentenced to death.
October 3, 2016: Wozniak enters the state prison system.
September 12, 2018: Buffett is convicted of two counts of accessory after the fact; she is sentenced in November 2018 to two years and eight months in county jail.
March 13, 2019: The Governor halts executions in California.
April 15, 2026: The California Supreme Court grants more time to file the appeal.
November 5, 2026: The Governor announces he will commute all California death sentences, subject to court approval.