Wozniak lawyer not entitled to more information about jailhouse informants, judge says
The attorney for convicted double murderer Daniel Wozniak does not need to be given any more information about Orange County Sheriff’s Department deputies’ use of jailhouse informants, a judge has ruled, calling the issue a “dead end.”
Wozniak was convicted in December of killing 23-year-old Irvine resident Julie Kibuishi and her friend Sam Herr, a 26-year-old Army veteran, in 2010.
In January, a jury deliberated for just over an hour before recommending Wozniak be put to death for the crime. But public defender Scott Sanders has since issued multiple subpoenas to the Sheriff’s Department, seeking information about an informant program at the Orange County Jail.
Sanders alleges that the information, which includes years’ worth of notes from jailers and informants, is vital to proving that local law enforcement routinely keeps crucial evidence hidden from death penalty defendants, including Wozniak.
Sanders plans to ask for a new trial based on those accusations.
But Superior Court Judge John Conley earlier this week told Sanders that the informant issue had no bearing on Wozniak’s case because prosecutors agreed before his trial that they would not use any evidence gathered through informants.
“The issue of jail informants in the Wozniak case, in the court’s view, is a dead-end road leading nowhere,” Conley said.
Sanders, however, argued that he’s entitled to the information because the Sheriff’s Department has shown it can’t be trusted to turn over evidence helpful to defendants.
In May, under questioning from Sanders, sheriff’s officials revealed they had found a trove of secret notes that a group of deputies kept about their interactions with inmates, including informants, between 2008 and 2013.
“Judge Conley believes informants are irrelevant because the prosecution chose not to call one as a witness,” Sanders said in a statement following the ruling. “We think if the government wants to have a secret informant program, once we uncover it, we get to know what other informants are housed near our client to investigate whether they observed favorable conduct by our client in custody.”
Conley acknowledged that the Sheriff’s Department appears to have “severe” record-keeping problems, but he said his role was limited to ensuring that Wozniak had a fair trial.
“This court is not the supervisor of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department,” he said.
According to Conley, Wozniak’s guilt was so clear at trial that any impropriety by deputies wouldn’t have changed the jury’s decision. “The Wozniak case is not a close case,” the judge said.
Dobruck writes for Times Community News
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