Brother of double murderer is suspected of probation violation connected to alleged attack on girlfriend

Timothy Wozniak — who was sentenced to three years’ informal probation last year after he pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in his younger brother’s double-murder case — was arrested early Friday on suspicion of violating the terms of his probation in connection with an alleged altercation with his girlfriend.

Newport Beach police arrested Wozniak, 42, at 12:25 a.m. in the area of MacArthur Boulevard and Birch Street on an outstanding warrant that had been filed in Orange County Superior Court on Dec. 23, according to police and court records.

Wozniak, of Long Beach, was booked into Orange County Jail with bail set at $25,000. He is expected to appear in court Monday, according to jail records.

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Wozniak was arrested in December and charged with corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant after authorities alleged he punched his girlfriend in the chest, grabbed her wrist and bit her forearm while the pair were traveling in a car on Bristol Street in Costa Mesa.

Wozniak pleaded not guilty, and the charges were dismissed Dec. 15, according to court records.

Days later, however, the Orange County district attorney’s office filed a petition with the court for Wozniak’s arrest on suspicion of a probation violation in connection with the alleged incident with his girlfriend, according to court records.

Last year, Wozniak pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in the crimes of his brother Daniel Wozniak, a Costa Mesa resident who was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Samuel Herr, 26, of Costa Mesa and Herr’s friend Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, 23, of Irvine in 2010.

Timothy Wozniak was charged after authorities learned that Daniel Wozniak had given him a backpack containing evidence including bloody clothes, expended shell casings, Herr’s credit cards and a black automatic handgun used in the killings.

Timothy Wozniak first pleaded not guilty to the felony accessory charge but changed his plea as part of a deal offered by prosecutors.

In a court statement as part of the deal, Timothy Wozniak wrote that he threw the backpack over a fence at his parents’ home in Long Beach, where police later found it.

“I have since cooperated with the subsequent investigation and prosecution and I am deeply sorry for any and all of my involvement in this matter,” he wrote.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN