Why did Daniel Wozniak kill Julie Kibuishi? Details explored ahead of A Plan to Kill on Oxygen

On May 21, 2010, Daniel Wozniak shot and killed 23-year-old fashion major Julie Kibuishi and 26-year-old Afghanistan War veteran Sam Herr. Season one episode 10 of A Plan to Kill on Oxygen will focus on this double homicide.

In addition to killing his neighbor Sam Herr for financial gain, Daniel Wozniak killed Julie Kiubbuishi that same evening to give the detectives the impression that Sam had killed her and fled. However, Wozniak later confessed to both the crimes as per Oxygen True Crime.

The impending episode of A Plan to Kill on Oxygen that will focus on the murders of Herr and Kibuishi is titled Killer Friendship. It airs on December 29 at 7 pm ET.

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Daniel Wozniak shot Julie Kibuishi twice

As per reports by Oxygen True Crime, Daniel Wozniak, a former American community theatre actor killed Sam Herr on May 21, 2010, in the Los Alamitos theater by shooting him in the head twice. Following this, he accessed Sam's cell phone and lured Julie into Sam's home. As per OTC, Sam and Julie shared a "pseudo-brother-and-sister relationship."

From Sam's phone, Wozniak texted Kibuishi on May 21:

"Can you come over tonight at midnight alone. Going out for a bit. Very upset. Need to talk. Please. No s*x. I need to talk to someone."

Kibuishi reportedly found this message absurd as she and Sam were like brothers and sisters. She replied to the same and wrote:

“Lol ew sam we’re like bro and sis no s*x."

Julie Kibuishi next went to check up on Sam around midnight as per CBS. Wozniak who was present there, opened the door pretending to be one of Sam's friends. Julie followed him in, after which she was shot twice in the back of the head and killed by Wozniak. Oxygen True Crime reported that Wozniak then staged the scene to make it look like there had been a s*xual assault.

The killer confessed the same to CBS correspondent Tracy Smith and described how he slayed Julie Kibuishi:

"And I said, "Oh, by the way, did you see this in Sam's bed?" And she [Julie Kibuishi] said, "What? I said, "***lean over look at it right there." When she was leaned over I put two bullets in the back of her head." [h/t: CBS]

When asked about why he carried out the double homicide, he stated:

"I was actually smiling and laughing. …It reached a point to where I couldn't even believe that I was doing this."

Julie Kibuishi's body was found inside Sam Herr's bedroom. Sam's father came in to check on him using a spare key to enter the house because he was unable to call him as the phone went straight to voice mail. He found Julie lying on Sam's bed. She was shot twice in the back of her head. Her jeans were pulled down and cut, and “F-ck You” and “All Yours” were written across her sweatshirt.

Wozniak attempted to blame Sam for Julie's murder by arranging the crime scene so that it appeared as though Sam had se*ually assaulted his friend, killed her, and then gone for a run, During interrogations, Wozniak recanted his statements many times and in one instance also stated that Sam Herr killed Julie Kibuishi in a "drug-induced haze and needed to go on the run" as per Oxygen True Crime.

Initially, Sam was a suspect in Julie's murder however the detective soon learned that Wozniak killed Sam Herr the same night he killed Julie, after which he got rid of his body parts, to make it look like Sam was on a run.

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Daniel Wozniak is behind bars at the Salinas Valley State Prison

As per CBS, in September 2016, almost five-and-a-half years after the murders of Sam Herr and Julie Kibuishi, a jury found Daniel Wozniak guilty. He was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death and incarcerated at the San Quentin State Prison.

However, in 2021, as part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Pilot Program, he was moved to Soledad, California's Salinas Valley State Prison, where he remains to date.

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To learn more about this case, watch season one episode 10 of A Plan to Kill, airing on Oxygen on December 29 at 7 pm ET.