Rachel Buffett: Lying Conviction, Sentence, and Wozniak Case

Rachel Buffett is a former Southern California community theater actress and one-time Disneyland princess who was convicted in September 2018 of two felony counts of accessory after the fact for lying to Costa Mesa police during the investigation of the 2010 double murder committed by her then-fiancé, Daniel Wozniak. On November 8, 2018, Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson sentenced her to 32 months in county jail, with the final six months to be served on probation.¹ She was 23 when detectives first interviewed her in May 2010, and 31 when the jury returned its verdict.

What She Was Convicted of Lying About

Prosecutors did not accuse Buffett of taking part in the killings. They accused her of steering detectives away from Wozniak after the fact. Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy told the jury during closing arguments that Buffett “may not have known about the plan beforehand,” but that the evidence showed she learned of Wozniak’s involvement and then lied. “The question is, how much was she in the dark?” Murphy said.²

At the center of the case was a man named Chris Williams, who had loaned the couple roughly $2,000 and came to their apartment on the day Sam Herr disappeared to collect. Williams testified that he saw Wozniak, Buffett, and Herr together, then remained at the apartment with Buffett for about three hours while Wozniak left with Herr. When Wozniak came back alone, he set $400 on the table and appeared “very emotional and panicked,” in Williams’ words.³

Buffett never told police Williams had been in the apartment that day. Instead, she repeated a fabricated story Wozniak had concocted that Herr had left with an unidentified man in a black hat. Prosecutors estimated she lied to investigators at least 19 times in a single interview.² When detectives eventually pressed her about Williams, she told them on tape: “Because honestly I was afraid that if you knew that Chris had seen us that day, I don’t know who Chris knows, and I don’t know if he knows anybody bad.”³ Williams himself later admitted he had falsely told the couple his loan money came from people connected to the “mafia” because he wanted to make sure he was repaid.⁴

A retired detective also testified that a voice stress analysis administered to Buffett during the investigation indicated she was being deceptive.³

The Trial and the Defense’s Answer

Buffett’s jury trial began with opening statements on September 5, 2018, in Orange County Superior Court. Deliberations started on September 11, and the jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts the following day. She was ordered jailed immediately and did not testify at her own trial.⁴

Defense attorney David Medina argued Buffett was a victim of Wozniak’s manipulation, not an accomplice. He called Wozniak “a monster, a psychopath, and a liar” who deceived Buffett about his finances, his employment, and the killings themselves, and said Wozniak lied to her about everything because he considered her “out of his league.”⁵

Medina pointed to conduct he said was inconsistent with someone covering for a killer: Buffett voluntarily contacted the Costa Mesa Police Department, gave investigators evidence that placed Wozniak at the scene, helped them locate the murder weapon, and prompted Wozniak to confess during a recorded jailhouse phone call. “If she wanted to protect Daniel Wozniak, why did she do all that?” Medina asked.³ He argued her failure to mention Williams stemmed from fear about the “origin of the loan” and the couple’s borrowing from people she believed to be dangerous.⁴

Buffett maintained her innocence in an interview for ABC’s 20/20: “The truth is, I did not know. I was not involved.” Describing the discovery that her fiancé had committed the murders, she said: “It was like the person I loved never really existed, and it was somebody pretending to be somebody they weren’t.”³

The Sentence

Judge Hanson broke the 32-month sentence into two years on the first count and eight months on the second, with the last six months to be served on probation. Buffett received credit for time already served and for good conduct and was expected to remain in custody between one and two years.⁶¹ She had faced a maximum of 44 months.²

Who She Was Before the Case

Buffett grew up in Seal Beach in a religious family. She worked at one point as a Disneyland princess and later as a “damsel” at Medieval Times. At the time of the killings she was a community theater actress in Orange County, and she and Wozniak were both performing in the Hunger Artists Theatre Company’s production of the musical Nine in Fullerton.⁷ Throughout the legal proceedings she was referred to as Wozniak’s fiancée or ex-fiancée; available records do not indicate the two ever married.

The Murders She Was Accused of Covering Up

In May 2010, Wozniak was a 28-year-old unemployed community theater actor living with Buffett in a small Costa Mesa apartment. The couple was facing eviction and financial strain but had a wedding scheduled for May 28, 2010, in Long Beach. Prosecutors said Wozniak targeted his neighbor, 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr, to steal roughly $62,000 in combat pay Herr had saved during his service in Afghanistan.⁸

On May 21, 2010, Wozniak lured Herr to the attic of a local theater under a false pretense and shot him, later dismembering the body and discarding the remains in El Dorado Park in Long Beach. That same evening he took the stage at the Liberty Theater for a performance of Nine. The next night, about two hours after another performance, he used Herr’s phone to lure Julie Kibuishi, a 23-year-old Orange Coast College student and friend of Herr, to Herr’s apartment. He shot her twice in the back of the head and staged the scene to make it appear Herr had sexually assaulted and killed her before fleeing, framing Herr for the death and eliminating any search for him.⁸

Sam Herr’s father, Steve Herr, found Kibuishi’s body in his son’s apartment on May 21, 2010, after Sam failed to show up for a visit and immediately rejected any suggestion his son was responsible, telling police, “Sam would never do this.”⁹ Police arrested Wozniak on May 28, 2010, the day of his bachelor party and two days before the planned wedding, after a 17-year-old boy was found using Herr’s ATM card. Wozniak eventually confessed to both killings during a 14-hour interrogation.⁸

Where Wozniak Stands Now

A jury found Wozniak guilty on December 16, 2015, and recommended the death penalty in under two hours. Superior Court Judge John D. Conley sentenced him to death on September 23, 2016.¹⁰ His case is on automatic appeal to the California Supreme Court, and in August 2024 the court granted a stay on the collection of restitution until the appeal is resolved.¹¹ In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a moratorium on executions in California, so Wozniak and other condemned inmates are not currently facing execution, though existing death sentences remain intact. In 2021, Wozniak was transferred from San Quentin State Prison to Salinas Valley State Prison under a pilot program that allows qualifying condemned inmates to participate in work and rehabilitation programs at other high-security facilities.¹²

1
Los Angeles Times. Buffett Sentencing
2
Oxygen. Rachel Buffett Convicted of Lying to Cover for Murderer Fiance Daniel Wozniak
3
ABC News. Actress Convicted of Lying to Police About Fiance’s Double Murder
4
OC Register. Jury Finds Former Fiancee of Convicted Killer Daniel Wozniak Guilty of Being Accessory After the Fact
5
Patch. Former Disney Princess Convicted in Grisly Dismemberment Murders
6
KTLA. O.C. Killer’s Ex-Fiancee Sentenced to 32 Months in Jail as Accessory to 2010 Murders
7
OC Register. Convicted Killer Daniel Wozniak’s Ex-Fiancee Rachel Buffett Appears in Court
8
ABC News. Community Theater Actor’s Final Performance and Chilling Confession to Double Murder
9
Los Angeles Times. Wozniak Trial Opening Statements
10
Voice of OC. Death Penalty for Wozniak in 2010 Murders of Two
11
California Supreme Court. People v. Wozniak Order
12
OC Register. Convicted Killer Daniel Wozniak Moved Out of San Quentin, Sparking Criticism