Photo by Alexander Nguyen
A fugitive warrant has been issued for the arrest of a convicted double killer’s brother, who agreed to enter a drug rehabilitation facility for a six-month treatment program to clear up a probation violation, but apparently walked away from it, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Tim Wozniak, 42, was supposed to report to the drug treatment facility but has apparently dropped out of it and cannot be located, Deputy District Attorney Mark Geller said. His attorney has not heard from him either, Geller said.
After a Friday court hearing on his progress, a fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest, according to court records.
If Wozniak had completed the program successfully prosecutors intended to dismiss a probation violation petition, Geller said.
Wozniak was charged last year with attacking a girlfriend on Sept. 11. However, that misdemeanor domestic violence case was dropped as part of his plea bargain for being an accessory after the fact in the murders committed by his brother.
As part of the plea bargain, Wozniak was placed on three years of probation and was ordered to take 10 anger management classes, according to court records.
Wozniak testified against his brother — who was sentenced to death on Sept. 23 — and pleaded guilty Dec. 15 to being an accessory after the fact. He was sentenced to time served in jail, which amounted to 10 days, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy.
Wozniak was not charged in his most recent case of domestic violence, which stemmed from his arrest just after 3 a.m. Dec. 22 at an Irvine hotel.
According to Roxi Fyad of the Costa Mesa Police Department, he was accused of punching, grabbing and biting a girlfriend on Dec. 19 while driving on Bristol Street near the South Coast Plaza shopping center.
The two ended up back at a hotel in Irvine, where a security guard noticed the woman was “distraught” and called police, Fyad said.
Wozniak helped hide evidence against his 32-year-old brother, but later cooperated fully with authorities, Murphy said.
Daniel Patrick Wozniak, a former Los Alamitos community theater actor, was convicted in December of the 2010 murders of 26-year-old Samuel Eliezer Herr and 23-year-old Julie Kibuishi. He killed the victims to raise funds for his pending nuptials and honeymoon.
Following the killings, he handed his older brother a backpack containing the murder weapon and other incriminating evidence. Tim Wozniak agreed to “dispose of this backpack and all of the contents therein,” according to his plea deal.
“I later threw this backpack over a fence at my parents’ home in Long Beach, where it remained until recovered by police,” he admitted in his plea deal.
“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.”
–City News Service
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