The defense in the case of a former Disneyland Princess accused of trying to cover-up her ex-fiancé’s involvement in a 2010 grisly double murder will seek a bail reduction to free the actress.
The attorney for Rachel Mae Buffett, 25, said she hopes to get her client released on bond during the bail hearing. Ajna Sharma-Wilson said she will argue for the reduction because the current $100,000 bail amount is "tantamount" to $1 million for the family.
Buffett's former fiancé is actor Daniel Patrick Wozniak, who faces the death penalty if convicted of murdering and dismembering his neighbor Samuel Herr in a Los Alamitos Theater in order to gain access to his bank account and then killing his friend, Juri “Julie” Kibuishi, in an elaborate ploy to cover up his crime.
According to a statement from the Orange County District Attorney’s office, Buffett fabricated a story about Herr, 27, having family problems to throw suspicion off Wozniak and help him “avoid and escape from arrest, trial, conviction and punishment for the felony."
However, her family and her attorney have repeatedly said Buffett had no knowledge of the murders before police contacted her.
Arrested Nov. 20 and held on $100,000 bail, Buffett pleaded not guilty in court on Monday.
Buffett faces three felony counts of accessory after the fact. If convicted, she would face a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in state prison.
Buffett, an actress who grew up in Seal Beach, worked as a princess at Medieval Times and played several characters at Disneyland, including Princess Ariel and Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
