California man to be sentenced for hate crime in the killing of a gay college student

[November 15, 2024]  By AMY TAXIN

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate is expected to be sentenced Friday to life in prison.

Samuel Woodward, who is now 27, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Southern California courtroom for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. There is no question about the sentence Woodward will receive because the jury’s verdict carries a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Defense attorney Ken Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.

Woodward was convicted this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.

Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the next day, his parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom and tried to reach him, but he didn’t respond.

Authorities launched an exhaustive search and said Bernstein’s family scoured his social media and saw he had communicated with Woodward on Snapchat. Authorities said Woodward told the family that Bernstein had gone to meet a friend in the park that night and didn’t come back.

Days later Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park. He had been repeatedly stabbed in the face and neck.

The question during Woodward's monthslong trial was not whether he killed Bernstein but why and the circumstances under which it happened. Prosecutors said Woodward was affiliated with the violent anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client didn't plan to kill anyone or hate Bernstein and faced challenging personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder.

Samuel Woodward testifies in Orange County Superior Court, June 13, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif. (Leonard Orti/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)

The case took years to go to trial amid a series of delays and stoked public outcry in Southern California, where residents fanned out in 2018 to try to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly went missing.

Woodward testified during his trial and gave slow, delayed replies to lawyers' questions with his long hair partly covering his face.

Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and connected via a dating app in the months before the killing. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park and repeatedly stabbed Bernstein after trying to grab a cellphone he feared had been used to photograph him.

Morrison, the defense lawyer, said Woodward was confused about his sexuality after growing up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father openly criticized homosexuality.

But prosecutors told a different story. They said Woodward had repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and abruptly breaking off contact, while keeping a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions.

Authorities said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloodied blade and a host of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials in a search of his family's home in Newport Beach, California.

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