A California man convicted of stabbing a gay University of Pennsylvania student to death out of hate was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.
Samuel Woodward, 27, was convicted in a Southern California courtroom at the end of a daylong hearing for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. Woodward, who did not appear in court Friday due to illness, was convicted this year of first-degree murder, with a hate crime enhancement, for the killing of Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.
>>> California man convicted of murder in stabbing death of University of Pennsylvania student
Dozens of Bernstein’s family members and friends were in the courtroom. Many wore T-shirts that read “Blaze it Forward,” a slogan for a campaign to commit acts of kindness in his name after his death.
“Let’s be clear: this was a hate crime,” Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, told the court. “Samuel Woodward took my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”
She said she takes comfort in the fact that Woodward will never be released and that while he “rots in prison, we will be out here celebrating Blaze’s life.”
“Blaze’s memory and spirit will live on in every act of kindness done in his honor,” she said.
There was no doubt about the sentence Woodward would receive because the jury’s verdict was life in prison without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Woodward’s attorney, Ken Morrison, asked the court to sentence his client to 28 years to life, saying the judge had some discretion in this regard and that jurors were not allowed to review all of the evidence in the case at trial to see. Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.
Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after going out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles 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 was unresponsive.
Authorities launched an extensive search and said Bernstein’s family searched his social media and saw that 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 evening and did not return.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park. He was stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck.
The question during Woodward’s months-long trial was not whether he killed Bernstein, but why and under what circumstances it happened. Prosecutors said Woodward had ties to the violent anti-gay neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client had no intention of killing anyone or hating Bernstein and faced challenging personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder.
The case took years to go to trial amid a series of delays and sparked public outrage in Southern California, where residents stepped up in 2018 to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly went missing.
Woodward testified at his trial, giving slow, delayed answers to attorneys’ questions, his long hair partially covering his face.
Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and were connected through a dating app in the months before the murder. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park and stabbed Bernstein repeatedly after trying to grab a cellphone that he feared had been used to photograph him.
Morrison, the defense attorney, 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 repeatedly attacked gay men online by contacting them and abruptly cutting off contact while keeping a hateful, profane diary of his actions.
Authorities said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a pocket knife with a bloody blade and numerous anti-gay, anti-Semitic and hate group materials during a search of his family’s home in Newport Beach, California.
This is a development story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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