A California man guilty of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in a hate crime was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday.
Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced in a Southern California courtroom following an all-day trial for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. Woodward, who did not attend court on Friday due to sickness, was convicted this year of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.
Dozens of Bernstein’s family and friends were in the courtroom. Many people wore T-shirts that stated “Blaze it Forward,” a tagline for a campaign to perform acts of charity in his memory after his passing.
“Let’s be clear: This was a hate crime,” Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, said in court. “Samuel Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”
She stated she takes pleasure in Woodward’s indefinite detention and that while he “rots in prison, we will be here on the outside, celebrating the life of Blaze.”
“Blaze’s memory and spirit will live on in every kind deed done in his honor,” she remarked.
According to Kimberly Edds, a spokesman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office, the jury’s judgment carried a life sentence without parole, thus there was no debate about Woodward’s punishment.
Woodward’s lawyer, Ken Morrison, sought the court to sentence his client to 28 years to life, arguing that the judge had some leeway in this matter and that jurors were not allowed to see all of the evidence in the case during trial. Morrison had stated that he would appeal the ruling.
Bernstein, 19, went missing in January 2018 after going out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, some 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed his dental appointment the next day, his parents discovered his glasses, wallet, and credit cards in his bedroom and attempted to contact him, but he did not respond.
Authorities conducted a thorough search, and Bernstein’s family discovered he had connected with Woodward over Snapchat. According to authorities, Woodward told the family that Bernstein left to see a friend in the park that night and did not return.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was discovered in a shallow grave in the park. He’d been 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. Prosecutors alleged Woodward was a member of the violent anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client did not intend to kill anyone or despise Bernstein and had difficult personal interactions owing to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disease.
The case took years to go to trial due to a series of delays, and it sparked public outrage in Southern California, where citizens fanned out in 2018 to help authorities recover Bernstein when he went missing unexpectedly.
Woodward testified during his trial, giving hesitant, delayed responses to lawyers’ inquiries while his long hair partially obscured his face.
Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and met through a dating app in the months preceding the murder. Woodward claimed he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park, and repeatedly stabbed him after attempting to retrieve a cell phone he suspected had been used to photograph him.
Morrison, the defense attorney, claimed Woodward was perplexed about his sexuality after growing up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father openly condemned homosexuality.
However, prosecutors offered a different narrative. They claimed Woodward had regularly targeted gay men online, reaching out to them and then abruptly breaking off communication, while keeping a vile, profanity-laced log of his acts.
Authorities said they also discovered a black Atomwaffen mask with blood stains, a folding knife with a bloodied blade, and a slew of anti-gay, antisemitic, and hate group propaganda during a search of his family’s house in Newport Beach, California.
Reference: California man sentenced to life for hate crime in the killing of a gay college student