Blaise Bernstein Murder: Samuel Woodward Sentenced to Life in Hate Crime Killing of Gay Student

Santa Ana
AP
—

A California man convicted of stabbing a gay University of Pennsylvania student in a hate crime was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.

Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced in a Southern California courtroom at the end of a day-long hearing for killing Blaise 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 college sophomore.

Dozens of Bernstein’s relatives and friends sat in the courtroom. Many wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Blaze it Forward,” the slogan of a campaign of 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 finds solace in the fact that Woodward will never be released from custody, and that while he’s “rotting in jail, we’ll be out here on the street celebrating Blaze’s life.”

“Blaise’s memory and spirit will live on in all the good deeds done in his honor,” she said.

There was no doubt about the sentence Woodward would receive because the jury’s verdict called for life in prison without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Woodward’s lawyer, Ken Morrison, asked the court to sentence his client to 28 years to life in prison, saying that the judge had some discretion in that regard and that the jury was not allowed to see all the evidence in the case during the trial. Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.

Bernstein, 19, disappeared in January 2018 after going out for an evening 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 contact him, but he did not answer.

Authorities launched an extensive search and said Bernstein’s family looked at his social media and saw that he had been communicating with Woodward via Snapchat. Authorities said Woodward told the family that Bernstein went to meet a friend at the park that evening and did not return.

A few 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. Prosecutors said Woodward was linked to the violent anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client did not plan to kill anyone or hated Bernstein and faced difficult personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder . .

The case has been litigated for years through a series of delays and sparked a public outcry in Southern California, where residents rallied in 2018 to try to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly disappeared.

Woodward testified during the trial and answered questions from lawyers slowly and belatedly, his long hair partially covering his face.

Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, the Orange County School of the Arts, and had been communicating through a dating app in the months before the murder. Woodward said he picked Bernstein up, went to a nearby park and punched Bernstein several times after trying to grab a cellphone he feared was being used to take pictures of him.

Morrison, the defense attorney, said Woodward was confused about his sexuality because he grew up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family in which his father openly criticized homosexuality.

But prosecutors told a different story. They said Woodward repeatedly targeted gay men online, reaching out to them and suddenly ending contact, while keeping a hateful, misogynistic journal about his actions.

Authorities said that during a search of his family’s home in Newport Beach, California, they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloody blade and numerous anti-gay, anti-Semitic and hateful materials.