California man to be sentenced Friday for hate crime in the 2018 murder of Blaze Bernstein

By Amy Taxin 15 November 2024, 1:32 pm

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

AP — A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay, Jewish university 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, says 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 at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bernstein, 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.