The man who killed Penn student Blaze Bernstein was convicted of hate crime, murder

More than six years after University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein was found dead in a shallow grave in California, the man accused of stabbing him 28 times and killing him was convicted of a hate-fueled murder, authorities said.

After a nearly three-month trial, a jury in Orange County Superior Court found Samuel Woodward, 26, guilty of first-degree murder for killing Bernstein in 2018, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. The jury, which made its decision on July 3, additionally determined the slaying was a hate crime, making Woodward, a member of a neo-Nazi group, eligible for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Woodward’s attorney, public defender Kenneth Morrison, did not dispute that his client had killed Bernstein, acknowledging Woodward stabbed the 19-year-old to death at the start of the trial, but argued that it was not a hate crime. Morrison said Woodward was conflicted about his sexuality and had killed Bernstein in a fit of passion, the Orange County Register reported.

The public defender argued his client should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter, if not a lesser charge, and said he would appeal the jury’s decision, the Orange County Register reported. Woodward is scheduled to be sentenced in October.

But Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Bernstein’s murder was not a passion killing and was clearly done out of hate and credited Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker, who led the prosecution, for her work to pursue justice for Bernstein and “every victim of hate.”

“This was not a crime committed in the heat of passion,” Spitzer said. “It was planned, it was carried out, and it was attempted to be covered up and Walker painstakingly walked the jury through every piece of evidence that proved it.”

Morrison could not immediately be reached for comment.

Bernstein, who was openly gay and Jewish, had been classmates with Woodward at the Orange County School of the Arts before attending University of Pennsylvania. While a student at Penn, Bernstein found Woodward on Tinder and the two communicated through the dating app, the Orange County Register reported. The initial conversation over Tinder ended with Bernstein saying he could not meet up and Woodward denying he was gay, according to the report. Woodward implored Bernstein not to share their conversation, Woodward’s attorney Kenneth Morrison, a public defender, said.

Months later, the two men agreed to meet in Southern California, Bernstein’s hometown, on his winter break. Bernstein, 19, a sophomore psychology student at Penn, disappeared after driving to Borrego Park in Lake Forest with Woodward.

A prosecutor on the case said Woodward had led Bernstein to believe they would “hook up,” the Orange County Register reported.

After a six-day search aided by drones, Orange County investigators found his body in a shallow grave with multiple stab wounds. Investigators said Bernstein’s blood was on a knife found in Woodward’s room at his parent’s home and on a skull mask he wore to show his ties to the neo-Nazi group found in a car Woodward rented, prosecutors said.

The courtroom arguments from Walker and Morrison focused on the moments leading to Bernstein’s murder and Woodward’s views on the LGBTQ community, the Orange County Register reported. Bernstein was gay and Woodward was a member of Atomwaffen Division, a terroristic neo-Nazi group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A prosecutor told the jury Woodward had many antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ images on his phone andshowed them explicit emails Woodward wrote and sent to himself. Using slurs, Woodward wrote about matching with gay men online, agreeing to meet up, and then scaring them into thinking they would be victims of hate crimes, the Orange County Register reported.