California man sentenced to life for hate crime in the killing of a gay Penn student in 2018

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced Friday in a Southern California courtroom at the end of an all-day hearing for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. Woodward, who did not appear in court due to illness, was convicted this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.

Dozens of Bernstein’s relatives and friends sat in the courtroom. Many wore T-shirts reading “Blaze it Forward,” a slogan for a campaign to commit acts of kindness in his name following his death.

“Let’s be clear: This was a hate crime," Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, told the court. “Samuel Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”

She said she takes solace in that Woodward will never get out of custody 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 said.

There was no question about the sentence Woodward would receive because the jury’s verdict carried a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson 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, saying that the judge had some discretion in this regard and that the jurors had not been permitted to see all the evidence in the case at trial. Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.

Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went 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 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 antigay, 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.

The case took years to go to trial amid a series of delays and stoked public outcry in Southern California, where residents fanned out in 2018 to try to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly disappeared.

Woodward testified during his trial and gave slow, delayed replies to lawyers’ questions, with his long hair partly covering his face.

Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and connected via a dating app in the months before the killing. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park, and repeatedly stabbed him after trying to grab a cell phone he feared had been used to photograph him.

Morrison, the defense lawyer, 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 had repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and abruptly breaking off contact, while keeping a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions.

Authorities said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloodied blade, and a host of antigay, antisemitic, and hate group materials in a search of his family’s home in Newport Beach, Calif.