SANTA ANA, Calif. — A California man convicted of stabbing to loss of life a homosexual College of Pennsylvania scholar in an act of hate was sentenced Friday to life with out parole in jail.
Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced in a Southern California courtroom on the finish of an all-day listening to for the homicide of Blaze Bernstein practically seven years in the past. Woodward, who didn’t seem in court docket Friday as a result of sickness, was convicted this yr of first-degree homicide with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a homosexual, Jewish faculty sophomore.
Dozens of Bernstein ‘s kin and pals sat within the courtroom. Many wore T-shirts studying “Blaze it Forward,” a slogan for a marketing campaign to commit acts of kindness in his identify following his loss of life.
“Let’s be clear: This was a hate crime,” Bernstein’s mom, Jeanne Pepper, instructed the court docket. “Samuel Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”
She mentioned she takes solace in Woodward by no means getting out of custody and that whereas 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 mentioned.
There was no query concerning the sentence Woodward would obtain as a result of the jury’s verdict carried a life sentence with out parole, mentioned Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Legal professional’s workplace.
Woodward’s lawyer, Ken Morrison, requested the court docket to condemn his consumer to twenty-eight years to life, saying the decide had some discretion on this regard and that the jurors weren’t permitted to see all of the proof within the case at trial. Morrison beforehand mentioned he would enchantment the decision.
Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went out at night time with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 mile southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the subsequent day, his dad and mom discovered his glasses, pockets and bank cards in his bed room and tried to succeed in him, however he didn’t reply.
Authorities launched an exhaustive search and mentioned Bernstein’s household scoured his social media and noticed he had communicated with Woodward on Snapchat. Authorities mentioned Woodward instructed the household that Bernstein had gone to satisfy a good friend within the park that night time and didn’t come again.
Days later Bernstein’s physique was present in a shallow grave within the park. He had been repeatedly stabbed within the face and neck.
The query throughout Woodward’s monthslong trial was not whether or not he killed Bernstein however why and the circumstances underneath which it occurred. Prosecutors mentioned Woodward was affiliated with the violent anti-gay, neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, whereas Morrison mentioned his consumer didn’t plan to kill anybody or hate Bernstein and confronted difficult private relationships as a result of a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum dysfunction.
The case took years to go to trial amid a sequence of delays and stoked public outcry in Southern California, the place residents fanned out in 2018 to attempt to assist authorities discover Bernstein after he all of a sudden went lacking.
Woodward testified throughout his trial and gave gradual, delayed replies to attorneys’ questions along with his lengthy hair partly masking his face.
Bernstein and Woodward attended the identical highschool, Orange County College of the Arts, and related through a relationship app within the months earlier than the killing. Woodward mentioned he picked up Bernstein, went to a close-by park and repeatedly stabbed Bernstein after attempting to seize a cellphone he feared had been used to {photograph} him.
Morrison, the protection lawyer, mentioned Woodward was confused about his sexuality after rising up in a politically conservative and religious Catholic household the place his father brazenly criticized homosexuality.
However prosecutors instructed a distinct story. They mentioned Woodward had repeatedly focused homosexual males on-line by reaching out to them and abruptly breaking off contact, whereas conserving a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions.
Authorities mentioned in addition they discovered a black Atomwaffen masks with traces of blood, a folding knife with a bloodied blade and a bunch of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group supplies in a search of his household’s house in Newport Seashore, California.
