On Friday, a California man who was found guilty of killing a gay University of Pennsylvania student by stabbing him in a hate crime is anticipated to receive a life sentence.
In a courtroom in Southern California, 27-year-old Samuel Woodward will be sentenced for killing Blaze Bernstein over seven years ago. According to Orange County District Attorney’s office spokesman Kimberly Edds, there is no doubt regarding Woodward’s punishment because the jury’s decision carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Ken Morrison, the defense lawyer, had earlier declared that he would appeal the decision.
For the murder of Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore, Woodward was found guilty this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
The 19-year-old Bernstein vanished in January 2018 after he and Woodward walked to a Lake Forest park at night, which is roughly 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles.
Bernstein’s parents discovered his glasses, wallet, and credit cards in his bedroom when he missed a dental appointment the following day. They attempted to contact him but he did not reply.
According to authorities, after doing a thorough investigation, Bernstein’s family looked through his social media accounts and discovered that he had spoken with Woodward on Snapchat.
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.
In the midst of several delays and public outcry in Southern California, where people flocked to assist authorities in finding Bernstein when he abruptly vanished in 2018, the case took years to go to trial.
Throughout his trial, Woodward’s long hair partially obscured his face while he testified and responded slowly and slowly to the lawyers’ queries.
In the months prior to the murder, Bernstein and Woodward linked through a dating app while attending Orange County School of the Arts, the same high school. Woodward claimed that after picking up Bernstein, he proceeded to a nearby park and repeatedly stabbed him in an attempt to get a cellphone that he believed had been used to take pictures of him.
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Woodward, who grew up in a politically orthodox and pious Catholic family where his father publicly condemned homosexuality, was perplexed about his sexual orientation, according to defense attorney Morrison.
Prosecutors, however, presented an other account. They claimed that Woodward had kept a vicious, profanity-filled log of his activities and had regularly targeted gay men online by contacting them and then abruptly cutting off contact.
During a search of his family’s Newport Beach, California, home, authorities also reportedly discovered a black Atomwaffen mask with bloodstains, a folding knife with a bloodied blade, and other anti-gay, antisemitic, and hate organization publications.
