Samuel Woodward, who killed and buried Blaze Bernstein in Lake Forest, gets life without parole
Samuel Woodward, who admitted to killing former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein and burying his body at the edge of a Lake Forest park in what a jury agreed was a hate-crime murder, was sentenced on Friday, Nov. 15 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Woodward, now 27, was convicted in July of first-degree murder for the Jan. 2018 slaying of 19-year-old Bernstein, who also attended Orange County School of the Arts.
The search for Bernstein — ending with the discovery of his body and the arrest of Woodward — drew national attention. Woodward’s jury trial, which lasted nearly three months, was the most closely watched criminal trial in recent Orange County history.
Friday’s hearing was the rare sentencing to move forward without the defendant present in court. Woodward was sick with an unspecified illness, his attorney and the judge said. With a packed courtroom, the lawyers and judge opted to move forward after Woodward agreed to waive his presence.
In an emotional statement to the court, Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, described her son as a brilliant scientist and an incredible chef and writer with a bold sense of humor and eclectic style. Bernstein was, his mother said, the “antithesis of the man who would murder him.”
“To lose my firstborn child, my dream for the future, my partner in fun, is the single worst thing that has ever happened to me,” Pepper said.
“He accomplished more than most people do in a full life, and for that we are grateful,” the mother added. “Blaze, we did the best we could for you. We figured out who did this. We brought him to justice. We worked to make this world better.”
Bernstein’s father, Gideon, also urged supporters to honor his son’s memory.
“Justice was served, but at a cost I implore each and every person in this room to contemplate,” the father told the packed courtroom. “You only have so many hours (in your life) to make this world a more loving and generous place.”
Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison argued for a 28 years-to-life prison sentence. The defense attorney said key evidence wasn’t presented to the jury or allowed to be introduced at the trial or the sentencing hearing involving the “behavior” or “prior acts” of Bernstein.
“There is no doubt that things that happened during this trial were absolutely unbearable for some people to hear about,” Morrison said. “This is just one of those deeply, profoundly sad, horrible things…”
“This has been horrible for everybody,” Morrison added, at which point Bernstein’s parents — who had been sitting in the front row of the gallery directly behind the attorneys — abruptly left the courtroom.
The two young men were acquaintances, but not friends, when both attended the Santa Ana campus.
Bernstein was Jewish, gay, quick-witted and intelligent, with a large circle of friends. After high school he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a pre-med student.
Woodward, who is on the autism spectrum, struggled at the largely liberal high school campus, where his conservative views and at-times homophobic statements made him an outcast. He dropped out after less than a year at Cal State Channel Islands, then moved to Texas to meet up with members of the Atomwaffen Division — a Neo-Nazi hate group — before moving back in with his parents in Newport Beach.
Woodward admitted to stabbing Bernstein to death during a late-night meeting at Borrego Park.
The prosecution argued that the murder was driven by hate and carried out in furtherance of the ideals of the Atomwaffen Division.
The defense countered that the killing was unplanned and occurred in the heat of passion, and therefore was a lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter.
The extent of Woodward’s allegiance to Atowmwaffen and the exact nature of his sexuality proved to be linchpins of his trial.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker noted that Woodward had thousands of images — many antisemitic and anti-gay — tied to Atomwaffen on his phone, and even after his arrest drawings related to the group were found in his jail cell.
In writings the prosecutor referred to as a “hate diary,” Woodward wrote about matching up with “sodomites” online, getting them “hooked” and then either ghosting them, pranking them or making them think they would be the target of a hate crime.
The writings proved that Woodward enjoyed scaring gay men and showed how he eventually set his sights on his former classmate Bernstein, the prosecutor argued, setting the stage for the killing.
Morrison, the defense attorney, argued that Woodward was conflicted about his own sexuality after growing up in a repressive home environment with a conservative religious family. The defense also argued that Woodward cut ties with Atomwaffen after his time training with group members in Texas left him essentially homeless.
About six months before the killing, Bernstein ran across Woodward’s Tinder profile, and was shocked to see that his conservative former classmate seemed to be searching online for other men. The two exchanged messages that were at times defensive and at times flirtatious, but Bernstein ultimately said he couldn’t meet up and Woodward responded by denying he was gay.
In January 2018, Woodward reached out to Bernstein and another former classmate who is gay. While the other classmate didn’t reply, Bernstein messaged Woodward back and the two agreed to meet up.
“Two homosexuals were contacted and the one that replied is dead at the hands of the defendant,” Walker told the judge.
Woodward picked Bernstein up at his parents’ house — where he was staying over winter break — and the two went to Borrego Park.
Woodward testified that they sat on a park bench and chatted about high school and college before Woodward smoked some marijuana. Woodward said that when he was on the verge of nodding off he suddenly opened his eyes to see Bernstein with one hand on Woodward’s genitals and the other holding a cell phone.
Woodward described going into a “state of terror” and Bernstein telling him to “calm down” and saying “I got you, you (expletive) hypocrite.” Woodward testified that he was worried Bernstein would send a photo to someone else and said he grabbed for Bernstein’s phone.
Filled with “anger like nothing I had ever felt in my whole life,” Woodward said he stabbed Bernstein over and over, then dug a grave and buried him in the vegetation at the edge of the park.
The prosecution argued that the forensic evidence didn’t match up to Woodward’s testimony. Walker told jurors that Woodward likely persuaded Bernstein to go into the foliage area of the park under the belief they were going to hook up and then brutally attacked and killed Bernstein.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger said that “at best (Bernstein) thought he was meeting a potential love interest, at worst an old friend.” The judge repeatedly noted that Woodward, within an hour and half, met with Bernstein, killed him, dragged his body and buried him in a makeshift grave.
“It is not reasonable one could do this in a fit of rage without any pre-planning,” the judge said.
Menninger compared the trajectories of the two former classmates’ lives, with one man who was considered smart, funny and successful and another man who showed promise but could never come to terms with his own sexuality or get the help he needed.
“That anger came out in a fit of rage against Mr. Bernstein,” the judge said, adding that Bernstein lost his life to “pure hate and rage.”
In a statement after the hearing, the Bernstein family thanked prosecutors and law enforcement officials for their hard work “pursuing justice for Blaze Bernstein…
“This has been an ordeal unlike anyone could have imagined,” the family said. “Nearly seven years from Blaze’s death to the verdict and sentencing. He was a shining star and his memory will always be a blessing.”