(SANTA ANA, Calif.) — Samuel Woodward, a California man found guilty of murdering his former classmate in 2018 in a hate crime, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday.
Blaze Bernstein — a 19-year-old gay, Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania — went missing while visiting his family in Newport Beach during winter break in January 2018. His body was found, following a dayslong search, buried in a park in Lake Forest he went to with Woodward the night he went missing, authorities said. He had been stabbed 28 times, prosecutors said.
Woodward, now 27, was charged with first-degree murder as a hate crime. Prosecutors had argued that Woodward murdered his high school classmate because Bernstein was gay.
In issuing the sentence during a lengthy hearing on Friday, Judge Kimberly Menninger said there was evidence that the defendant planned the murder, and that the jury found it true that the crime was committed because of Bernstein’s sexual orientation.
Menninger also denied Woodward probation.
On whether the defendant is remorseful, Menninger said, “Unfortunately for the court and for the defendant, I’ve never seen any evidence of this up to this point in time.”
Woodward was not present at his sentencing hearing due to an illness, according to Menninger.
The judge said the case is a “true tragedy.”
“You have one young man who was smart, funny, successful and on track for a bright future, with tremendous family support and a large group of friends,” she said. “You have a second, intelligent young man with lots of promise, but struggling with his sexual identity, his mental health and his loneliness and never receiving psychological support he so clearly needed.”
She said it’s “really sad” that two people from the same high school found themselves on the opposite ends of the culture war that “erupted into the brutal murder of Blaze Bernstein.”
“Unfortunately for Mr. Woodward, the hate that fueled his thoughts was super disconcerting to this court and unfortunately reflects a larger societal ill that’s currently raging throughout this country,” she said.
Orange County Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker, who prosecuted the case, said during the hearing that the state wanted to continue with the scheduled sentencing, despite Woodward’s illness, after bringing several people to the hearing.
The defense attorney, Ken Morrison, told the court it was his preference for Woodward to be present, “notwithstanding how difficult that would have been for him, how difficult all this has been and continues to be to his family.”
“This is unpleasant for everybody, hopefully cathartic for some, as they search their path for healing,” he said.
The court heard several victim impact statements ahead of the sentencing, including ones delivered by Bernstein’s parents.
His mother, Jeanne Pepper, said her son was “handsome, well-liked, accomplished, loved and good at everything he tried — the antithesis of the man that would murder him.”
She said Woodward was “too cowardly” to sit in the courtroom on Friday.
Pepper recounted the fear she felt while her son was missing and the subsequent discovery of his body.
“I had to go to a cemetery with a broken heart and choose a grave for my 19-year-old son,” she said. “I couldn’t believe this was real.”
She said she “collapsed on the ground screaming” when she learned he had been stabbed 28 times, and her health deteriorated following his murder.
“To lose my first-born child, my dream for the future, my partner in fun, is the single worst, most painful thing that has ever happened to me,” she said.
She remembered Bernstein as an incredible chef and writer, who had a beautiful singing voice and wanted to go to medical school.
While Woodward remains in prison, she said they will be outside celebrating Bernstein’s life and “continuing to do good with others who work every day to make this world more caring, kind and safe for the Jewish and LGBTQ communities.”
“Let’s be clear — this was a hate crime,” she said. “Sam Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”
His father, Gideon Bernstein, said his death led to the “most dark and tragic days” for his family and friends.
“The person at fault for this should have been in this room today,” he said. “He is guilty of disrupting the path of a brilliant future for Blaze, and yet I don’t think that he realizes how many others he devastated along the way.”
He said living a good life “is the best revenge that I can have after this crime,” and urged the judge to hand down a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Following their statements, Menninger reiterated that Woodward was not in court due to an illness.
Bernstein’s godmother, Hillary Gerber, asked that Woodward never be released from prison.
“Not a day goes by without the pain and loss of Blaze weighing on us,” Gerber said. “Knowing this was a deliberate, premeditated act only deepens our sadness, suffering and fear.”
Woodward faced life without the possibility of parole with the special circumstance of the hate crime.
The defense asked the judge to strike the hate crime enhancement, while also arguing that there is a lesser hate crime enhancement that the court could impose. Morrison said he asked for a sentence of 28 years to life in his sentencing brief.
Morrison said he was “struggling with how to proceed” during the hearing because there is a pending motion by the prosecution to seal his brief.
Menninger said she has read his brief and doesn’t have an opinion yet on the motion to seal it.
Walker requested that the judge find that probation “is not suitable for this defendant” and sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She also argued that the lesser hate crime enhancement cited in the defense’s sentencing brief is not applicable.
The jury reached its verdict on July 3 following a nearly three-month-long trial in Orange County.
During closing arguments, Morrison told jurors that Woodward is guilty of homicide but said the act was not a hate crime but a spontaneous, irrational one.
“You heard me right out of the gate tell you that my client was guilty,” Morrison said. “Guilty of a serious, violent homicide. But as you also know, there are many different kinds of homicide.”
Woodward testified during the trial that on the night of the murder, he went into a state of terror after thinking Bernstein may have been recording him while touching him sexually at the park, then pulled out a knife, ABC Los Angeles station KABC reported.
Walker told jurors during closing arguments that Woodward’s hatred of gay people and his affiliation with Atomwaffen Division — a far-right, neo-Nazi group — led him to plan the murder.
“He already had his bags, he was already talking to Atomwaffen people about going somewhere else, and he thought he was going to get away with it,” she said. “It’s only by the grace of God that rain happened, and they found his body.”
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