A 27-year-old California man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday for the hate-crime murder of a gay former classmate in Foothill Ranch, Orange County six years ago.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward was convicted in July of the Jan. 3, 2018, stabbing death of 18-year-old Blaze Bernstein. Addressing the court ahead of sentencing on Friday the victim’s mother, Jeanne Pepper delivered an emotional impact statement with Woodward present in the courtroom.
“This calm and earnest-sounding young man lied to us, the emphatic parents of the young man he had less than 24 hours before stabbed 28 times with a 6-inch blade and buried in a park by our home, he misled us to believe that Blaze had wandered off into a dark and vast park by our home that leads into the wilderness behind our house.”
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“As the search began the next day tremendous law enforcement and resources came to our aid to search the forest, the park, and the internet for clues. His killer also showed up that day at the park and then went home to clean his car of any evidence…I’m so scared thinking that my child is injured, lost in the woods, or being held by an extremist neonazi group. Then we got the phone call on January 10, my father’s birthday, they found my son’s body in the mud in the park,” she continued.
“How could this be happening? No mother should have to bury her child… my heart was so broken and yet unable to accept the reality that he was no longer part of our world. I was not told the details of how he was killed because I was having trouble coping with the reality of his death. I will never forget hearing for the first time that Blaze had been stabbed 28 times while I was listening to the news while I was in the park where his body was found. I collapsed on the ground screaming. That was one of the many panic attacks I would have that first year.”
Pepper added that after her son’s death, she thought she would never be happy again, but knowing the defendant will never be able to harm anyone again makes her happy.
“While Sam rots in prison we will be here on the outside celebrating the life of Blaze, 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,” Pepper said.
The enhanced hate crime charges stemmed from the allegations that Woodward killed Bernstein because of his sexuality and because he was Jewish. During the trial, the jury was shown evidence that Woodward was associated with a neo-Nazi group known as the Atomwaffen Division. The victim and the defendant had attended Orange County School of the Arts together for four years. Bernstein graduated after six years and went on to become a pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Woodward killed Bernstein to earn the prestige of the neo-Nazi group. Bernstein’s defense team argued that their client’s autism played a role in the killing and that he was “over-charged.”
“Samuel Lincoln Woodward should be held accountable for what he did,” his attorney Ken Morrison said during his closing argument. “He should not be held accountable for what he did not do. This case was over-charged.”
Woodward had allegedly contacted Bernstein after years of not speaking. They met to go camping on Jan. 2, 2018, where they smoked marijuana and Woodward began to nod off when he testified that he felt a strange sensation in his legs and thought that he had urinated on himself, the defendant testified.
When he fully woke up he realized his pants were undone and the victim had his hand on his groin, the defendant testified. Woodward added that the victim was allegedly recording and photographing the encounter, Woodward testified.
Woodward then began to panic as he didn’t want his family, who objected to homosexuality, to find out about the encounter. The defendant claimed he tried to take the phone away from the victim as Bernstein was allegedly trying to “out” him as gay. When he couldn’t get the phone away from Bernstein he reportedly stabbed him numerous times and then smashed the phone.
The defendant allegedly dug a shallow grave with his hands and left the body in the park they were camping in. His parents contacted authorities of their son’s disappearance after he failed to show up for a dentist appointment. Bernstein’s body was found on Jan. 9, 2018.
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