Man convicted of hate murder after stabbing former gay classmate in Orange County

A 26-year-old man was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder, as well as a hate crime allegation, for killing a former gay classmate in the Foothill Ranch neighborhood of Lake Forest six years ago.

Jurors, who began deliberating Tuesday afternoon, found Samuel Lincoln Woodward guilty of the Jan. 3, 2018, stabbing death of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein. Woodward's attorneys conceded during the trial that he killed Bernstein but denied it was a hate crime or premeditated, saying at worst he should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

The jury, however, convicted Woodward of first-degree murder and also found true allegations that the killing was a hate crime and that he had personally used a deadly weapon – a knife.

Cheers were heard in the courtroom as the verdict was read, especially when the hate crime allegation was proven true.

There was no visible reaction from Woodward, who sat facing forward, his face obscured by his long, shaggy hair.

Sentencing was scheduled for October 25.

The upgraded hate crime charge alleged that Woodward killed Bernstein because of the victim's sexual orientation, not because he was Jewish, although jurors also heard evidence of the defendant's association with a neo-Nazi group known as the Atomwaffen Division to show a pattern of bigotry.

Woodward and Bernstein attended the Orange County School of the Arts together for four years. Bernstein graduated after six years at the school and became a pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Woodward, meanwhile, transferred to Corona Del Mar High School where he graduated and attended Cal State Channel Islands before dropping out in his second semester.

After the verdict, Bernstein's mother, Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, thanked everyone who has supported the family since Blaze's death. She also asked the media to give the family time to “digest this decision and live their lives knowing that this killer can't hurt anyone again.”

“It is a great relief that justice has been served and that this despicable person who murdered our son is no longer a threat to the public,” she said.

Woodward spent five days testifying during the trial, often taking up to 30 seconds to answer yes or no questions.

Woodward said he reached out to Bernstein a few hours after a long text conversation with his older brother’s best friend, Dylan Gronendyke, on New Year’s Day 2018. While Woodward complained about not being able to form meaningful relationships and would even leave the house and go to a parking lot alone just to make his parents think he was hanging out with friends, Gronendyke encouraged him to return to college and not give up on his efforts to make friends.

Nearly a day passed before Bernstein responded to Woodward, and the two agreed to meet the night of Jan. 2, 2018. Woodward stuffed snacks, drinks and marijuana into a sleeping bag and picked up Bernstein, who directed the two to Borrego Park, where the victim's mother said he had many lifelong memories, such as playing football as a youth.

Woodward testified that he took two puffs of a heady strain of marijuana and felt like he was falling asleep until he felt a strange sensation in his legs and immediately thought he had relaxed too much and urinated on himself as he had done before.

When he came to, Woodward testified, he realized his pants were unzipped and the victim had her hand on his groin. Bernstein also appeared to be photographing or filming the encounter, he testified.

The situation sent Woodward into a panic, saying he was “deathly terrified” that his family, which opposed homosexuality for religious reasons, would find out. He said his father’s “look” alone could be so upsetting that he had trouble keeping the phone away from Bernstein, who the defendant said was saying things like he was going to “expose” Woodward, who had a reputation for homophobia in high school.

When he couldn't get the phone back, Woodward said he snapped and stabbed Bernstein multiple times, then smashed the phone.

Woodward said he dug a shallow grave with his hands and left the body in the park.

When Bernstein uncharacteristically failed to show up for a dentist appointment and could not be reached, his concerned parents began searching for clues and contacted authorities. The victim’s body was found Jan. 9, 2018, in an area of ​​the park that had been combed before, but recent rain made it easier to see, said Senior Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Walker.

Attorney Ken Morrison of the Orange County Public Defender's Office presented evidence at trial about Woodward's autism diagnosis, saying it was not an effort to excuse the crime but to help jurors understand his state of mind — and to help them reject the hate crime allegations and accept a lesser degree of homicide.

“Samuel Lincoln Woodward must be held accountable for what he did,” Morrison said in his closing argument. “He must not be held accountable for what he did not do. This case has been overcharged.”

Morrison described his client as someone who struggled to survive, only realizing he was autistic at age 18, when it was too late for the interventions that were usually prescribed. The disorder made it difficult for him to communicate and led to social awkwardness and loneliness, and the late diagnosis made him particularly vulnerable to the lure of a fringe, extremist group like Atomwaffen Division, the defense attorney argued.

The group's appeal was the sense of belonging, a “brotherhood” of “strong men,” Morrison said. Woodward told a defense psychiatric expert, Martha Rogers, that he didn't pay much attention to the group's hateful rhetoric and was encouraged by their positive reinforcement, Morrison said.

Woodward became disillusioned with the group, he told Rogers, after a two-month summer 2017 trip to Texas with the man who lured him into the group, when he ran out of money for food and a motel, Morrison said.

Morrison said that while Woodward and Bernstein didn’t interact much as classmates, they worked on some projects together and Woodward considered him a “cool guy.” Morrison said the defendant was surprised to learn Bernstein was gay when they met on a dating app in June 2017, and Woodward grew to admire how comfortable the victim was with her sexual orientation while the defendant struggled with his.

“Blaze Bernstein was intimidating in a lot of ways because he had qualities that Woodward thought he lacked,” Morrison said. “Sam questioned all that, he looked for strong men, which is what he aspired to.”

Walker told jurors that evidence indicated Woodward planned to attack Bernstein in a “ceremonial” killing to gain prestige for the neo-Nazi group. She said he wore a sweater with a skull image on it to “scare” the victim, and that Bernstein’s blood splattered it after the attack.

As Bernstein's panicked parents scoured their missing son's social media for clues, they called Woodward, who lied to them about what had happened to their son, prosecutors said. Walker said Woodward also began searching for DNA information and even got a haircut to change his appearance while the search for Bernstein made headlines.

“The abundance of evidence here is overwhelming,” Walker said.

She dismissed Morrison’s arguments that Bernstein betrayed Woodward’s requests to keep quiet about the fact that the two met on a dating app. Walker said Bernstein was rightly “shocked” to see Woodward looking for men on the dating app and sent a link to her public profile to a few art school classmates.

Walker said Bernstein kept his promise not to share details of their conversations with others.