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SANTA ANA, Calif. – Six years after charges were filed, testimony is set to begin Tuesday in the trial of a man charged with killing a gay former high school classmate.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward of Newport Beach is charged with the Jan. 3, 2018, killing of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein.
Woodward is charged with murder with sentencing enhancements for a hate crime and the personal use of a deadly weapon. He is facing up to life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted.
The victim’s parents, Gideon and Jeanne Bernstein, reported their son was missing Jan. 3, 2018. He was last seen the day before at their home in Foothill Ranch.
The University of Pennsylvania student was home for the holidays and went to bed, but went out without his parents knowing. His parents figured he was “sleeping in” and left that morning without checking in on him, Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said in court papers.
When their son did not respond to text messages or calls by the afternoon about a missed dental appointment the parents returned home and found his wallet, glasses, credit cards and cash in his bedroom with his car still in the driveway, Walker said.
The parents checked his social media accounts and when they saw he had spoken to Woodward they contacted him and he told them that the last time he saw his Orange County School of the Arts classmate he had “walked off into the Borrego Park to meet an unknown friend,” Walker said.
Later, Woodward told investigators that he picked up Bernstein to “catch up,” Walker said.
A massive search was launched to find Bernstein. His body was found on Jan. 9, 2018, in a shallow grave during a search of Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch.
The victim, who was Jewish, was stabbed multiple times, Walker said. Woodward was booked on suspicion of the killing Jan. 12, 2018.
During a search of the defendant’s phones and devices, “investigators found hundreds of images reflecting defendant’s hatred of Jewish people and homosexuals, including statements of intent to kill,” Walker said.
“Additionally, emails were found on defendant’s electronics wherein he spoke about enjoying making homosexuals think he’s gay and then `ghosting’ them,” Walker said. “Other emails describe how these `sodomites’ need to die.”
Woodward sought to join Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist organization, in February 2017, Walker said. Woodward dropped out of college and moved to Texas to train to join the group, she added.
“According to several students who knew the defendant, defendant was `weird,’ `antisocial,’ and `angry,’ ” Walker said.
Woodward’s prior attorney, Ed Munoz, said at Woodward’s preliminary hearing that Woodward is afflicted with Asperger’s syndrome and spent years conflicted about his sexuality.
The suspected murder weapon was a folding knife inscribed with Woodward’s father’s name, prosecutors said.
Woodward told investigators during questioning that he contacted the victim through Snapchat and picked him up about 11 p.m. Jan. 2, 2018, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.
He drove Bernstein to the parking lot of a Hobby Lobby store in Foothill Ranch, a sheriff’s investigator testified.
When Bernstein kissed Woodward, the defendant pushed him away and used a derogatory term for homosexuals, prompting Bernstein to apologize profusely, the investigator testified. The two agreed to go then to Borrego Park in Lake Forest, which is near the home of the victim’s parents, officials said.
According to the investigator, Woodward still “wanted to hang out” with Bernstein so long as the victim understood Woodward wasn’t interested in him romantically.
The trial is expected to take a few months. Jury selection took weeks and had to re-start after a disturbance in the courtroom involving Woodward and the judge. The attorneys had 1,100 people fill out juror questionnaires as they worked to narrow down the large pool of prospective panelists.
(source)