A 27-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday in an Orange County court for the 2018 hate-crime murder of his gay former classmate, Blaze Bernstein.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward was convicted in July for the killing of the 19-year-old Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing. Bernstein had been stabbed over 28 times and buried in a shallow grave in Lake Forest Park.
The sentencing hearing was delayed by five hours, in part because Woodward refused to attend court. During the victim impact statements, Woodward stormed out of the courtroom.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the crime, and investigators found anti-gay, antisemitic, and hate group materials on his cellphone. While Woodward admitted to stabbing Bernstein, he initially pleaded not guilty to murder with a hate-crime enhancement.
Prosecutors argued that Woodward should be convicted of first-degree murder with a hate-crime enhancement, citing Bernstein’s sexual orientation. Defense attorneys, however, contended that Woodward should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter and acquitted of the hate-crime charges.
After a day of deliberation, the jury convicted Woodward. Bernstein, a gay Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania, had been home visiting his family during winter break in 2018 when he was murdered. Woodward and Bernstein had attended the Orange County School of the Arts together for four years before Bernstein graduated.
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