The fate of Samuel Woodward, the self-admitted killer of former classmate Blaze Bernstein, is now in the hands of an Orange County jury that must decide whether it was a hate-fueled slaying driven by the ideals of a Neo-Nazi group or a deadly confrontation sparked in the heat of passion.
Deliberations began Tuesday afternoon, July 2, in the nearly three-month murder trial of Woodward, who, during his testimony, admitted to stabbing Bernstein to death during a late-night meetup in January 2018 and then burying his body in a makeshift grave amid vegetation at the edge a Lake Forest park.
Over three days of closing arguments in a Santa Ana courtroom, the prosecution asked an Orange County Superior Court jury to find Woodward, now 26, guilty of a first-degree hate-crime murder, while the defense argued the killing should be considered a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter not tied to a hate crime.
A hate crime finding would greatly lengthen his time behind bars.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker told jurors that Woodward — who had ties to Atomwaffen Division, a Neo-Nazi extremist group — killed Bernstein because Bernstein was gay.
“This is what (Blaze was) up against,” Walker said as she displayed a photo of Woodward wearing a skull mask covering most of his face while brandishing his father’s revolver. “This is a person focused on hate.”
Noting that such a skull mask — with Bernstein’s blood on it — was found by police in Woodward’s rental car, the prosecutor described the slaying as a “ceremonial killing” meant to get Woodward “prestige and recognition” by members of Atomwaffen.
Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison argued that Woodward — who is on the Autism spectrum — was wrestling with his own sexuality after growing up in a “repressive” home, had distanced himself from Atomwaffen by the time of the killing and had been betrayed by Bernstein telling others about at-times flirtatious online conversations he had with Woodward.
“You heard me tell you right out of the gate my client was guilty — guilty of a serious, violent homicide,” Morrison told jurors. “But there are different types of homicides. …You have to get into Samuel Woodward’s mind at the time he killed Blaze Bernstein.”
Woodward and Bernstein were acquaintances when both attended the Orange County School of the Arts, according to testimony. Woodward — who had a reputation at the school for his conservative and sometimes seemingly homophobic views — later dropped out of college to travel to Texas to meet members of Atomwaffen Division before moving back in with his parents in Newport Beach.
Bernstein was enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a pre-med student.
Woodward, in testimony, described reaching out online to Bernstein to hang out while Bernstein was home visiting his family for winter break. They went to Borrego Park, where Woodward said he smoked marijuana, nodded off and woke up on a park bench to find Bernstein grabbing his genitals and appearing to take an explicit photo of him with his phone.
Woodward testified that he tried to grab the phone from Bernstein, then stabbed him to death and buried him.
Walker, the prosecutor, argued that Woodward had actually persuaded Bernstein to go into a foliage area at the park by thinking they were going to “hook up,” and then violently attacked him, stabbing Bernstein nearly 30 times.
“(Blaze) was brutally murdered and buried within an hour and a half,” Walker said. “To dig a grave in that terrain and to clean up and murder someone in an hour and a half, that is not someone who is like, ‘Oh, something just happened and I need to clean it up.’ “
As evidence of Woodward’s state of mind, the prosecutor pointed to a “hate diary” consisting of emails Woodward sent to himself in which he seemingly described matching up with “sodomites” online, getting them “hooked” and then ghosting them, pranking them or making them think they would be the target of a hate crime. Walker told jurors that Bernstein was a victim of Woodward’s alleged targeting of gay men.
“When (Woodward) knew what he wanted to do, he said, ‘Who do I have a better chance of meeting me, a stranger or someone I knew from high school?’” the prosecutor said. “Their guard is completely down. … Unfortunately for Blaze, curiosity killed him.”
Morrison, Woodward’s attorney, argued that Woodward’s diary was filled with false information meant to provide deniability if members of Atomwaffen learned of Woodward’s online contacts with gay men. There is no evidence of Woodward actually pranking or threatening anyone, the defense attorney argued, despite the explicitly anti-gay language Woodward used in his diary.
“If this ‘Diary of Hate’ is so critical for the government to prove his intent, his motive, his state of mind, where is the evidence?” the defense attorney said. “I grant you there is plenty of suspicion. I don’t blame any member of law enforcement in connection to this case, nor anyone in the District Attorney’s Office, for immediately being highly suspicious of this stuff. None of it looks good. But, internally, it is just false.”
Despite his client’s denials on the stand, the defense attorney argued there was evidence that Woodward struggled with his sexuality. Woodward sent what appeared to be explicit photographs of himself to a classmate and another man, the defense attorney noted, and in comments to his father and in notes on his phone had mentioned having sexual contact with other boys during his high school years.
According to his own messages, shown in court, Bernstein appeared surprised when he ran across Woodward’s Tinder profile seemingly seeking other men in June 2017, noting that the classmate he knew for his conservative views was “literally the last person I expected to see on here.” Woodward, during the online chat, pleaded with Bernstein not to tell anyone else. But, the defense noted, Bernstein had already sent Woodward’s profile to several friends.
“Did the meeting at the park start out innocently?” Morrison asked of the night of Bernstein’s death. “Did Blaze have his own agenda that night? Was he planning to betray Sam’s trust once again and have a little fun at his expense?”
Jurors will continue deliberations on Wednesday, July 3. The courthouse is closed Thursday for the July 4th holiday.
