An Orange County jury on Wednesday convicted Samuel Woodward of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his gay high school classmate.
during the three month trialBoth sides have portrayed Woodward, 26, as a young man who grew up in a conservative Newport Beach family and struggled with his father over his sexuality.
Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker told the jury that when Woodward decided to kill his former classmate Blaise Bernstein in January 2018, he chose a weapon with symbolic significance: a knife inscribed with his father’s name.
“Who better to prove you’re not gay than this homophobic father?” Walker said during closing arguments. “‘I’m not gay, look what I just did.'”
The jury began deliberating Woodward’s fate on Tuesday afternoon and delivered its verdict a day later. They also convicted Woodward of a hate-crime enhancement that applied only to Bernstein’s sexual orientation, though he was both Jewish and gay.
Woodward faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25.
Woodward’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison, acknowledged his client was guilty of stabbing Bernstein 28 times in Lake Forest Park, which he called a “hate crime,” but said it was voluntary manslaughter, not murder.
“There’s no premeditated planning or deliberation,” he told jurors, arguing that Bernstein provoked Woodward. He said the killing bore no connection to his client’s interest in the Atomwaffen Division, an extremist group whose anti-gay, anti-Semitic propaganda was found on Woodward’s computer.
Bernstein and Woodward sent each other flirtatious text messages the night of the murder. They had known each other years earlier at the Orange County School of the Arts, where Woodward had a reputation for far-right, anti-gay views.
Woodward, who had kept a “hate diary” in which he bragged about pranking and intimidating gay men, had dropped out of college and was living with his parents. Bernstein, an openly gay student at the University of Pennsylvania, was staying with his parents over the winter holidays in Lake Forest.
Woodward told her she was bi-curious. Bernstein texted her address. Woodward went to pick her up and they walked to a nearby park.
“Unfortunately, Blaise’s curiosity got him killed,” Walker said.
Taking the stand in his own defense, Woodward seemed almost unconscious, his words halting and slurred, his eyes cast down, his face obscured by a curtain of disheveled hair. His lawyer had to repeatedly remind him to look up.
Woodward testified that he took two puffs of marijuana, became intoxicated, and when he came out of it he saw Bernstein touching his genitals.
According to Woodward, Bernstein told her she had been exposed, called her a hypocrite and said something like, “I’ve got you.” Woodward said she feared Bernstein had taken a picture of her genitals and was sending it to someone.
When asked for details about the stabbing incident, Woodward repeatedly said he did not remember.
Bernstein’s blood was found on a knife bearing Woodward’s father’s name, leading prosecutors to conclude that it was the murder weapon. But Woodward insisted he had used a different knife.
No evidence emerged that Bernstein had taken explicit photographs of Woodward, and prosecutor Walker called the defendant’s statement “ludicrous” and “revisionist history.”
Scolding the notion that Woodward was prone to fits of rage for fear of being exposed, she said he had posted a photo of himself on a Tinder profile that said he was looking for other men and had more than once sent pictures of his penis.
He said that “carrying a weapon bearing his father’s name is very symbolic,” especially because Woodward, an Eagle Scout, owned several knives. Prosecutors said Woodward was hoping to enhance his standing in the Atomwaffen Division by killing Bernstein.
“That would prove to Atomwaffen that he’s not gay,” Walker said. “That would prove to his father that he’s not gay. That would prove to him that he’s not gay.”
When police searched Woodward’s belongings, they found a death mask – bearing the Atomwaffen symbol – stained with Bernstein’s blood, indicating that Woodward had the mask in his possession at the time of the stabbing.
“Why are you bringing the skull mask?” Walker asked. “It’s a ceremonial killing for him that will bring him prestige and praise, which is what happened. We heard Atomwaffen is proud of that.”
Woodward buried Bernstein in a shallow grave in the park and distracted investigators by sending messages to Bernstein’s phone asking where he was. Woodward’s initial account to police was that he had gone to the park with Bernstein, but that Bernstein had wandered off without reason.
After a week of searching, Bernstein’s body was found when rain washed away the soil that had concealed her body. No shovel was found. However, dirt was found under Woodward’s fingernails, and Morrison said she had dug the makeshift grave with her hands, an argument that this was not a premeditated crime.
Morrison characterized his client as a socially awkward young man who suffered from autism that had been undiagnosed for years.
He said there was no evidence that Woodward had actually pranked and terrorized gay men, other than details recorded in his “hate diary”, which Morrison described as empty bragging.
Morrison denied that Bernstein’s fatal stabbing was “a hate crime inspired by people like Hitler and (Charles) Manson.”
He attributed his client’s attachment to the Atomwaffen Division to “his lifelong struggle to make and maintain meaningful friendships,” which left him vulnerable to a group that provided him with companionship and preyed on people like him. He said his client “hungered for human contact.”
