California man sentenced to life without parole in Blaze Bernstein hate-crime murder

A 27-year-old man was sentenced to life without possibility of parole Friday in an Orange County court for the 2018 hate-crime killing of his gay former classmate.

Samuel Lincoln Woodward was found guilty in July for the death of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing, stabbed over 28 times and buried in a shallow grave at a Lake Forest Park.

The sentencing hearing was delayed by roughly five hours, partly because Woodward refused to go to court. He also stormed out of the courtroom during the victim impact statements delivered during the sentencing hearing.

DNA evidence linked Woodward to the killing, and his cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, authorities said.  

Read more: Blaze Bernstein murder: Was an Ivy League student slain in the name of hate?

Woodward admitted to stabbing Bernstein, a 19-year-old gay, Jewish man, multiple times in 2018, but pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime. 

The prosecution had argued for Woodward to be found guilty of first-degree murder as a hate crime because Bernstein was gay. Defense attorneys argued that Woodward should be convicted of voluntary manslaughter and acquitted of the hate crime allegations. 

The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for just one day. 

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

The sophomore was home on winter break and visiting his family in 2018 when he was killed.