Family of Blaze Bernstein, California teen killed in hate crime attack, stand up for their son: "Blaze's life mattered"
Six years after the murder of Blaze Bernstein, his family came face to face with his killer, Sam Woodward, a former high school classmate.
KEN MORRISON (in court): The why is the single most important issue you will need to decide. Not who is responsible for the death of a young man, but exactly why he was killed six years ago.
For Jeanne Pepper and her husband Gideon Bernstein, those six years were painfully marked by COVID delays, shifting lawyers and legal strategies.
Jeanne Pepper: Slow justice is no justice. … It's not fair to victims and it's not fair to the deceased.
Finally, came April 2024. Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein were more than ready for their day in court.
Jeanne Pepper: We're impatient. We want to get on with our lives.
But not before telling the story of their first-born child, Blaze Bernstein. How he lived, and why they believe he died: murdered because of who he was. Targeted by hate.
Gideon Bernstein: It's not safe for you to be a lot of different minorities now.
KEN MORRISON (in court): The victim in this case — and nobody disputes that he was a victim — was stabbed to death.
Ken Morrison would defend Samuel Woodward, charged with first-degree premeditated murder. Morrison squared off against Prosecutor Jennifer Walker.
JENNIFER WALKER (in court): And where we start is with who was killed. Blaze Bernstein … and he was 19 … He was gay and Jewish.
The silent, ghostly presence in the courtroom was Blaze — that slender, curious, playful young man with a big world. Images that refuse to fade.
Tracy Smith: Are there pictures or things that flash through your mind … that you think of Blaze?
Jeanne Pepper: Always. Every day.
It was just weeks after Blaze's death that "48 Hours" first met Jeanne and Gideon. Wounds raw, they shared bittersweet memories of the son they described as magical.
Jeanne Pepper: And the first time I saw him, I looked in his eyes. … Something about this baby, he's gonna change the world someday.
Tracy Smith: What do you miss most about Blaze?
Jeanne Pepper: His quirky personality.
Jeanne Pepper: He was different.
Gideon Bernstein: He liked to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Jeanne Pepper: I call him a unicorn … He was magnificently creative.
It was late summer 2016, and Blaze who'd already achieved so much, was headed to an Ivy League school in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania. There'd be new friends, mentors and challenges. And Blaze seemed ready for it all.
Jeanne Pepper: He really hit his stride.
A creative writer. Thinking about a career in medicine.
Jeanne Pepper: He was finding himself.
Then came winter break, sophomore year. Blaze headed home.
Jeanne Pepper: He was really looking forward to being with us, too.
There were holiday celebrations and Hannukah candles. The budding chef cooked up a gourmet meal. And then, sometime on the night of Jan. 2, 2018, Blaze secretly left his parents' house. It would be the last time.
Tracy Smith: That night — when did you realize that he was missing?
Gideon Bernstein: We didn't.
Jeanne Pepper: I didn't know that night.
Gideon Bernstein: We didn't even know. We thought he slept in and the next day we were —
Jeanne Pepper: I — I had my aha moment when I was at the dental appointment.
The next day, Blaze was due to meet his mother for that dentist appointment. But Blaze never showed up and wasn't answering his cellphone.
Jeanne Pepper: I called Gideon … he asked me if Blaze had ever come home the night before? And I screamed out, "I don't know!"
Gideon Bernstein: Rushed outta the office and came home.
Jeanne Pepper: We both did. We flew home.
And checked Blaze's room.
Jeanne Pepper: His wallet. His retainers. His keys.
Gideon Bernstein: Those were all still at the house.
Jeanne Pepper: His glasses. Yeah, all of that stuff was at the house.
Tracy Smith: But your thought was?
Gideon Bernstein: Well, it was just so highly unusual.
Jeanne Pepper: He wanted to spend time with us. … I just kept texting and calling him and leaving messages all day.
Jeanne Pepper: Where had he been? … We didn't know.
They called police and tried to log on to Blaze's social media accounts.
Gideon Bernstein: We just jumped on his computer. This was a big challenge for us.
But with the help of family and friends, they logged on to Blaze's Snapchat. That's where they discovered the night he disappeared, Blaze had sent his home address to someone: Sam Woodward, a seeming stranger.
Gideon Bernstein: We never heard the name.
Jeanne Pepper: We never heard the name before.
Gideon and Jeanne were panicked and baffled. Who was Sam Woodward?
So Gideon messaged Woodward: "Please pick up." Woodward got on the phone. The Bernsteins recorded the phone conversation and would share it with police:
GIDEON BERNSTEIN (phone call with Sam Woodward): "And we just cracked into his Snap account and saw that – that you had been, uh, trying to find him. So you're the first real clue to the, to the puzzle here."
Woodward's pieces of the puzzle began with him meeting Blaze near the Bernsteins' home.
SAM WOODWARD (phone call): "I picked him up at 11."
And he said he drove him to nearby Borrego Park, with its thick brush and twisting paths. And that once there, they parked.
GIDEON BERNSTEIN (phone call): "OK. And then did he get out of the car, or what happened?"
SAM WOODWARD: "Yeah. He got out of the car, and, uh, I got out of the car, too."
And Woodward added, Blaze, claiming he was going to meet a friend, walked down a path, and vanished into the darkness.
SAM WOODWARD: "I shouted out, 'Blaze! Blaze! … But I didn't see anything. I – I didn't hear anything."
Woodward explained to the Bernsteins how he knew Blaze and why he says they were getting together.
SAM WOODWARD (phone call): "It was more of a spur of the moment kind of thing … 'Yeah, dude, let's hang out' … since he and I were friends when we were at OCSA."
OCSA — The Orange County School of the Arts, where Raiah Rofsky, Blaze and Sam Woodward were once classmates. Rofsky's high school memories of Woodward were about to come flooding back with a vengeance.
Raiah Rofsky: I got a call from my mom. 'Raiah, did you hear?' And I said 'what?' And she said, 'Blaze is missing.' And then my mom said, 'Raiah he was with this guy named Sam Woodward.' I screamed in the phone, 'he what!' And she was like, 'do you know this guy.' And I said, 'yes. I know this guy. He's crazy!!'
Tracy Smith: How different were Sam and Blaze?
Raiah Rofsky: Oh, they were so different. Probably about as different as you could be.
Hauntingly different says Blaze's oldest friend. So, when that word began to filter across Orange County that Blaze hadn't come home, and that Sam Woodward might be a person of interest, it chilled Rofsky to the bone. Her memories of Woodward are impossible to shake.
Raiah Rofsky: He was drawing guns in his notebook in class.
Tracy Smith: Did you say anything?
Raiah Rofsky: No.
Tracy Smith: But you thought?
Raiah Rofsky: This is terrifying.
THE SEARCH FOR BLAZE BERNSTEIN
The spotlight was on Sam Woodward, whom Rofsky remembered from high school.
Raiah Rofsky: He was very quiet, very withdrawn, didn't really talk to people.
Woodward. Odd man out, says Rofsky.
Raiah Rofsky: You know everybody has their clique. But I don't think he identified with any of them really.
And as far as anyone knew, he was the last person to see Blaze Bernstein alive.
Raiah Rofsky: The only reason I could think of Sam meeting up with Blaze is because either number one, he wanted to hook up with him, or two, because he was planning to murder him.
And as for that story Woodward told — that on the spur of the moment he and Blaze had decided to hang out — it didn't come close to adding up for Rofsky.
Tracy Smith: He had a reputation of being what?
Raiah Rofsky: Racist, homophobic, sexist.
It was Rofsky who was there when Blaze's sexuality was still a secret until, along a glistening California beach, he bravely confided in his oldest friend.
Tracy Smith: So you guys were kind of walking down the beach alone together and —
Raiah Rofsky: Yeah.
Tracy Smith: — he came out to you?
Raiah Rofsky: Yeah.
Rofsky, who would later also come out, stepped up when it mattered most.
Raiah Rofsky: All I could do was … be a good friend and love him … unconditionally.
Tracy Smith: Did you get the sense that Blaze had told anyone else that he thought he was bi?
Raiah Rofsky: I don't think that he did. He was kind of upset to say it.
Tracy Smith: Something that clearly was a big secret for him and ...
Raiah Rofsky: Yeah, you know, coming out to yourself is a really mature, difficult thing to do.
Tracy Smith: And what did you tell him?
Raiah Rofsky: I told him, "It's OK. If you like boys that's totally fine. Love who you love."
While he hadn't yet told his parents, Gideon and Jeanne sensed Blaze might be gay.
Jeanne Pepper: We went up to him and said, "Listen, whatever your situation is, we embrace it. We love you. We don't care."
But in those first days of 2018, it wasn't just love. It was also an unimaginable fear that consumed Jeanne and Gideon, as the search for Blaze began.
Orange County cops spoke with Woodward. He repeated what he told the Bernsteins on that phone call. That he had picked Blaze up, driven to Borrego Park. And that then Blaze had vanished.
By Jan. 5, the search had become massive.
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis coordinated the search from University Synagogue, where Blaze was an active member and a role model.
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis: And we printed up thousands and thousands of fliers that people in the congregation put up … Everybody's looking.
Blaze embraced his Jewish heritage and confronted its haters.
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis: At such a young age to see someone with so much talent … is a beautiful thing. … A good heart, a good soul. That's what Blaze had.
Everyone was somehow hoping for good news. Including, it seemed, Sam Woodward.
GIDEON BERNSTEIN (phone call): OK. So, is this the best number to reach you at?
SAM WOODWARD: Uh, yes, sir, it is.
On that call that Gideon had recorded, Woodward sounded deeply concerned.
SAM WOODWARD (phone call): Yeah, I wanna find Blaze as much as you do.
But Blaze was nowhere to be found. Anxious hours stretched into sleepless nights.
Jeanne Pepper: I really didn't know if we would ever find him.
Gideon Bernstein: As the days passed —
Jeanne Pepper: You know —
Gideon Bernstein: — it became more and more difficult.
Jeanne Pepper: And I thought, "We're never gonna know. We're never gonna know what happened exactly. We're never gonna figure it out." Yeah that's what I thought.
Raiah Rofsky: I immediately thought he's dead. He's dead.
Tracy Smith: Just from hearing that he was with Sam?
Raiah Rofsky: Yes.
It was day seven since Blaze last left home. A family and a community was beyond frustrated. Detectives had searched Borrego Park over and over. But they decided to give it one more look. In the pouring rain, hidden under a large tree branch was a mound of dirt. Under the wet, caked earth lay Blaze Bernstein.
Leah Bernstein: If not the rain, we would have never known what happened to him. So the rain uncovered his face.
Leah and Richard Bernstein are Blaze's grandparents.
Leah Bernstein: We just loved him.
Richard Bernstein: I wish I could write like he wrote. … I wish I could cook like he cooked.
"48 Hours" met them just a few months after Blaze was murdered.
Richard Bernstein: I think the world lost a beautiful soul.
Leah Bernstein: I always think of him before I go to sleep. (teary)
Their grandchild, once brimming with life and possibility, had been horrifically slaughtered with a knife.
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis: And then the funeral happened … And it was shattering.
The grief stretched across Orange County.
Gideon Bernstein: Just wanna know why.
Jeanne Pepper I don't. I don't even want to know because I'm not gonna like that answer.
SAM WOODWARD'S DARK AND FRIGHTENING SECRET
Three days after Blaze Bernstein was found butchered and broken, investigators confronted his one-time classmate Sam Woodward at his parents' home.
REPORTER: Can you tell us what happened to Blaze?
SAM WOODWARD: No comment.
REPORTER: Were you there when he disappeared?
SAM WOODWARD: No comment.
REPORTER MICHELE GILE | CBS LOS ANGELES: Undercover officers made their move on Sam Woodward this afternoon, as he pulled out of his Newport Beach driveway and went down the road, they pulled that car over and arrested him.
Tony Rackaukas: Sam Woodward was charged with murder with the personal use of a knife.
Then-Orange County D.A Tony Rackaukas.
Tracy Smith: How did Blaze Bernstein die?
Tony Rackaukas: He was stabbed multiple times in the neck.
Tracy Smith: What does that tell you?
Tony Rackaukas: Well it tells me there was a lot of hate.
For Blaze's parents, the details of his murder were too much to even imagine.
Jeanne Pepper: I just try not to think about what that really meant. I don't think I — that I physically can deal with the trauma of what's happened.
As police gathered evidence, the violence that happened in Borrego Park was revealed. With Blaze's body — his battered phone. Inside Sam Woodward's car — blood.
Tony Rackaukas: The blood on the headliner, uh, belonged to both Sam Woodward and Blaze Bernstein.
Tracy Smith: Blaze Bernstein's blood was in Sam Woodward's car?
Tony Rackauckas: Yes. Yes.
Tracy Smith: And then they went on to search the house?
Tony Rackauckas: Yes.
Tracy Smith: What kind of forensic evidence did they gather ?
Tony Rackauckas: There was a knife. … The knife had blood on it. Blaze Bernstein's blood on the knife.
At his arraignment, Sam Woodward would plead not guilty. Investigators would continue to search for what happened that night in Borrego Park. They would soon come to believe that Woodward had a dark and frightening secret.
Sarah Moore: He was involved in this extreme neo-Nazi organization, Atomwaffen Division, which does expect its members to explicitly target members of the Jewish and LGBTQ community.
Sarah Moore monitors hate crime, working for GLAAD, one of the most prominent gay rights organizations in the country.
She has kept a close eye on the small but violent group, Atomwaffen.
Sarah Moore: They want to kind of blow up the world as it is. They want to create something entirely new.
Tracy Smith: And the new thing is what?
Sarah Moore: In their mind it would be a White ethno-state.
Sarah Moore: And there's either no Jewish, or no LGBTQ, or no people of color in that society.
Tracy Smith: How does Atomwaffen recruit?
Sarah Moore: They recruit primarily online.
Just a click away, and exactly where Woodward — who Raiah Rofsky remembers had trouble making friends — found some strangers who welcomed and encouraged him.
Tracy Smith: Did you consider yourself a neo-Nazi ?
Former Atomwaffen member: I just considered myself a Nazi.
This man doesn't want his identity revealed. But he says he was once a member of Atomwaffen. And that he came in contact with Sam the year before Blaze was murdered.
Former Atomwaffen member: It was like a camaraderie type of thing … common interests.
Tracy Smith: And those interests were hating other groups. Hating Jews. Hating gays. Hating Blacks.
Former Atomwaffen member: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Tracy Smith: How involved was Sam Woodward in Atomwaffen?
Former Atomwaffen member: I know that he was involved.
Involved enough, say investigators, to wear the Atomwaffen mask, give the Nazi salute, make a pilgrimage to Colorado to meet neo-Nazi leader James Mason, and travel to Texas to attend Atomwaffen's version of a corporate retreat. They call it "hate camp."
Sarah Moore: At hate camps, members will get kind of a one-on-one training in how to be a violent extremist.
And that bitter January 2018, when news broke that Blaze had been stabbed to death — allegedly by a member of Atomwaffen — as Orange County mourned, neo-Nazis reportedly cheered.
Former Atomwaffen member: Everyone was celebrating him. … Like he killed a gay Jew.
Sarah Moore: Which in their mind is a sort of jackpot.
Tracy Smith: Ugh.
Sarah Moore: It's disgusting.
Jeanne Pepper: There were people congratulating this accused killer for what he had done, killing my son. Congratulating him.
Tracy Smith: Had you ever heard of Atomwaffen?
Jeanne Pepper: No.
Tracy Smith: Before this?
Jeanne Pepper: No. But we should have. Because we're a perfect target for that group.
Because of Sam's involvement in Atomwaffen, seven months after Blaze's murder, prosecutors upped the ante, adding a hate crime enhancement — a murder motivated by prejudice.
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis: As the story unfolded that the murder was related to homophobia and antisemitism, well then the anger in the community ratcheted up.
For some it brought back the darkest of times.
Tracy Smith: It must seem like all this hate was behind you. That's something from the past.
Leah Bernstein: You can't forget it.
Tracy Smith: You can't forget it?
Leah Bernstein: Never.
It is a murderous echo from her past, all too real for Grandma Leah, a Holocaust survivor — once a little girl forced by Hitler's Nazis to wear a yellow star.
Leah Bernstein: Yes we did wear the stars.
Tracy Smith: It's a horrible irony, that what you escaped is —
Leah Bernstein: Is following me.
Sam Woodward was locked up in the Orange County Jail. He would begin his yearslong journey through the justice system. It included a revolving door of defense lawyers who raised questions with the court about Woodward's mental health, and his ability to defend himself. In 2022, Woodward was found competent to stand trial.
Investigators say they also mined Woodward's phone and social media activity. And along with the Nazi propaganda, they found something else. Woodward had visited gay dating and porn sites. And he had exchanged flirtatious messages with Blaze.
Louis Keene: So, they match twice on Tinder.
Louis Keene, a reporter for "The Forward," would cover the case and report on the conversations between Woodward and Blaze.
Louis Keene: Blaze admits that he's gay. … Blaze says, "I think you're hot" … And Sam says back to Blaze, "You're not too bad looking yourself, Blaze." And so they kind of had this flirty interaction.
Raiah Rofsky: Maybe Sam was like closeted and wanted to hook up.
Rofsky moved to New York City, where she lives as an openly bisexual woman. She still wonders about Woodward's intention, and Blaze's, that tragic night in Borrego Park.
Tracy Smith: The defense may argue that Blaze made a move on Sam and Sam freaked out.
Raiah Rofsky: OK. And if you freak out, does that excuse you stabbing somebody?
In April 2024, Sam Woodward finally headed to trial. Over time, the case had taken on even greater meaning.
Sarah Moore: There's a lot at stake here because it's not just about getting justice for Blaze, but it's also about what precedent this is setting for other LGBTQ+ people who have been or might in the future be in similar situations.
Blaze's parents steadied themselves to relive the night that shattered their lives.
Jeanne Pepper: I know that a lot of things will be said that are probably untrue, because that's what happens in a criminal trial. … I have an opportunity to defend Blaze and that's what I will do.
MAKING THE CASE FOR HATE
Jeanne Pepper: It's the final thing that I have to do for my son — is be there and make sure there is some form of justice.
It took more than six years for Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein to get this day in superior court. But it comes with terrible memories of the day they lost their son, Blaze.
JENNIFER WALKER (in court): I just want to thank you for being here and I'm sorry that the circumstances. You remember where you were when you got the phone call?
GIDEON BERNSTEIN: I do remember that, yes.
JENNIFER WALKER: And why does that stand out in your mind?
GIDEON BERNSTEIN: Because it was the beginning of… hell.
The couple has to come face to face with their son's killer, but the killer, Sam Woodward, doesn't seem to want to be seen.
KENNETH MORRISON: Can I ask you to move the hair out of your face a little bit, maybe pull the hair on your right side … of your head away so we can see you? Please? Thank you.
SAM WOODWARD: No.
Even before he took the stand, Woodward was already an eerie presence in the courtroom who got everyone's attention.
Louis Keene: Sam looked like Charles Manson … You couldn't really see his face.
Louis Keene: You couldn't really hear him all the time. … If you're in the jury he looks extremely menacing.
Tracy Smith: Do you want to look him in the eye?
Jeanne Pepper: Not really. I don't care. He's meaningless to me.
KENNETH MORRISON: Can I nag you one more time to move your hair out of your face a little bit for us?
Back when they were frantically searching for Blaze, Sam Woodward told the Bernsteins he didn't know anything about what happened to their son.
SAM WOODWARD (PHONE CALL): I didn't see where he went ... I searched all over for him ... I couldn't find him anywhere ...
But Woodward's looks have changed dramatically and so has his story.
KENNETH MORRISON (in court): Do you remember what you were thinking when you were driving the knife down again and again and again?
SAM WOODWARD: (Long silence) An anger like nothing I'd ever felt in my whole life.
There's absolutely no question, Sam Woodward killed Blaze Bernstein.
KEN MORRISON (in court): The evidence will show that Samuel Woodward is guilty of homicide.
The question for the jury:
KEN MORRISON (in court): Why this homicide was committed?
Louis Keene: Sam's defense attorney said in opening arguments that we were going to hear from Sam about something that happened that night, that provoked Sam into killing Blaze.
The challenge for defense attorney Ken Morrison is to prove voluntary manslaughter; that Woodward acted impulsively.
KEN MORRISON (in court): There was no cold, calculated decision to kill.
And the knife? According to the defense it wasn't ever meant for murder. From the time Woodward was a Boy Scout, he was never without one.
KEN MORRISON (in court): Would you ever carry a pocketknife with you in your pants pocket?
SAM WOODWARD: Yes I would … Almost all the time.
KEN MORRISON (in court) Did you have a knife in your pocket when you were with Blaze Bernstein?
SAM WOODWARD: Yes I did.
Prosecutor Jennifer Walker argues this was premeditated murder and a hate crime.
JENNIFER WALKER (in court): The killing happened in less than an hour.
JENNIFER WALKER: You'll see the cellphone evidence, the DNA evidence, the defendant's words, the defendant's hate.
In the nearly three months at trial, Walker painstakingly put on almost 20 witnesses including the same former Atomwaffen member who spoke with "48 Hours," now a witness for the prosecution, who still wanted his identity concealed.
JENNIFER WALKER: Do you recognize that?
FORMER ATOMWAFFEN MEMBER: Yes.
JENNIFER WALKER: What is it?
FORMER ATOMWAFFEN MEMBER: That's a picture of Samuel Woodward
All to build the case for the added hate charge and a greater sentence.
Louis Keene: The difference is the possibility of parole … If it's no hate crime, then it's 25 years to life with the possibility of parole. … if it's a first-degree, premeditated murder and a hate crime, Sam faces life in prison without possibility of parole.
The defense uses a time-honored tactic – suggesting the victim is not as innocent as he appears.
KENNETH MORRISON (in court): The facts of this case are not simple. You will learn that Blaze Bernstein was not killed because of who he was, but because of what he did.
KENNETH MORRISON: Tell us what happened. … Sam, can you pick your head up, move your hair?
In Sam Woodward's version, Blaze was toying with him and threatening to out him. Once they were in Borrego Park, Woodward says he smoked a joint.
SAM WOODWARD (in court): I started nodding off.
Woodward says he thought Blaze took a compromising picture.
SAM WOODWARD: I saw my pants unbuckled … I could practically, like, feel something somewhat close to my leg … and he had his phone in his hand.
Louis Keene: And he tells us that he believes that Blaze is taking a photo of his privates.
SAM WOODWARD (in court): I just came undone—I went in a state of just terror.
SAM WOODWARD (in court): And I asked, "What are you doing, what are you doing?"
No photo was ever found, so there's no evidence that Blaze actually took one.
KEN MORRISON (in court): What were you afraid of?
SAM WOODWARD: I grew up in a home with my mother and my father and I love them more than I can imagine. My father though he — there's no way not a chance people like him … just even thinking about the look on his face if he saw something like that, if he'd heard about something like that, that got out somehow, I couldn't fathom that.
Louis Keene: Sam grew up in an ultra-conservative Catholic household. He had parents who believed homosexuality was a sin, but Sam also seemed to have really conflicted feelings about his own sexuality. … What you come away with is just immense sadness. … of all these external forces coming to bear on his life … He did what he did. And what he did can't be undone.
KEN MORRISON (in court): Any idea how long it took to stop stabbing Blaze?
SAM WOODWARD: No idea. No.
Louis Keene: It was one of the most awful things I've ever heard … and you know that Blaze's parents are sitting there … for months of this trial, they've been hearing … their son is accused of sexual assault … you can't really imagine what that's like. Jeanne Pepper … walked out of the room.
For the prosecution, the only predator in this story is Sam Woodward.
JENNIFER WALKER (in court): He has a six-inch knife out and Blaze is the predator? Blaze is the problem here?
JENNIFER WALKER: That's what's being sold to you by the defendant. … He was interested and fixated on hate. Atomwaffen Division had that outlet for him.
Only two people know what really happened that night. Sam Woodward has had his say. Blaze Bernstein isn't alive to tell us.
JENNIFER WALKER (in court): You should find him guilty of first-degree murder with the hate crime. It's the only reasonable conclusion.
KENNETH MORRISON (in court): Do you have any hesitation? Do you have any doubt?
Now it's up to the jury.
CELEBRATING BLAZE BERNSTEIN'S LEGACY WITH LOVE
The passage of time has been doubly hard for Blaze's grandparents Richard and Leah, still waiting for justice for the grandson they loved and lost.
Leah Bernstein: I miss him all. Everything about him. He was loving and caring. He was handsome too. (smiles)
Blaze and his exceptional appetite for life.
Richard Bernstein: I tried to treat him as just a normal kid, you know. And he turned out uh — (breaks down)
Tracy Smith: I'm sorry.
Richard Bernstein: He turned out well.
On July 3, 2024, the jurors began their deliberations.
Leah Bernstein: I don't want him to die. I want him to suffer every day of his life.
Tracy Smith: Is there a part of you that wants to look that young man in the eye?
Richard Bernstein: No.
Tracy Smith: Why not?
Richard Bernstein: Because he's a footnote in history.
Whether footnote or headline, grandparents, parents, Rabbi, or oldest friend, It felt like forever.
Raiah Rofsky: I was nervous, and I felt anxiety because I was not sure what the verdict was going to be
2,364 days after his arrest, Sam Woodward's fate is on the line: living and dying in prison. Or someday possibly walking free.
It took the jury eight hours.
Louis Keene: The verdict being read. There's no way to describe what it's like, sort of the emotional intensity of the moment.
COURT CLERK: We the jury … find the defendant Samuel Woodward guilty of the crime of first-degree murder.
JEANNE BERNSTEIN (reacts off camera) Thank God! (cries)
Guilty of murder. But was it "hate"? Did Woodward target Blaze because he was gay? The jury spoke again.
COURT CLERK: We the jury … find it to be true that the defendant Samuel Woodward committed hate crime first-degree murder.
Outside the Orange County courtroom all that pain and uncertainty overflowed.
The current D.A. offered thoughts on love and law.
D.A. TODD SPITZER (addressing reporters): We don't care who you love, or who you want to be with. … You deserve to be a free person with free will and love who you love. And that needs to be protected.
JEANNE PEPPER (adressing reporters): We are thrilled with the verdict, which holds Samuel Woodward accountable for the brutal, violent, painful murder of our son, brother, grandson, cousin, Blaze Bernstein on January 3rd, 2018.
Louis Keene: His parents will never get to speak to him again. … And that loss is incalculable. The Woodwards also lost their son. He's going to prison.
Raiah Rofsky: When the verdict was that the murder was a hate crime, that essentially meant that there is the proof that Blaze was murdered because he was gay and Jewish. Simple as that.
For Rofsky, who Blaze first came out to, on that California beach —
Raiah Rofsky: In my head I was telling Blaze "we finally got him." … Like, you know, case closed.
And says the prosecutor, Woodward should pay the maximum price.
JENNIFER WALKER (addressing reporters): He faces life without possibility of parole. And that's what we'll be asking for.
Experts who monitor Atomwaffen say it has largely dissolved. But that the threat of hate groups remains today.
Tracy Smith: You said, "love who you love" … it sounds so simple … but it's not.
Raiah Rofsky: Mm hmm … Just because you're accepting of yourself … that doesn't mean that everybody is going to see the same as you do, you know… (emotional).
Tracy Smith: Can you picture Blaze if he was alive today?
Raiah Rofsky: No. I don't think I can.
Tracy Smith: Can you still hear his voice?
Raiah Rofsky: No.
Tracy Smith: That's kind of sad.
Raiah Rofsky: Yeah.
For Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein, every day brings reminders, of what might have been.
Jeanne Pepper: I think of Blaze all the time, because when I see things, I think to myself "what would Blaze be doing now?"
They founded what they call "a kindness movement," promoting "positivity" and random acts of kindness, in Blaze's name.
Gideon Bernstein: "BlazeItForward" was a response to Blaze's death.
And In Borrego Park, where Blaze took his last breath, there are hundreds of hand-painted stones, most left by total strangers, in the memory of Blaze Bernstein.
Tracy Smith: This pile of stones has grown and grown and grown.
Jeanne Pepper: Yes. … It's great to see the messaging. It's always positive.
Gideon Bernstein: And they're getting sent to us from all around the world.
Tracy Smith: Still?
Gideon Bernstein: Still.
The silent stones speak of tolerance and Blaze Bernstein's transformation into a kind of martyr, his murder a marker of rabid hate. His spirit an inspiration to LGBTQ+ people wherever they live and with whomever they love.
Jeanne Pepper: Blaze's life mattered and he has a legacy … to create good news, to inspire people to be better, to be kinder. And to work on repairing the world, because it's not too late and we can make it better.
Sam Woodward is due to be sentenced on Oct. 22, 2024.
Produced by James Stolz and Mary Murphy. Shaheen Tokhi is the field producer. Lauren Turner Dunn is the associate producer. Cindy Cesare is the development producer. Atticus Brady, Wini Dini, Diana Modica, Doreen Schechter and Diana DeCilio are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive story editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer.
