SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Newport Beach man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the hate-motivated murder of his gay former high school classmate in a Lake Forest park after reconnecting with his 19-year-old girlfriend. According to former pre-med college student on a dating app for men seeking men OKDA.

After a nearly three-month trial, the jury convicted Samuel Lincoln WoodwardThe 26-year-old Newport Beach man was charged July 3, 2024, with first-degree murder, as well as a hate crime enhancement and personal use of a knife to stab a 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student. Blaze Bernstein Bernstein died on January 2, 2018, while visiting family at home after winter break.

On Jan. 2, 2018, Bernstein had dinner with her family and then, after responding to Woodward’s messages on a dating app, arranged for Woodward to pick her up a few doors down from her parents’ house just after 11 p.m. and left her home. glasses, keys and wallet in the back.

Less than two hours later, Bernstein’s body would be buried in a shallow grave in a Lake Forest park after being stabbed 28 times by his ex-wife. Orange County School of the Arts The classmate who made him believe they were in the park for a romantic encounter.

At 2:38 a.m., after killing Bernstein, burying his body and cleaning up, Woodward sent a text to a friend saying, “Hey man, life is good.”

Bernstein’s family reported him missing the next day after he missed a dentist appointment. His body was found buried in Borrego Park a week later after heavy rains washed away some of the dirt covering his makeshift grave.

While Bernstein was missing, his parents examined his online activity and found that the person Bernstein had last contacted was Samuel Woodward, his former classmate at the Orange County School of the Arts. Woodward told the Bernsteins that he met up with their son but went to the park with someone he didn’t know and never saw Blaze again.

Bernstein’s blood was found on a knife belonging to Sam Woodward with his father’s name engraved on it, and droplets of blood were found on the skull mask that prosecutors allege Woodward wore to represent his allegiance to Atomwaffen, a neo-Nazi and homophobic group with which he was traveling. After studying his teachings, he went to Texas to study. After his arrest for Bernstein’s murder, Woodward continued to draw images about Atomwaffen and his beliefs. Investigators also discovered what prosecutors called a “hate diary” detailing Woodward’s online activities aimed at convincing gay men and boys that he was “bi-curious” and then unfriending them. The diary contained many insults towards gay men.

“Samuel Woodward drove right into the heart of our entire community with every hateful stab of his knife,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “Hating someone simply for who they are is a hate like no other. It targets our identity and self-worth in an attempt to devalue us. But each of us has value and meaning, and each of us is worthy of our collective picture of who we are and who we want to be as a community.” The admission of hate by one of us condemns us all because silence is what allows hate to thrive. Those who commit acts of hate against others will be punished, and those who are victims of hate will be protected in this case. “I want to thank Deputy Jennifer Walker.”

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Our editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the OC Register and OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for more than 30 years and has served on various city and county commissions. When he’s not writing or editing, Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part-time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.