A California man accused of killing a former high school classmate in an alleged homophobic and anti-Semitic hate crime appeared in court Tuesday as his trial began six years after his arrest.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward appeared in court for the first time since he allegedly stabbed 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein to death on January 3, 2018, wearing long hair, an ungainly beard and shackles. appeared in court.
Woodward, then 20, is accused of meeting Bernstein, who was home from college on winter break, and driving him to the woods at Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch, where he stabbed the University of Pennsylvania student nearly 20 times. It is.
Bernstein, who was gay and Jewish, was reported missing by his parents, and his body was discovered a week later in a shallow grave in a park.
The Ivy League student had been messaging Woodward on Snapchat before sneaking out of her parents’ house to meet him, Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said in court documents. According to ABC7.
Woodward, of Newport Beach, picked up Bernstein and drove to the Hobby Lobby craft store parking lot, where Bernstein tried to kiss Woodward in his car, the sheriff said. The investigator testified.
Investigators said Woodward pushed Bernstein and made a homophobic comment before Bernstein apologized profusely.
However, the two agreed to continue their relationship in a non-romantic manner and headed to Borrego Park.
Prosecutors allege Woodward turned toward the college student in the park and stabbed him nearly 20 times in the face and neck with a pocket knife engraved with his father’s name.
A knife with Bernstein’s blood on it was later found in the home he shared with Woodward’s parents.
DNA evidence reportedly links Mr. Woodward to the hateful killings, and an examination of his cell phone links him to the white supremacist hate group Atomwaffen Division. A troubling history of violent anti-gay and anti-Semitic material was detailed.
Investigators discovered emails the murder suspect had written in the form of an online diary and sent to himself detailing his alleged targeting of homosexuals. Los Angeles Times reported.
In a July 2017 email, he said he downloaded the LGBTQ dating app Grindr to intimidate and harass gay men, the newspaper reported.
“That’s terrible,” he wrote, according to testimony. “They think they’re going to get a hate crime, and that scares them… It’s priceless.”
Woodward’s previous lawyer claimed his client struggled with his sexuality and had Asperger’s syndrome.
Jury selection in the case was completely reconsidered after Woodward’s courtroom outburst last month. The trial is scheduled to continue until the end of June.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole and has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
