Man is convicted of hate crime in the killing of Penn student Blaze Bernstein

A man from California convicted of stabbing a gay student to death at the University of Pennsylvania for an act of hate, he is expected to be sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

Samuel Woodward, now 27, is expected to be sentenced in a Southern California courtroom for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. There is no doubt about the sentence Woodward will receive because the jury’s verdict calls for life in prison without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

Lawyer Ken Morrison previously said he would appeal the verdict.

Woodward was convicted this year of first-degree murder, with a hate crime enhancement for the killing of Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.

Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after going out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the next day, his parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom and tried to reach him, but he was unresponsive.

Authorities launched an extensive search and said Bernstein’s family searched his social media and saw that he had communicated with Woodward on Snapchat. Authorities said Woodward told the family that Bernstein had gone to meet a friend in the park that evening and did not return.

Days later, Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park. He was stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck.

The question during Woodward’s months-long trial was not whether he killed Bernstein, but why and under what circumstances it happened. Prosecutors said Woodward had ties to the violent anti-gay neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division, while Morrison said his client had no intention of killing anyone or hating Bernstein and faced challenging personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder.

The case took years to go to trial amid a series of delays and sparked public outrage in Southern California, where residents stepped up in 2018 to help authorities find Bernstein after he suddenly went missing.

Woodward testified at his trial, giving slow, delayed answers to attorneys’ questions, his long hair partially covering his face.

Bernstein and Woodward attended the same high school, Orange County School of the Arts, and were connected through a dating app in the months before the murder. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park and stabbed Bernstein repeatedly after trying to grab a cellphone that he feared had been used to photograph him.

Morrison, the defense attorney, said Woodward was confused about his sexuality after growing up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father openly criticized homosexuality.

But prosecutors told a different story. They said Woodward repeatedly attacked gay men online by contacting them and abruptly cutting off contact while keeping a hateful, profane diary of his actions.

Authorities said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood, a pocket knife with a bloody blade and numerous anti-gay, anti-Semitic and hate group materials during a search of his family’s home in Newport Beach, California.