The man accused of a hate-crime fatal stabbing of a former gay classmate in Foothill Ranch told jurors in his final day of testimony that he felt remorse for the killing.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 26, is charged with the Jan. 3, 2018, killing of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein.
Woodard, who began testifying near the end of the day June 13, completed his fifth day on the stand Monday.
“Do you have remorse for what you did to Blaze Bernstein, his family and friends?” Woodward’s attorney, Ken Morrison of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, asked the defendant.
After a prolonged pause, Woodward, his voice cracking, replied, “Yes, I do.”
Morrison asked Woodward what he was thinking when he started a journal with, “Dear family, I am sorry for what…”
“Only that I love my mom, my brother, my father with all my heart, mind and body,” he said.
Woodward spent most of the day facing the cross-examination of Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker.
She questioned him about whether he reported assaults on him in his six years in jail awaiting trial.
Referring to his earlier testimony about being “gassed” by another inmate who hurled diarrhea at Woodward, Walker asked him if it happened after the defendant was “on the toilet chanting Satanic” things.
“One of your cell mates said, it’s got stop?” she pressed.
“No, not at all,” Woodward said.
“You said, `I can do whatever I want,” Walker asked him.
“No, not at all,” Woodward said.
Walker also questioned Woodward about “using homophobic” slurs in junior high school.
Woodward said it was “only sometimes” with a “group of friends.”
Woodward also downplayed claims from classmates at Orange County School of the Arts of his antisocial attitude, wearing a hoodie and headphones.
“No, I wouldn’t say I was antisocial,” Woodward said.
He said he would pull on headphones on an “extremely cloudy, rainy” day. “That’s the only time I can remember,” he added.
Walker also pressed Woodward on how he met Tristan “Kruuz” Evans online through a neo-Nazi group. As he has in the past, Woodward sounded confused about who she was referring to.
“Can you specify who that is?” Woodward asked.
“Do you know who I’m talking about?” Walker asked.
“No, I do not,” he said.
Eventually, Woodward recalled who he was and that they met online.
Woodward also disputed Walker’s characterization of his father as anti-homosexual.
“I wouldn’t call him anti,” Woodward said. “How would you define pro-homosexual?”
Walker responded by asking him the question again.
“Again, I’m saying I don’t understand,” Woodward said.
Woodward also denied using his father’s revolver to make “propaganda” for the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division.
Walker showed him a photo of himself at a gathering of the group.
“That’s you with the Atomwaffen mask on doing the Heil Hitler salute,” Walker asked him.
“That’s a skull mask and the salute is a different story,” Woodward said.
The defendant said the pictures of the group’s members holding the gun next to a flag were part of an exercise in showing what they would do to fight off an “invading” foreign army.
He also characterized it as “a joke.”
Walker also asked him about downloading thousands of images online from the neo-Nazi groups, but Woodward, who has been diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder, said he would at times download bulky packages online.
Woodward also said he could not recall going to Los Angeles in the summer of 2017 to rip down posters in support of the LGBQT community.
Woodward also testified he couldn’t recall his parents sitting him down and saying they were worried about him getting into trouble with the law through his associations with the neo-Nazi groups. Woodward is charged with killing Bernstein because he was gay, not because he was Jewish, but jurors will be able to weigh evidence of the defendant’s associations with the neo-Nazis.
“Through Attomwaffen you wanted to win prestige?” Walker asked him.
“I can remember saying something about wanting to gain… acceptance,” Woodward said of his talks with psychological expert Martha Rogers.
“But, beyond that, I can’t remember,” he added.
Woodward grew testy as Walker had him recount the killing. Woodward complained that he had already gone through it in testimony last week.
Woodward recounted how after taking puffs of a potent marijuana cigarette he snapped out of a haze when he felt a sensation on his leg that he initially thought signaled he had urinated on himself as he had done previously. But he soon realized Bernstein had unbuckled his pants and placed his hand on his genitals, Woodward testified.
“I lost control of my voice,” Woodward said. “I asked him what was gong on… I lost control of everything… I started losing my mind.”
Walker asked him if tried to “punch” Bernstein, and he said, no.
Woodward said he was distressed that Bernstein was holding up his phone and appearing to take pictures or video of the encounter.
“And the phone is right there and you didn’t just grab it,” Walker asked.
“I said in my testimony (last week),” Woodward said. “(Morrison) asked me what happened. That’s exactly what I did when I reached for the phone… That’s what I already said.”
Bernstein, Woodward claimed, “started saying over and over again, `I got you already.’ Something about closeted gay.”
Woodward insisted he killed Bernstein with a knife he had used to open up a package of pot that he left nearby while the two were at a park near Bernstein’s home after midnight. It was a knife he said he bought a swap meet, not a knife with his father’s name on it that was found in his drawer in his room.
Woodward said he “got rid of it,” referring to the weapon, but he couldn’t recall the details of throwing it away.
When Walker pushed for details about the stabs, Woodward said “everything was a blur” and could not remember the order of the attacks on his hands and neck.
“What was Blaze saying when were stabbing him multiple times?” Walker asked.
“I can’t remember him saying anything,” Woodward said.
“He was not screaming for his life?” Walker asked.
“No, I can’t remember what he was saying,” Woodward said.
Walker also grilled Woodward on his attempts to “cover up” the crime that included text messages to Bernstein’s phone making it out like he was looking for the victim.
Rogers, who began testifying near the end of Monday’s court session, will return to the witness stand Tuesday.