The attorney for a man sentenced to life in prison without parole for the hate-crime killing of his gay former classmate Blaze Bernstein in Foothill Ranch six years ago contended in a sentencing memorandum unsealed Wednesday that the victim’s actions leading up to the killing corroborated his client’s claim that he was provoked.
Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 27, was convicted in July of first-degree murder and sentenced Friday for the Jan. 3, 2018, fatal stabbing of the 19-year-old Bernstein. In court Tuesday, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger — over the objections of prosecutors — agreed to unseal a sentencing memorandum that had been filed by Woodward’s attorney, Ken Morrison of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, ahead of last Friday’s hearing.
According to the unsealed documents, Morrison had intended during the trial and during Friday’s sentencing hearing that Bernstein’s actions in the time before the stabbing backed up Woodward’s testimony that he was provoked into killing the victim. He noted that such an argument during the trial could have given jurors more evidence to consider lesser charges of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, and to possibly reject the hate-crime allegation, which carried the life without parole punishment.
Morrison argued unsuccessfully for a 28 years to life sentence on Friday.
Menninger ruled Morrison could not use much of the character evidence regarding Bernstein during the trial. Morrison unsuccessfully asked Menninger to allow him to use the evidence during Friday’s sentencing hearing to justify the lesser punishment and give Woodward a chance at parole someday.
“The excluded evidence all tends to corroborate Sam’s trial testimony in various ways — even when considered piecemeal, but exponentially more so when considered in (total),” Morrison wrote in the sentencing brief. “It also tends to rebut certain prosecution narrative related to planning, professionalism, or criminal sophistication.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker contended during the trial that Woodward killed Bernstein to gain clout with the Atomwaffen neonazi group he was associated with. But she argued Woodward killed Bernstein because he was gay, not because he was Jewish.
The two were students at Orange County School of the Arts until Woodward left after his sophomore year in 2014.
The two did not reconnect until June 15, 2017, when Bernstein “superliked” Woodward on the Tinder dating app.
Woodward, who grew up in a conservative family that frowned on homosexuality, pleaded with Bernstein to not out him as seeking men on the dating app, and Bernstein agreed, but he was “actually sharing his exuberance over the scandalous discovery with several friends,” Morrison said.
Woodward’s reputation in high school was “socially awkward with few or no friends and politically ultra conservative,” Morrison said.
Woodward was diagnosed with autism when he was 18.
Bernstein’s friends encouraged him to try to date Woodward and when the defendant complimented Bernstein’s looks, Bernstein told his friends, “acquired,” Morrison said.
But Woodward removed his match with Bernstein and the two did not reconnect until right before the fatal encounter in the park. One day before the killing, Woodward poured out his heart to his brother’s friend about having no friends, prompting a pep talk to try to be more social with others, Morrison said.
Woodward testified that the next night — the night of the killing — he picked up Bernstein and the two went to a neighborhood park where Bernstein had played growing up. Woodward took a hit of very heady marijuana and was drifting off until he noticed Bernstein appearing to undo his pants with his camera phone in his hand, the defendant testified. That prompted Woodward, he said, to black out in a panic-driven rage to get the phone and stab Bernstein multiple times, mostly in the neck, with a switchblade.
All of that evidence was revealed during the trial, but according to his sentencing memorandum, Morrison also wanted to tell jurors that moments before the fatal encounter, Bernstein sent two text messages to one of his closest friends, stating, “I did something really horrible for the story. But no one can ever know,” according to the defense attorney.
“While perhaps a coincidence, it tends to corroborate Sam’s claim that Blaze did something horrible,” Morrison wrote in the memo. “This fact alone should create at least residual doubt as the existence of some type of provocation.”
Also unknown to jurors, Morrison contended in the document that Bernstein had a reputation for playing mean-spirited pranks and was struggling with mental health issues leading up to the killing.
The victim’s two closest friends said he was “loyal to people he cared about,” but could also be prone to a “mean pranky streak” directed at people he did not like or who angered him, Morrison alleged.
Morrison also contended that Bernstein would sneak out of his house late at night for romantic rendezvous, which would counter the prosecution’s argument that the victim was lured out of his house by Woodward planning to kill him.
Morrison argued in the document that Bernstein had met a 30-year-old man on a gay dating app while on summer break from college. The man, who worked in an emergency room, was concerned about Bernstein’s mental health, saying Bernstein was despondent about how college was going for him at the time, Morrison alleged.
“At the time of his death, Blaze had been actively seeking publication of an essay he wrote regarding his discomfort with and resistance to being openly gay,” Morrison said.
Bernstein was also despondent about his on-again, off-again relationship with a boyfriend at the time, Morrison said.
In the last year of his life, Bernstein “also received professional opinions that his mental health symptoms ranged from anxiety to bi-polar disorder,” Morrison argued in the court papers. “Blaze also expressed numerous concerns that his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder led him to engage in risky, reckless and impulsive behavior. “Blaze’s emotional state was so severe that he convinced his parents that he needed to take a leave of absence from college during the spring 2017 semester.”
Walker argued in court papers that “a majority of the statements offered as mitigation by defendant were rejected by the jury… The evidence was that the defendant had approximately (four terra bytes) of hate materials. This was a crime years in the making and executed very well. The hatred and violence of defendant continued after the crime, even while in custody awaiting trial for murder.”
Walker argued that Woodward “reached out to victim Blaze Bernstein under the guise of `hooking up.’ He picked up Blaze, they went to nearby Borrego Park and in the darkest area while wearing the Attomwaffen uniform skull mask, defendant murdered Blaze by stabbing him brutally 28 times because he was a homosexual. The defendant committed the murder and buried Blaze within an hour and a half, then he began texting Blaze to start his cover up.”
Woodward “misled” Bernstein’s family and police for a week before the body was recovered, Walker said.
“Further investigation of the defendant’s electronic devices revealed thousands of images and communications exposing defendant’s hate of homosexuals,” Walker said.
Morrison argued that Woodward appeared to be conflicted about his sexuality, but the defendant denied he was gay in his testimony.