Newport Beach man gets life in prison for fatally stabbing a gay former O.C. School of the Arts classmate

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

After a nearly three-month trial, a jury convicted Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 26, of Newport Beach on July 3, 2024, of first-degree murder along with a hate crime enhancement and personal use of a knife for stabbing 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein to death on January 2, 2018, while Bernstein was home from winter break visiting his parents.

On January 2, 2018, Bernstein made dinner with his family and then, after responding to messages from Woodward on a dating app, he arranged for Woodward to pick him up a few doors down from his parents’ home just after 11 p.m., leaving his glasses, keys, and wallet behind.

Less than two hours later, Bernstein’s body would be buried in a shallow grave in a Lake Forest park after having been stabbed 28 times by his former Orange County School of the Arts classmate who had led him to believe they were in the park for a romantic encounter.

At 2:38 a.m., after having killed Bernstein, buried his body, and cleaned up, Woodward sent a text to a friend, “hey man, life is good.”

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

While Bernstein was missing, his parents went through his online activity and found that the last person he had communicated with was Samuel Woodward, Bernstein’s former classmate at the Orange County School of the Arts. Woodward told the Bernsteins that he had met up with their son but that he had walked off into the park with an unknown person and he never saw Blaze again.

Bernstein’s blood was found on a knife belonging to Sam Woodward that had his father’s name engraved on it and blood droplets were found on a skull mask that prosecutors argued Woodward wore to represent his allegiance to Atomwaffen, a Neo-Nazi and homophobic group that he traveled to Texas to train with after studying their teachings. Woodward continued to draw pictures related to Atomwaffen and their beliefs following his arrest for Bernstein’s murder. Investigators also discovered what prosecutors called a “hate diary,” which detailed Woodward’s online activities to lure gay men and boys into believing he was “bi curious,” and then unfriending them. The diary contained numerous slurs referring to gay men.

“With every hateful stab of his knife, Samuel Woodward stabbed at the very heart of our entire community,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “To hate someone simply for who they are is a hate like no other. It targets our identity and our self-worth in an attempt to render us worthless. But every one of us has worth and meaning – and every one of us brings value to our collective table of who we all are and who we want to be as a community. The acceptance of hate by one of us is a condemnation of all of us because silence is what allows hate to flourish. Here in Orange County, there is no tolerance for hate. And those who commit acts of hate against others will be punished and those who are victimized by hate will be protected. I want to thank Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker for her never-ending pursuit of justice in this case”