Current:Home > FinanceYears after college student is stabbed to death, California man faces trial in hate case-LoTradeCoin
Years after college student is stabbed to death, California man faces trial in hate case
View Date:2024-12-24 07:16:29
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — More than six years after University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein was killed, the Southern California man charged with stabbing him to death in an act of hate is expected to stand trial.
Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday in the murder case against now-26-year-old Samuel Woodward from Newport Beach, California. He has pleaded not guilty.
Woodward is charged with stabbing to death Bernstein, a 19-year-old gay, Jewish college sophomore who was home visiting his family on winter break. The two young men had previously attended the same high school in Orange County.
Bernstein went missing after he went out with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, California, in January 2018. Bernstein’s parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom the next day when he missed a dentist appointment and wasn’t responding to texts or calls, prosecutors wrote in a trial brief.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found buried at the park in a shallow grave.
Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents’ home after connecting with him on Snapchat and stabbed him nearly 20 times in the face and neck, authorities said.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the killing and his cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, authorities said.
Woodward sought to become a member of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which espoused white supremacy, a year earlier, according to the prosecutors’ brief. He made journal entries, including one titled “diary of hate” that described threats he said he had made to gay people online, the brief said.
A folding knife with a bloodied blade was found in Woodward’s room at his parents’ home in the upscale community of Newport Beach, authorities said. Woodward was arrested two days later.
Woodward has pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
The case took years to go to trial after questions arose about Woodward’s mental state and following multiple changes of defense attorneys. Woodward was deemed competent to stand trial in late 2022.
One of Woodward’s previous lawyers said his client has Asperger’s syndrome, a developmental disorder that generally causes difficulty with social interactions, and struggled with his own sexuality.
Ken Morrison, Woodward’s attorney, urged the public to avoid jumping to conclusions about the case.
“For the past six years, the public has been reading and hearing a prosecution and muckraking narrative about this case that is simply fundamentally wrong,” Morrison wrote in an email. “I caution everyone to respect our judicial process and wait until a jury has been able to see, hear, and evaluate all of the evidence.”
The Orange County district attorney’s office declined to comment on the case ahead of trial.
veryGood! (94)
Related
- Nevada trial set for ‘Dances with Wolves’ actor in newly-revived sex abuse case
- Biden administration awarding nearly $1 billion for green school buses
- AP analysis finds 2023 set record for US heat deaths, killing in areas that used to handle the heat
- Ex-mayor in West Virginia admits theft of funds from a hospital where he was CEO
- Lions QB Jared Goff, despite 5 interceptions, dared to become cold-blooded
- Mets pitcher Jorge Lopez blasts media for igniting postgame controversy
- Kourtney Kardashian Reveals She and Travis Barker Keep Vials of Each Other’s Blood
- U.S.-made bomb used in Israeli strike on Rafah that killed dozens, munitions experts say
- J.Crew Outlet Quietly Drops Their Black Friday Deals - Save Up to 70% off Everything, Styles Start at $12
- Where Trump's 3 other criminal cases stand after his conviction in New York
Ranking
- A crowd of strangers brought 613 cakes and then set out to eat them
- Why Devastated Jennifer Lopez Is Canceling Her Tour
- 8 Northern California middle school students arrested for assault on 2 peers
- Is US Offshore Wind Dead in the Water—Or Just Poised for the Next Big Gust?
- NFL Week 11 picks straight up and against spread: Will Bills hand Chiefs first loss of season?
- NYC’s rat-hating mayor, Eric Adams, is once again ticketed for rats at his Brooklyn property
- Nurse fired for calling Gaza war genocide while accepting compassion award
- Boeing firefighters ratify a contract with big raises, which they say will end a three-week lockout
Recommendation
-
Shaboozey to headline halftime show of Lions-Bears game on Thanksgiving
-
General Mills faces renewed calls to remove plastic chemicals from food
-
Over 40 years after children found a dead baby near a road, Vermont police find infant's parents and close the case
-
Report: Dolphins to sign WR Jaylen Waddle to three-year, $84.75 million contract extension
-
NFL playoff picture Week 10: Lions stay out in front of loaded NFC field
-
U.S. planning to refer some migrants for resettlement in Greece and Italy under Biden initiative
-
Evers appoints replacement for University of Wisconsin regent who refuses to step down
-
Kris Jenner Details Final Conversation With Nicole Brown Simpson Before Her Murder