California man to be sentenced for hate crime in the killing of a gay college student
California man to be sentenced for hate crime in the killing of a gay college student
A California man convicted of stabbing to death a gay University of Pennsylvania student in an act of hate is expected to be sentenced to life in prison.
Samuel Woodward, who is now 27, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Southern California courtroom for the murder of Blaze Bernstein nearly seven years ago. There is no question about the sentence Woodward will receive because the jury’s verdict carries a life sentence without parole, said Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
Woodward was convicted this year of first-degree murder with an enhancement for a hate crime for killing Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore.
Bernstein, who was 19, disappeared in January 2018 after he went out at night with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest, about 45 miles (70 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 didn’t respond.
Now THAT GUY looks like a killer!
He better get life, but heck, maybe he will get pardoned. Seems about right for 2025
The California governor would have to be the one pardoning him
Until the majority republican government passes a law gifting him god king powers.
Good. He deserves to be.
Does this mean Woodward was probably closeted?
Can we please not blame every atrocious queerphobic act on queer people doing it to each other?
If these two were both heterosexual, no one would have asked if he was secretly Jewish because he killed a Jewish person.
I understand what you’re saying, but that does seem to be exactly what happened here.
connected via a dating app in the months before the killing. Woodward said he picked up Bernstein, went to a nearby park and repeatedly stabbed Bernstein after trying to grab a cellphone he feared had been used to photograph him.
Morrison, the defense lawyer, said Woodward was confused about his sexuality after growing up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father openly criticized homosexuality.
Does it matter?
I think it matters in the sense that these sorts of situations are created by toxic environments such as the one this killer was raised in, environments that are pervasive across much of the country.
It’s why they fight so hard to erase queer people from libraries and schools and the public in general, because the only way that environment can survive is if you can indoctrinate and shelter children for their developing years.