Closing arguments in the murder trial of Blaze Bernstein began Friday in a Santa Ana courtroom, two and a half months after the process started.
Sam Woodward is accused of stabbing Bernstein just over six years ago, as an act of hate because Bernstein was a 19-year-old gay Jewish man. The Newport Beach man admitted to stabbing Bernstein multiple times in 2018 but pleaded not guilty to murder, with an enhanced penalty for a hate crime.
Orange County District Attorney Jennifer Walker insisted to jurors Friday that Woodward stabbed his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein because he was gay and buried his body in Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch.
“To dig a grave in that area, bury it, clean it up and murder someone in an hour and a half … that doesn’t take someone to just say, ‘Oh, something happened and I need to figure it out.’ That takes determination,” Walker said.
Bernstein was a sophomore in college and was visiting his family for winter break. The two young men had previously attended the same high school in Orange County.
Bernstein was missing after going to a park in Lake Forest, California, with Woodward in January 2018. Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents’ house after contacting him through social media.
Bernstein’s parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom the next day when he missed a dentist appointment and did not respond to text messages or calls, prosecutors wrote in a trial report.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park.
Sam Woodward’s attorney told jurors on opening day that the question is not who is responsible, but why. That is the most important question, said Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison, who denies that the killing was motivated by hate.
Wooward was on the witness stand for several days and confessed to the jury that he stabbed Blaze Bernstein multiple times after he claimed the man sexually abused him.
Woodward described being in a “state of fear” because he feared Bernstein had texted him photos of the encounter.
Assistant District Attorney Walker argued that Woodward was lying and that the story he told on the stand was not the story he originally told investigators.
DNA evidence linked Woodward to the murder, and his cell phone contained Vast amounts of homophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-group materialthe authorities said.
The defense will begin its closing arguments Monday afternoon. The jury is expected to begin deliberations sometime next week.
