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Samuel Woodward describes how he stabbed former classmate Blaze Bernstein to death

Sean Emery, The Orange County Register on

Published in News & Features

“I can’t remember if he said something like ‘Calm down’ or ‘It’s not a big deal,’ ” Woodward added. “He kept telling me something that sounded like ‘It is already done” and “I got you, I got you.’”

Woodward described himself as “babbling incoherently.” He claimed Bernstein said something to him like “I got you, you (expletive) hypocrite” while also possibly using the word “outed.”

Woodward appeared reluctant to discuss exactly where Bernstein had touched him. He described it as his “inner thigh,” before adding, following repeated clarification questions from the defense attorney, that Bernstein was also touching his penis. Asked if Bernstein had rubbed or stroked him, Woodward replied that he couldn’t remember.

According to Woodward’s testimony, he was in “mortal terror” after seeing Bernstein tapping on his cell phone. He said he was worried that Bernstein had sent an explicit photo of him to someone else.

“What were you afraid of?” The defense attorney asked.

“My father — there is no way people like him, people in our community, people in our neighborhood — just the look on his face if he heard about something like that, if it got out somehow,” Woodward said. “I couldn’t fathom something like that.”

 

Woodward said he began yelling at Bernstein at the top of his lungs. He described reaching for Bernstein’s phone in a rage, while also grabbing a knife he had used to open a container of marijuana.

Woodward said he couldn’t recall how many times he stabbed Bernstein or what, if anything, Bernstein was saying at that point.

“I only remember trying to get the phone and during that time and the ensuing tumble I just remember I felt nothing other than being clawed and bitten,” Woodward said.

In his testimony, Woodward said he recalled little about the aftermath of the killing, though he acknowledged burying Bernstein among vegetation at the edge of the park, where Bernstein was found six days later.

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