Jury to determine Samuel Woodward's fate -- was killing Blaze Bernstein murder or manslaughter?

Bernstein was enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a pre-med student.

Woodward, in testimony, described reaching out online to Bernstein to hang out while Bernstein was home visiting his family for winter break. They went to Borrego Park, where Woodward said he smoked marijuana, nodded off and woke up on a park bench to find Bernstein grabbing his genitals and appearing to take an explicit photo of him with his phone.

Woodward testified that he tried to grab the phone from Bernstein, then stabbed him to death and buried him.

Walker, the prosecutor, argued that Woodward had actually persuaded Bernstein to go into a foliage area at the park by thinking they were going to “hook up,” and then violently attacked him, stabbing Bernstein nearly 30 times.

“(Blaze) was brutally murdered and buried within an hour and a half,” Walker said. “To dig a grave in that terrain and to clean up and murder someone in an hour and a half, that is not someone who is like, ‘Oh, something just happened and I need to clean it up.’“

As evidence of Woodward’s state of mind, the prosecutor pointed to a “hate diary” consisting of emails Woodward sent to himself in which he seemingly described matching up with “sodomites” online, getting them “hooked” and then ghosting them, pranking them or making them think they would be the target of a hate crime. Walker told jurors that Bernstein was a victim of Woodward’s alleged targeting of gay men.

“When (Woodward) knew what he wanted to do, he said, ‘Who do I have a better chance of meeting me, a stranger or someone I knew from high school?’” the prosecutor said. “Their guard is completely down. … Unfortunately for Blaze, curiosity killed him.”

Morrison, Woodward’s attorney, argued that Woodward’s diary was filled with false information meant to provide deniability if members of Atomwaffen learned of Woodward’s online contacts with gay men. There is no evidence of Woodward actually pranking or threatening anyone, the defense attorney argued, despite the explicitly anti-gay language Woodward used in his diary.

“If this ‘Diary of Hate’ is so critical for the government to prove his intent, his motive, his state of mind, where is the evidence?” the defense attorney said. “I grant you there is plenty of suspicion. I don’t blame any member of law enforcement in connection to this case, nor anyone in the District Attorney’s Office, for immediately being highly suspicious of this stuff. None of it looks good. But, internally, it is just false.”

Despite his client’s denials on the stand, the defense attorney argued there was evidence that Woodward struggled with his sexuality. Woodward sent what appeared to be explicit photographs of himself to a classmate and another man, the defense attorney noted, and in comments to his father and in notes on his phone had mentioned having sexual contact with other boys during his high school years.

According to his own messages, shown in court, Bernstein appeared surprised when he ran across Woodward’s Tinder profile seemingly seeking other men in June 2017, noting that the classmate he knew for his conservative views was “literally the last person I expected to see on here.” Woodward, during the online chat, pleaded with Bernstein not to tell anyone else. But, the defense noted, Bernstein had already sent Woodward’s profile to several friends.

“Did the meeting at the park start out innocently?” Morrison asked of the night of Bernstein’s death. “Did Blaze have his own agenda that night? Was he planning to betray Sam’s trust once again and have a little fun at his expense?”

Jurors will continue deliberations on Wednesday, July 3. The courthouse is closed Thursday for the July 4th holiday.

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