Trial scheduled for November for Lake Forest murder of Blaze Bernstein

The trial for a Newport Beach man who stands accused of murdering his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein is tentatively set for November following a trial setting conference held Friday.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger set the date for the jury trial of Samuel Lincoln Woodward, now 23, to begin for November after Woodward’s attorney requested a delay of the proceedings to January due to other trial conflicts.

The trial was initially scheduled to begin in late June, but was delayed as deputy public defender Alison Worthington was assigned to another case verging on a jury trial, according to recent court filings by prosecutors that opposed the delay.

“We were very clear before that we wanted this case to go to trial and that it was going to be four years [since the murder] in January and that’s an unreasonable delay,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in an interview Friday.

Spitzer said he often receives questions from the public on why it is that Derek Chauvin — who was convicted in April for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis — could go to trial in less than a year when it took local prosecutors almost four years to get the Woodward trial underway.

“So, we have a date in November and we’re hoping Woodward’s attorney will be available in November, but it’s unacceptable for a trial to take four years to go to trial,” said Spitzer, who acknowledged that there wasn’t much prosecutors could do if the attorney wasn’t available then. “It’s unacceptable,” he reiterated.

The jury trial is now expected to begin on Nov. 12.

Woodward is charged with Bernstein’s murder in 2018 and faces additional sentencing enhancements for personal use of a deadly weapon and a hate crime.

Woodward was arrested that same year and has remained in custody since after bail was revoked. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Bernstein was on winter break from the University of Pennsylvania and was visiting his family in Lake Forest when he disappeared. His body was later discovered in a shallow grave near Borrego Park.

Authorities allege Woodward killed Bernstein because he was gay.

Prosecutors have pointed to DNA evidence that links Woodward to the killing in addition to a blood-spotted knife found in his bedroom, several homophobic messages and images on his cellphone and material related to a neo-Nazi organization.

The two were classmates at the Orange County School of the Arts.

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