A courtroom disruption by Samuel Woodward, accused of stabbing former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein to death more than six years ago and burying the body near a Lake Forest park, has delayed the ongoing jury selection and the start of his upcoming high-profile murder trial.
In the midst of jury selection on Thursday, Feb. 29, a “disruption in the proceedings was caused” by Woodward, according to court minutes, prompting Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger to dismiss prospective jurors who were in the courtroom.
Attorneys and court officials declined to further describe the disruption beyond the general information contained in court records.
Following the disruption, Woodward’s defense attorney did not immediately raise concerns about his client’s mental competency, according to court records. Concerns about Woodward’s mental state were raised in 2022, but Judge Menninger ruled that Woodward was competent to stand trial based on evaluations by mental-health experts.
Jury selection in the trial has been ongoing for the past two weeks. Large groups of jurors were given questionnaires asking about their backgrounds and the hot-button issues expected to come up during the trial. The jurors then return to the Santa Ana courtroom for direct questioning by attorneys and the judge.
The trial’s estimated length — several months — along with the international media attention surrounding the killing and expected testimony involving homophobia and racist material has complicated the jury-selection process.
On Tuesday, attorneys are expected to discuss whether to dismiss prospective jurors who are part of the larger jury pool for the trial but were not actually in the courtroom for the disruption. Starting jury selection from scratch would require a new pool of several hundred prospective jurors and further delay the trial’s start.
Woodward is accused of stabbing the 19-year-old Bernstein to death when the two former Orange County School of the Arts classmates met up over a winter break in January 2018. A six-day search for the missing Bernstein drew massive media attention. It ended when his body — with at least 19 stab wounds — was found buried at the edge of Borrego Park in the Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest.
Woodward has been accused of having ties with a neo-Nazi group and carrying out the slaying at least partially because Bernstein was gay.
According to previous courtroom testimony, Woodward told investigators that Bernstein tried to kiss him while they both sat in a car at the park, leading him to push Bernstein away. Woodward told the investigators that Woodward tried to apologize but then walked off into the park and didn’t return.
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But, according to the previous testimony, a knife found in a drawer in Woodward’s bedroom had blood on the tip and handle that investigators matched through DNA to Bernstein. Investigators also described finding blood stains in Woodward’s vehicle that they matched to both Woodward and Bernstein.
Woodward lived in Newport Beach. Bernstein was a pre-med student in his sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania; he was on a break and staying with his family in Lake Forest.
A defense attorney who once represented Woodward told reporters that Woodward has Asperger syndrome — a developmental disorder that generally results in someone having difficulty with social interactions — as well as issues with his own sexual identity.
Along with a murder charge, Woodward faces enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and a hate crime.