The mother of a 19-year-old man fatally stabbed to death six years ago in Foothill Ranch testified Wednesday how she "screamed" when she realized that her son was in trouble.
KNX News' Margaret Carrero was in the courtroom for the start of her testimony:
Jeanne Pepper was the first witness in the trial of 26-year-old Samuel Lincoln Woodward of Newport Beach, who is charged with the Jan. 3, 2018, killing of Pepper's son, 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein.
Woodward is charged with murder with sentencing enhancements for a hate crime and the personal use of a deadly weapon. He faces up to life in prison without parole if he is convicted.
Pepper testified that her son wanted to make a turkey dinner for the family, including his grandparents, because he stayed back east during Thanksgiving when he was attending school at the University of Pennsylvania. He picked up all the fixings for the dinner when the two shopped at Costco earlier that day Jan. 1, 2018, she said.
Pepper said her son and his sister and brother had an app on their phones that she could use to find them, but when Bernstein returned home in December for the holidays she noticed his device had a cracked screen so she gave him her phone and she upgraded to a new one, she said.
When the two got momentarily separated at the grocery store she couldn't find him because he did not have the app on is phone anymore, she said. But she did track him down and they returned home and the family enjoyed a meal together.
"He cooked an amazing meal for the family," she said.
Pepper and her husband, Gideon Bernstein, then took their daughter to a friend's home for a sleepover and left the two sons at home, she said.
The couple returned home about 8:30 p.m. and went to bed about midnight, she said.
The next morning a cleaning service arrived and when she saw her son's door was still closed she told the workers to let her son sleep in and she went to yoga, she said.
Pepper said she wanted to have lunch with her son before they went to the dentist later that afternoon, but he wasn't picking up her calls and didn't respond to text messages. She said her son was looking forward to having a dental appliance taken off that day.
By the time she arrived for the 2 p.m. dental appointment in Huntington Beach she said she was "very anxious, very concerned." The dentist assured her that her son would show up, but he did not.
After the dentist appointment, Pepper said she finally got in touch with one of the cleaning service employees, who told her that when they went into Bernstein's room the bed was still made up.
"I screamed at the top of my lungs," Pepper testified.
She called her husband, who said he would meet her back at their house.
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
Pepper, who will resume testifying on Thursday, also told jurors about how her husband and she realized their gay son was not straight when he was in middle school. The couple saw a text exchange on their son's phone with another boy he met at summer camp that indicated a "romantic interest."
The parents "confronted" their son about it, but, she added, "we didn't make a big deal about it."
The revelation came as a shock to Pepper and she was emotional about it, she said.
"My dreams of the future changed," she said. "I always pictured Blaze walking down the aisle with a lady on his arm... having children... It was shocking to me... It took a bit of time to get used to the idea."
Woodward's attorney, Ken Morrison of the Orange County Public Defender's Office, finished his opening statement Wednesday after a morning of behind-closed-doors legal skirmishing.
Morrison fleshed out more details of an online exchange Woodward and Bernstein had in June 2017 and then again in the day leading up to the killing. The two encountered each other on the Tinder dating app as Bernstein "liked" Woodward.
Bernstein initiated the conversation, asking the defendant, "Sam Woodward, is that you?"
The two attended the Orange County School of the Arts together. Woodward was at the school through sophomore year before transferring to Corona Del Mar High School and Bernstein, who was in the creative writing program, graduated from the performing arts school.
Woodward, who was brought up in a conservative Roman Catholic family, had a reputation for being socially awkward and conservative values, including an objection to homosexuality.
While Bernstein and Woodward chatted through the messaging system, Bernstein sent Woodward's profile photo to his friends from the high school. His best friend did not remember Woodward, but another former classmate did, Morrison said.
"OMG, we all knew it," Bernstein said to his friend, indicating the match on the dating app confirmed their suspicions that Woodward was not straight. They also laughed at Woodward telling Bernstein that he had gotten "jungle fever" and dated Black women he met through the site.
Then the conversation turned toward Bernstein telling his friend that he would seduce Woodward, Morrison said.
"I need to be (expletive) by Sam Woodward," Bernstein said. "It would be legendary."
When his friend suggested it ought to be the other way around, he responded, "I'm a terrible top, but I will try," according to the text exchange showed to jurors.
Bernstein also laughed about his promise not to tell anyone, and added, "I had to stroke his ego to get him to think he's hot," according to the exchange.
When Woodward told Bernstein, "The thing is, you're not too shabby looking yourself, Blaze," Bernstein told his friend, "acquired," which Morrison added, "indicated his success."
When the two reconnected in January, Woodward initiated the conversation and apologized to Bernstein for "unmatching" with him on the app.
Bernstein waited hours to respond and assured him it was fine. Woodward indicated he had trouble with drugs, but Morrison said there doesn't seem to be any evidence the defendant had any drug habit problems other than smoking marijuana with a friend.
Bernstein warmed up and told him "I'm sorry you had to deal with that. At least the worst of it is over."
Woodward said he would "get out of your hair," but asked Bernstein why he "liked" him on the dating app. Bernstein said he couldn't remember but thought Woodward was "hot" and "forgot" they knew each other.
Woodward said he was straight but "would make an exception for you," and soon after the two began talking on Snapchat, Morrison said.
Just before the two met, another classmate from their high school that Bernstein messaged about Woodward's dating profile "liked" Woodward on Tinder "to see what happens," Morrison said. Woodward messaged back the classmate, who did not respond.
In the hours before Bernstein met with Woodward his online searches showed him researching autism, Morrison said.
Before Bernstein was killed he sent "two quick text messages to his best friend," Morrison said.
The message was, "I did something really horrible for the story, but, also, no one can ever know," Morrison said.
Woodward is expected to testify that Bernstein directed him to drive to Borrego Park, where the victim was found in a shallow grave on Jan. 9, 2018, following a massive search for Bernstein, Morrison said.
Morrison also said there will be evidence in the trial that will shed more light on a so-called "hate diary" Woodward kept about what Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said involved Woodward's reveling in "catfishing" gay men and then threatening or ghosting them later online.
"I anticipate... you're going to hear another explanation of why Sam did that," Morrison said. "Very different from what the prosecution suggested it meant."
Walker told jurors on Tuesday that Woodward dropped out of Cal State Channel Islands to go to Texas to get involved with a neo-Nazi group. Prosecutors are alleging Woodward killed Bernstein because he was gay, not because of his religion, but they are using the defendant's neo-Nazi activities as part of the evidence on the trial.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
