Jury selection is starting over in the high-profile murder trial of Samuel Woodward — accused of stabbing former high-school classmate Blaze Bernstein to death and burying his body near a Lake Forest park — after Woodward’s courtroom outburst last week led to the dismissal of the previous jury pool.
Woodward will not be shackled in court despite the disturbance in front of the previous prospective jurors, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger ruled on Tuesday. But dismissing all the previous prospective jurors and starting with a fresh jury pool is expected to delay the closely watched trial by at least two weeks, if not longer.
The judge during a hearing on Tuesday did not go into detail about the disruption Woodward caused, and those who were in the court at the time — including the previous potential jurors — were asked by the judge not to discuss it with anyone else, according to court records. It occurred about two weeks into the first round of jury selection, which started with a pool of about 400 prospective jurors.
Woodward, who entered the courtroom with his long hair covering his face, appeared calm during Tuesday’s court proceedings. His defense attorney told the judge that Woodward hasn’t been feeling well.
“You had an outburst that was unexpected to say the least,” Judge Menninger said to Woodward.
The judge noted that it was the first time Woodward had been disruptive during more than five years of hearings. On the advice of her courtroom deputies, the judge said she didn’t think it was necessary to start shackling Woodward during court hearings.
But the judge warned Woodward that if any additional disruptions occurred, additional security measures could become necessary.
“We can’t have outbursts, does that make sense to you?” the judge asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Woodward responded.
The new round of jury selection will begin with 100 prospective jurors to be brought in on Wednesday morning followed by another 100 in the afternoon. The jurors will be given a questionnaire to fill out asking about their backgrounds and hot-button issues expected to come up during the trial. The prospective jurors will then be required to return to the Santa Ana courtroom days later for questioning by the attorneys and the judge.
Jury selection has been complicated by the estimated length of the trial — several months — along with the intense media attention surrounding the killing and the expectation that testimony and evidence will include homophobic and racist material.
At the time of the slaying, Woodward lived with his family in Newport Beach. Bernstein was a pre-med student in his sophomore year at the University of Pennsylvania, whose family lived in Lake Forest.
Woodward is accused of stabbing Bernstein, then 19, to death when the two former Orange County School of the Arts classmates met up over winter break in January 2018.
A six-day search for the missing Bernstein drew massive media attention. It ended with the discovery of his body, buried at the edge of Borrego Park in the Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest. Bernstein had been stabbed at least 19 times.
Woodward, who is alleged to have ties to a neo-Nazi group, is accused of carrying out the slaying at least partially because Bernstein was gay.
Investigators during previous testimony said Woodward told them that Bernstein tried to kiss him while they were both sitting in a car at the park, leading Woodward to push Bernstein away. Woodward told the investigators that Bernstein tried to apologize but then walked off into the park and didn’t return, according to law enforcement testimony.
A knife was found in a drawer in Woodward’s bedroom that had blood on the tip and the handle that investigators matched through DNA to Bernstein, according to previous testimony. The investigators also testified to finding blood stains in Woodward’s vehicle that matched both Woodward and Bernstein.
Woodward has Asperger syndrome — a developmental disorder that generally leads to difficulties with social interactions — as well as issues with his own sexual identity, according to a defense attorney who once represented Woodward but who is no longer tied to the case.
Along with the murder charge, Woodward faces enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and a hate crime.