This was a hate crime," Blaze Bernstein’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, told the court. “Samuel Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay.”

A 27-year-old man is set to be sentenced Friday in an Orange County court for the 2018 hate crime killing of his gay former classmate.Samuel Lincoln Woodward faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for fatally stabbing 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein.

Samuel Woodward, then 21, was driven by 'pure hate and rage' over his victim's sexual orientation and religious beliefs, the judge says.