A California judge sentenced Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 26, of Newport Beach to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury in July found him guilty of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement in the death of Blaze Bernstein, who was 19 at the time of his death and home from college on winter break in 2018.

Samuel Woodward, 27, was convicted earlier this year of murder as a hate crime for the killing of Blaze Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college sophomore. He was sentenced on Friday at the Orange County Superior Court but did not appear due to illness.

Blaze Bernstein -- a 19-year-old gay, Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania -- was found buried in a park stabbed to death.