Samuel Woodward, who admitted to killing former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein and burying his body at the edge of a Lake Forest park in what a jury agreed was a hate-crime murder, was sentenced on Friday,

Samuel Lincoln Woodward was found guilty in July for the death of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein, whose body was found days after he went missing, stabbed over 28 times and buried in a shallow grave at a Lake Forest Park.

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