SANTA ANA, California — An American man charged with killing a gay University of Pennsylvania student six years ago in what police say was a hate crime spoke in court on Tuesday about how he and the victim met on social media and then went to a park. The person was last seen at that time.
In Orange County, 26-year-old Samuel Woodward took the stand in his hearing. His long hair covered part of his face. His lawyer told him over and over to move it out of the way so the jury could see him.
When asked about it, Woodward told the court that there were times in his life when he didn’t feel like he had any friends and that most of the time, the only way he talked to other people was online. He admitted that he matched with Blaze Bernstein, a classmate from high school, on a dating app. When they saw each other again six months later, he told Bernstein that it was hard to talk because he came from a “conservative, Catholic family.”
“I had been looking for people to spend time with or talk to for a long time,” Woodward said on the third day of his months-long trial.
Bernstein was a 19-year-old gay Jewish college student who went missing in 2018 while on winter break in Southern California to visit family. Woodward is charged with murder with an enhancement for a hate crime in connection with his death. His body was found a few days later in a nearby park, buried in a small grave.
During the trial, screenshots of their chats showed that the two men had talked to each other online in the months before the attack.
Prosecutors said Woodward joined Atomwaffen Division, a violent, anti-gay, and antisemitic group, and repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and then suddenly cutting off contact while writing about his actions in a hateful, swear-filled journal. The prosecutors also said that Woodward seemed ready to turn his words into dangerous actions, and they found hate group materials in his belongings.
Ken Morrison, Woodward’s lawyer, didn’t say that his client didn’t plan to kill anyone or hate Bernstein, but he did say that Woodward did carry out the fatal attack.
He said Woodward had problems in his personal relationships because he had an autism spectrum disease that had not been diagnosed for a long time. He also said Woodward was confused about his sexuality because he grew up in a politically conservative and devout Catholic family where his father spoke out against homosexuality.
During his evidence, Woodward admitted that he had read parts of the book “Siege,” which was pushed by the Atomwaffen Division, and that he knew people in the group and had met them.
There were questions about Woodward’s mental health and several changes in defense attorneys during the years it took for the case to go to trial. In late 2022, Woodward was found to be able to stand trial.
A lot of people, including family, friends, and police, have testified in the hearing. Woodward’s evidence has been moving slowly because he stops for long periods before answering his lawyer’s questions.
In January 2018, Bernstein didn’t show up after going to a park in Lake Forest at night with Woodward. Lake Forest is about 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles. Bernstein skipped his dentist appointment the next day, so his parents found his wallet, credit cards, and glasses in his room. They tried to call or text him, but he didn’t answer.
The police did a full search and said Bernstein’s family looked through his social media and saw that he had talked to Woodward on Snapchat. The police said Woodward told Bernstein’s family that he had left that night to meet a friend in the park and hadn’t come back.
His body was found hidden in the park a few days later. He had been stabbed in the neck and face several times.
The police said they checked Woodward’s family home in Newport Beach, which is close to the beach, and found a bloody folding knife in his room. Prosecutors said they also found a black Atomwaffen mask with blood on it and a lot of hateful materials for gay people, Jews, and other groups.
