Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Blaze Bernstein Murder Suspect Allegedly Targeted Him Because He Was Gay

(JTA) — The man accused of killing Blaze Bernstein will face a hate crime charge for targeting the college student because of his sexual orientation.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office in California announced the new charge against Samuel Woodward, 20, on Thursday. Bernstein was Jewish and gay.

Bernstein’s body was found in January after the 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student had gone missing from his parents’ Southern California home. Four days later Woodward, a former classmate of Bernstein, was named as a murder suspect. Later that month, ProPublica reported that Woodward was a member of Atomwaffen Division, an extremist neo-Nazi group.

Woodward has pleaded not guilty to killing Bernstein.

According to a January affidavit, Woodward told investigators that Bernstein had kissed him the night he went missing as the two sat in a parked car. Woodward said he rebuffed the move and Bernstein then left the car.

The Anti-Defamation League praised the district attorney office’s decision in a statement that noted Woodward’s ties to the neo-Nazi group.

“This case is a stark reminder of how white supremacist organizations sweep up young recruits into their violent and hateful culture, with potentially deadly consequences,” said the ADL’s national director, Jonathan Greenblatt. “The hate crime enhancement sends a strong message that there are severe penalties for violent crimes motivated by hate.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.