A gay, Jewish California teen gushed to his friends that it would be “legendary” to have sex with his neo-Nazi former classmate, who is now on trial for his murder more than six years ago.
Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old sophomore at University of Pennsylvania, first reconnected with Samuel Woodward, then age 20, on Tinder in 2017 — six months before their fateful in-person encounter that ended with Bernstein being stabbed nearly 30 times and buried in a shallow grave near his parents’ home.
Woodward’s defense attorney Ken Morrison did not deny that his client had killed Bernstein, but he argued in a Santa Ana courtroom Wednesday that Woodward did not hate the victim, particularly not because of his sexual orientation, and had not planned the deadly knife attack in advance.
“We agree the evidence will show that Samuel Woodward is guilty of homicide,” Morrison told jurors, adding that “what happened that night, plain and simple, was not a hate crime.”
The second day of the long-waited murder trial revolved around texts Bernstein sent to his friends, crowing about the prospect of seducing the ultra-conservative, Catholic-raised Woodward — even as he promised his ex-classmate to keep their Tinder flirtation a secret.
“I need to get [expletive] by Sam Woodward, it would be legendary,” Bernstein wrote to one pal.
In their initial conversation on Tinder, Bernstein told Woodward that he was “literally the last person I expected to see on here.”
Woodward at first told Bernstein that he was on the app looking for black women to date and men to go deer hunting with, and that he only connected with his former classmate to catch up, reported Forward.
But after Bernstein called Woodward cute, he replied to the 19-year-old: “you’re not too shabby looking yourself.”
But after Bernstein refused to invite him over to his house, Woodward told him he had been “dishonest” with him, claiming he was just curious because he “had never been hit on by a gay guy before.”
Throughout that initial chat, Bernstein promised Woodward to keep it private — even as he was messaging friends about flirting with the “super conservative” Woodward, according to the defense.
What Bernstein did not know, according to prosecutor Jennifer Walker, was that Woodward had joined a violent, anti-gay, antisemtitc group known as Atomwaffen Division, and repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and then “ghosting” them for laughs.
Six months later, Woodward matched with Bernstein on Tinder again, telling him that he owed him an explanation, and saying: “I was going through a weird time in my life and I think I figured things out now.”
Bernstein said he did not care and noted that Woodward was straight, to which he replied: “I might make an exception for you.”
The pre-med Ivy League student seemed skeptical, telling Woodward that “we have already done this prank, remember.”
But during a subsequent conversation on Snapchat, Bernstein apparently gave Woodward his parents’ home address and agreed to meet with him.
Woodward picked Bernstein up in his car and the two headed to Borrego Park in Lake Forest outside Los Angeles.
Around 11:30 p.m., Bernstein sent his last text to a friend, saying: “I did something really horrible for the story. But no one can ever know.”
The friend wrote back, asking for an explanation and saying he was worried about Bernstein, but he never got a reply.
After Bernstein missed a dentist appointment the next day, his parents found his glasses, wallet and credit cards in his bedroom and tried reaching him but he didn’t respond to texts or calls.
An intense search for the missing teen followed, during which Bernstein’s father discovered that his son had talked to Woodward on Snapshot, and reached out to him.
Woodward told the missing teen’s dad and the police that Bernstein had gone to meet another friend, whom he did not name, in the park and had not come back, Walker told the court.
Days later, Bernstein’s body was found in a shallow grave in the park. He had been stabbed 28 times, mostly in the face and neck, the prosecutor said.
A search of Woodward’s family home in Newport Beach, Calif., turned up a folding knife with blood on the blade and handle that matched through DNA testing to Bernstein.
Police also recovered a black Atomrwaffen mask spattered with blood and a cache of anti-gay and antisemitic materials.
Investigators found emails that Woodward had sent to himself, described by a prosecutor as a “hate diary” in which he allegedly expressed hatred for gay and Jewish people, and detailed his targeting of gay men online.
“LMAO,” he wrote in one entry, according to testimony. “They think they are going to get hate crimed and it scares the s— out of them … Priceless.”
Woodward was arrested and pleaded not guilty to murder with an enhancement for a hate crime.
He was deemed fit for trial only in 2022, after years of delays related to his mental state and changes of defense lawyers.
With Post wires
