Murder of Blaze Bernstein: Suspected murderer resumes testimony about alleged homophobic and anti-Semitic hate crime

Samuel Woodward, the suspected killer of his former classmate Blaze Bernstein, whose death prosecutors called an anti-LGBTQ and anti-Jewish hate crime, returned to the witness stand Monday in his trial in Santa Ana.

Woodward took the witness stand for the first time Thursday. The Orange County Register described it as “premature testimony that failed to address many of the case's essential issues, including Bernstein's murder, Woodward's ties to a racially motivated hate group, Woodward's creation of what prosecutors called a 'hate diary' or Woodward's struggle with his sexuality, as Woodward's attorney described it.”

The trial began in April, six years after Bernstein was found stabbed to death in Lake Forest.

Bernstein, who was Jewish and gay, attended the University of Pennsylvania but was back home in Orange County in January 2018 when his body was discovered in a shallow grave in Borrego Park.

“A variety of forensic evidence – including a knife found in Woodward's room with blood on it that was linked to Bernstein through DNA – helped investigators link Woodward – the last person known to have seen Bernstein alive – to the murder,” The Register reported.

Woodward's lawyer denies that his client's motive was hatred toward Jews or the LGBTQ community.

“It is often said that a Nazi killed a gay Jew. But from the defense's perspective, that is false,” said Assistant Public Defender Kenneth Morrison during a preliminary hearing, the Los Angeles Times reported.