CA Nazi Found Guilty Of Anti-Gay Hate Crime Murder

ABC News reports:

Samuel Woodward, a California man accused of murdering his former classmate in 2018, has been found guilty in the hate crime case. Blaze Bernstein — a 19-year-old gay, Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania — went missing while visiting his family in Newport Beach during winter break in January 2018.

His body was found following a dayslong search buried in a park in Lake Forest he went to with Woodward. He had been stabbed 28 times. Woodward, now 26, was charged with first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement. Prosecutors had alleged that Woodward murdered his classmate because Bernstein was gay.

NBC News reports:

During closing arguments, prosecutor Jennifer Walker emphasized Woodward’s affiliation with a violent, anti-gay, antisemitic group known as Atomwaffen Division. “This is a person focused on hate,” Walker said. “Not following, not being led by, influenced by, victimized by Atomwaffen — seeking it out.”

Prosecutors said Woodward joined Atomwaffen Division and repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and then abruptly breaking off contact while keeping a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions

Authorities said they searched Woodward’s family home in Newport Beach and found a folding knife with a bloodied blade in his room. They also found a black Atomwaffen mask with traces of blood and a host of anti-gay, antisemitic and hate group materials, prosecutors said.

The Guardian reports:

Bernstein, a 19-year-old pre-med student at the University of Pennsylvania, disappeared on 2 January 2018 after meeting up with Woodward, then 20, that evening. The pair, who had attended the Orange County High School for the Arts together, had reconnected over the dating app Tinder.

Bernstein’s body was found six days later, buried in a park in Orange county. Woodward was the last person Bernstein was in contact with, and immediately fell under suspicion.

Woodward was arrested on 12 January and charged with Bernstein’s murder. A few weeks later, ProPublica revealed Woodward was a member of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi guerrilla organization implicated in four other murders, multiple bomb plots and other crimes.

California neo-Nazi found guilty of murder of former classmate https://t.co/oqmcA0f1Vz

— Guardian Australia (@GuardianAus) July 4, 2024

Former Atomwaffen member convicted of first degree murder for hate crime killing of gay former high school classmate.https://t.co/cbDuMLzbUr

— Mark Pitcavage (@egavactip) July 4, 2024

Newport Beach Man Convicted of Stabbing Gay Former High School Classmate
to Death in 2018 Hate Crime Murder

SANTA ANA, Calif. – A Newport Beach man has been convicted of a hate-motivated murder for stabbing his gay former high school classmate to death during a late-night… pic.twitter.com/D2iEk3oX9a

— OCDA Todd Spitzer (@OCDAToddSpitzer) July 4, 2024

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