Samuel Woodward, the alleged killer of former classmate Blaze Bernstein in what prosecutors describe as an anti-LGBTQ and anti-Jewish hate crime, returned to the stand in his Santa Ana trial on Monday.
Woodward first took the stand Thursday in what The Orange County Register described as “early testimony [that] did not touch on many of the major issues in the case, including Bernstein’s killing, Woodward’s ties to a racially motivated hate group, Woodward’s creation of what prosecutors have described as a ‘hate diary’ or what Woodward’s attorney has described as Woodward’s struggles with his sexuality.”
The trial, which began in April, comes 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 matched on it through DNA to Bernstein — helped investigators tie Woodward — the last person known to see Bernstein alive — to the killing,” The Register reported.
Woodward’s attorney has disputed that his client was motivated by hatred toward Jews or the LGBTQ community.
“There is this narrative that’s been pushed: Nazi kills gay Jew. From the defense perspective, that’s inaccurate,” Assistant Public Defender Kenneth Morrison said during a preliminary hearing, as reported by The Los Angeles Times.