Samuel Woodward talks to their attorneys Edward Munoz during a judge hearing within Harbor fairness heart in Newport Beach, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018. (Paul Bersebach/The Tangerine County Register via AP, Pool)
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NEWPORT SEASHORE, Calif. — About six months before he had been stabbed to demise in what prosecutors contact a hate crime, a gay college of Pennsylvania college student graphically mentioned hopes datingmentor.org/lesbian-dating-phoenix-arizona for gender making use of guy today energized in the killing, an investigator said Tuesday.
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Blaze Bernstein texted a pal an image of Samuel Woodward and stated both have encounter both and he planning these people were browsing connect, stating gender with the previous schoolmate could well be “legendary.”
Upbeat hookup with ex-schoolmate led to gay beginner’s murder Back to videos
Exactly what led to that encounter wasn’t obvious during Woodward’s preliminary hearing on kill and dislike crime fees, but detective Craig Goldsmith mentioned among the list of anti-gay and hateful materials found on his telephone got mention of his attempts to cause as “gay inquisitive” to attract guys immediately after which reveal it as a prank.
“That’s whatever deserve,” Woodward had written utilizing an anti-gay slur.
Woodward, 21, had been ordered to face demo in tangerine region better courtroom on kill and dislike crime fees after prosecutors connected him for the stabbing through DNA and demonstrated he previously troves of homophobic and neo-Nazi material on their cell phone. He’s pleaded not guilty.
Woodward stabbed Bernstein almost 20 era when you look at the face and neck following two came across at a playground in January, prosecutors stated. The 2 had connected previously in the evening on Snapchat and Woodward found Bernstein at his house.
Woodward told detectives he had been disgusted whenever Bernstein kissed him on mouth in the SUV and pressed him right back, but performedn’t state the guy did anything violent toward your.
Investigator Dylan Jantzen testified during one-day hearing that Woodward mentioned the guy wished to curse at Bernstein and name the target a slur for homosexual men.
Bernstein went lost Jan. 2 and Woodward ended up being arrested about seven days later following looks was found in a low grave inside pond Forest park where they’d eliminated that nights.
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Blood stains from the blade of a blade present in Woodward’s room, under his watch and on the visor of their vehicle matched up Bernstein very closely your potential for the genetic material coming from some other person was actually 1-in-a-trillion, forensic researcher Corrie Maggay testified.
Protection attorney Edward Munoz performedn’t present any witnesses, but demonstrated on cross-examination that Woodward uncovered he had autism and is socially embarrassing and sexually confused.
Munoz argued there was clearly no proof a detest crime because reprehensible documents found on Woodward’s cell are not distributed to other individuals, however in e-mails to themselves.
“i do believe in a hate crime incidences you need to have an external manifestation of your loathing to everyone,” Munoz stated after the hearing.
If convicted of first-degree murder and the dislike crime allegation, prosecutors could find a sentence all the way to existence in prison without parole.
Goldsmith testified that Woodward got more than 100 pieces of contents about the aggressive dislike party Atomwaffen. The cluster’s insignia was actually the wallpaper on his phone.
One mail he delivered himself got labeled as “Sam’s journal of Hate,” and then he talked on the web with friends about attending a “Death Valley Hate Camp” that integrated mention of guns, Goldsmith stated.
His mobile also provided images with Nazi sources.
Bernstein, who was gay and Jewish, had been visiting his moms and dads in Lake Forest, California, during wintertime break from his sophomore season at Penn.
Aside from the mail that pointed out Woodward’s gay “pranking,” the guy in addition penned to himself he scared homosexual men by sending them pictures in the homosexual dating internet site Grindr of different gay guys becoming murdered. He mentioned one person had answered he was going to contact the FBI.
“They envision they will bring dislike crimed,” he had written, in accordance with Goldsmith.
Two weeks ahead of the slaying, close to an illustration of a soft knife, the guy wrote on Snapchat: “Texting is boring, but murder is not,” in accordance with Jantzen.