What gay Jewish California teen murdered by 'closeted' Neo-Nazi schoolmate excitedly told friend before meeting him for a hook-up

The gay, Jewish teen who was allegedly murdered in Southern California by his closeted neo-Nazi former classmate, had told friends it would be 'legendary' to have sex with his suspected killer.

Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old Sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, was home in Orange County for winter break when he made plans to meet up with Samuel Woodward, 20, with whom he'd attended prep school.

Bernstein never returned home after the early January 2018 meet-up. His body was found a week later in a shallow grave in the park by his parents' house.

On Wednesday, in a Santa Ana courtroom, an attorney for Woodward oriented the final section of his opening statement around a months-long conversation between Blaze and Woodward, which ended the evening the former died.

Blaze Bernstein, the gay, Jewish teen who was allegedly murdered in Southern California by his closeted neo-Nazi former classmate, had told friends it would be 'legendary' to have sex with his suspected killer

Samuel Woodward, 26, is charged with murdering Blaze Bernstein, 19, in Southern California in January 2018

After finding Woodward on Tinder over the summer, Bernstein told Woodward, he was 'literally the last person I expected to see on here.'

Woodward, who was raised in a conservative Catholic home, where he developed anti-gay and anti-Semitic intellectual tendencies, at first told Bernstein he was on the app looking for a hunting partner.

However, the conversation turned flirtatious, which at first scared Woodward off, but months later prompted him to tell Bernstein: 'I might make an exception for you.'

Bernstein, despite telling Woodward he wouldn't tell anyone about their online encounter, had told a number of his friends about the Tinder flirting as it was happening.

In one such message, Bernstein explained Woodward was 'super conservative,' later writing: 'I need to get (expletive) by Sam Woodward, it would be legendary.'

When the pair reconnected in the weeks leading up to Bernstein's murder, Woodward attempted to convince him that he wouldn't be scared off again.

'I was going through a weird time in my life and I think I figured things out now,' he wrote, to which Bernstein replied: 'I literally don't care.'

But, Bernstein eventually handed over his Snapchat information to Woodward, and then his address. The pair met up and drove to the nearby Borego Park.

At just after 11.30pm that night, Bernstein sent his last text message to a friend.

'I did something really horrible for the story,' he said. 'But no one can ever know.'

The friend responded: 'What story?'

'Hey, I'm really worried about you ... please text me,' the friend later wrote.

Pictured: Woodward with a markedly different appearance at a court hearing in January 2018

Opening statements took place in a Southern California courtroom on Tuesday, two years after Woodward was deemed competent to face a jury in 2022.

The lead prosecutor argued Woodward 'killed Blaze Bernstein because he was gay.'   

Prosecutor Jennifer Walker said Woodward had joined a violent, homophobic and anti-Semitic group called Atomwaffen Division. 

She said he repeatedly targeted gay men online by reaching out to them and then abruptly broke off contact while keeping a hateful, profanity-laced journal of his actions.

In one journal entry in Woodward's titled 'diary of hate,' he described threats he claims to have made against gay people online, according to a brief by the prosecution. 

'The defendant is guilty of killing Blaze Bernstein because he was gay,' Walker told jurors, adding that the victim was stabbed 28 times. 'You will see that Blaze fought for his life as best he could.'

Morrison said his client faced challenges in personal relationships due to a long-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder and was confused about his own sexuality.

'We agree the evidence will show that Samuel Woodward is guilty of homicide,' Morrison told jurors, but he added later that 'what happened that night, plain and simple, was not a hate crime.'

Morrison said he believes Woodward will testify during the trial, which is expected to last several months.

Woodward is being defended by public defender Kenneth Morrison, who is arguing that Woodward killed Blaze because of something he found out the night the latter died

The alleged murder weapon submitted to evidence in Orange County Superior Court

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker speaks in Orange County Superior Court for Opening Statements of the murder trial for the stabbing death of Blaze Berstein in Santa Ana, California

Bernstein went missing after a trip to a park in Lake Forest with Woodward. The pair had both attended the Orange County School of the Arts and connected via Snapchat after matching on Tinder while Bernstein was home.

The teen's parents later found his glasses, wallet, and credit cards in his bedroom after he missed a dentist appointment on January 3 and wasn't responding to texts or calls.

Several days later, Bernstein's body was discovered in a shallow grave at the park close to his parents' home.

Authorities say Woodward picked Bernstein up from his parents' house and later stabbed him 28 times in the face and neck.

DNA evidence connected Woodward to the murder, a theory bolstered by the trove of anti-gay, anti-Jewish material found on his phone.

Woodward was arrested two days after a bloody blade was found in his room at his parents' house in the upscale enclave of Newport Beach.

The case has taken years to come to trial because of questions about Woodward's mental state and ability to stand trial. 

Multiple public defenders have quit on Woodward, and the lead prosecutor on the case at one point became a judge.

In late 2022, he was deemed competent. He has also gone through a number of defense attorneys, one of whom claimed Woodward has Asperger's syndrome, which generally causes difficulty with social interactions.

Bernstein's body was discovered in a shallow grave at the park close to his parents' home

Judge Kimberly Menninger is presiding. In February, Woodward threw a cup of water at her, which led to the process of jury selection beginning over again

In February, when the jury selection process began, a courtroom outburst from Woodward forced the process to begin again. The defendant reportedly threw a cup of water at Judge Kimberly Menninger.

The Bernstein family has reportedly been frustrated with the trial delays. They hope the beginning of the trial will get them one step closer to justice for their son's killing. 

Ahead of trial, Morrison said: 'For the past six years, the public has been reading and hearing a prosecution and muckraking narrative about this case that is simply fundamentally wrong.'

'I caution everyone to respect our judicial process and wait until a jury has been able to see, hear, and evaluate all of the evidence,' he said. 

The defense framed their strategy Tuesday around the notion that Blaze Bernstein was killed by Woodward 'because of what Sam learned that night about what Blaze had been doing over the previous six months.'

The implication of the argument being that it was Bernstein who lured Woodward to the park that night, as opposed to the opposite, according to journalist Louis Keene, who has been watching the trial.