38 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
38 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
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tags:
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- Person
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- AtomwaffenDivision
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- NeoNazi
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- Murder
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- HateCrime
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- California
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- USA
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- FederalCase
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born: 1997
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location: "Newport Beach, California"
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created: 2026-05-21
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updated: 2026-05-21
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summary: "Samuel Woodward was an Atomwaffen Division member who in January 2018 stabbed gay Jewish college student Blaze Bernstein 28 times in California; convicted of hate crime murder in 2024 and sentenced to life without parole."
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---
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[[Samuel Woodward]] (full name Samuel Lincoln Woodward) was an [[Atomwaffen Division]] member from [[Newport Beach, California]] who on January 2, 2018 murdered [[Blaze Bernstein]], a 19-year-old gay Jewish student home from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] on winter break, stabbing him 28 times and burying his body in [[Borrego Park]] in [[Lake Forest, California]]. A jury at [[Orange County Superior Court]] convicted Woodward of first-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement on July 3, 2024. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on November 15, 2024, by Judge [[Kimberly Menninger]]. He was absent from sentencing due to illness.
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### AWD Membership
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Woodward's Atomwaffen Division membership was established through multiple overlapping lines of evidence. [[ProPublica]] and [[PBS FRONTLINE]] obtained photographs of Woodward attending AWD training meetings in Texas, as well as encrypted chat logs in which he openly identified as a National Socialist. He had attended a three-day AWD "Hate Camp" near [[San Antonio]] involving firearms training, hand-to-hand combat, camping, and survival instruction. He operated under the AWD aliases "Saboteur" and "Arn." Prosecutors also cited his dropping out of [[California State University Channel Islands]] to travel to Texas for AWD training.
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### Murder
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Woodward and Bernstein had attended the same high school, [[Orange County School of the Arts]], and had reconnected through a dating app in the months before the killing. On the night of January 2, 2018, Woodward picked Bernstein up from his family's Lake Forest home at approximately 11:00 p.m. He drove Bernstein to Borrego Park, where he stabbed him 28 times and buried the body. The body was discovered on January 10, 2018. Woodward was arrested two days later.
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Encrypted AWD chat logs obtained by ProPublica and FRONTLINE showed members celebrating the murder. One member wrote "I love this." Another called Woodward "a one man gay Jew wrecking crew." The logs documented the network's reaction as one of approval rather than concern.[^1]
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### Trial and Sentence
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The case was prosecuted in [[Orange County Superior Court]] as a hate crime murder, with the hate crime enhancement based on Bernstein's sexual orientation and Jewish identity. The trial lasted nearly three months. The jury returned a guilty verdict on all counts on July 3, 2024. Judge Kimberly Menninger sentenced Woodward to life in prison without the possibility of parole on November 15, 2024.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: ProPublica / PBS FRONTLINE. "Armed and Dangerous." 2018. https://www.propublica.org/article/atomwaffen-division-inside-white-hate-group; ProPublica. "California Murder Suspect Was Member of Neo-Nazi Group Atomwaffen Division." https://www.propublica.org/article/california-murder-suspect-atomwaffen-division-extremist-hate-group
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[^2]: Orange County District Attorney. "Newport Beach Man Convicted of Stabbing Gay Former High School Classmate to Death in 2018 Hate Crime Murder." July 3, 2024. https://orangecountyda.org/press/newport-beach-man-convicted-of-stabbing-gay-former-high-school-classmate-to-death-in-2018-hate-crime-murder/; Orange County District Attorney. "Newport Beach Man Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Possibility of Parole." November 15, 2024. https://orangecountyda.org/press/newport-beach-man-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-without-possibility-of-parole-for-stabbing-gay-former-high-school-classmate-to-death-in-2018-hate-crime-murder/
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