The mother of a University of Pennsylvania student allegedly murdered by a neo-Nazi walked out of the courtroom this week as the alleged killer detailed the killing.
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Blaze Bernstein, 19, was reported missing while returning home from winter break in California on January 2, 2018, the newspaper reported Forward. Her body was found eight days later in Borrego Park.
Appearing in Orange County Superior Court on Thursday, Bernstein’s former classmate Samuel Woodward, 26, explained how the two men reconnected on Tinder. They met at the park on the night of January 2.
Samuel Woodward was charged with first-degree murder on January 12, 2018, the Jewish news outlet reported.
His fear
The defendant claimed he stabbed the victim more than 20 times because he feared Blaze Bernstein had taken a photo of his genitals while he was intoxicated from cannabis. He feared his family would find out he was gay.
As he described his efforts to bury the body, the victim’s mother, Jeanne Pepper, left in tears.
“I was just in mortal terror,” Samuel Woodward summed up. […] I couldn’t imagine that [mon homosexualité] be revealed.”
According to investigators, Woodward was a member of the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi terrorist network.
When asked by the prosecutor if he considered killing Blaze Bernstein because he was gay or because he was Jewish, Woodward replied “no, not at all.”
If convicted, Samuel Woodward could face life in prison.
