Blaze Bernstein murder was hate crime, SoCal district attorney says

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Orange County prosecutors said that a hate-crime allegation has been added against the man charged with murdering his former classmate, Blaze Bernstein.

O.C. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said during a Thursday press conference that a hate crime allegation has been added against 21-year-old Samuel Woodward, who was charged with murder earlier this year.

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Adding the hate crime allegation means Woodward, who was already facing 26 years to life in prison, could now face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"We will prove that Woodward killed Blaze because Blaze was gay," Rackauckas said.

A 20-year-old man was arrested in the homicide case surrounding Blaze Bernstein, a 19-year-old college student whose body was found in an Orange County park this week.

Woodward and Bernstein were classmates at the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana and had reconnected through social media.

Bernstein, 19, was visiting his parents on winter break from University of Pennsylvania when he went to a park with Woodward on Jan. 2. A week later, Bernstein's body was found in Borrego Park.

Woodward was arrested Jan. 12 after DNA evidence allegedly linked him to the crime.

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Nineteen-year-old Blaze Bernstein was laid to rest Monday, nearly two weeks after he went missing.

Rackauckas said that Bernstein had been stabbed and Woodward visited the crime scene days after the murder. He alleged that Woodward cleaned up his vehicle in an effort to remove DNA evidence. The exact time and place of the killing remains unclear.

According to a search warrant affidavit, Woodward told detectives Bernstein had tried to kiss him, and he pushed him away, then used a gay slur to describe his reaction to detectives.

Woodward has pleaded not guilty in the killing.