Man who grew up in a religious family and had ties with an extremist group before stabbing his Jewish boyfriend-to-be 20 times in a park finally speaks out
Los Angeles, California – A California man has finally shared his side of the story about the fatal incident that occurred in 2018, in which he fatally stabbed a young man in a park after arranging a meeting with him online. In the case that has garnered national attention, 26-year-old S. Woodward detailed the events leading up to the incident. Prosecutors claim this incident has a hate crime background due to the Jewish identity of the victim, B. Bernstein, who was 19 years old at the time of the incident. Last week, Woodward, 20 years old at the time of the incident, took the stand in his defense for the first time, about six years after the incident.
Court records indicate that Woodward, raised in a conservative, religious household, recalled his first online meeting with the Jewish college student Bernstein on Tinder. Woodward’s se*uality made their meeting unpleasant. This is what Woodward said: “At that point he pretty much said, ‘Don’t worry, I get it, completely understand,’” Woodward recalled. Woodward acknowledged that although he first felt uncomfortable, he moved first leading to plans to meet that same night.
Woodward collected Bernstein from his house on the evening of their meeting, and the two headed to a local park. According to Woodward’s testimony, the two spent time chatting, but he did not reveal any specifics on the evening. Sadly, Bernstein was discovered dead in the park having been stabbed 20 times. Prosecutors have asserted that the killing was a hate crime, while the defense contends it was not motivated by hate.
Woodward and Bernstein had attended Orange County School of the Arts together. While Woodward dropped out of college and relocated to Texas, Bernstein had temporarily attended the University of Pennsylvania to pursue pre-med. Woodward in Texas got affiliated with an extremist group known as Atomwaffen Division before going back to live with his parents in California. Woodward told in court that he had no friends or people to hang out with, hence he often felt isolated and mostly interacted with strangers online.
According to screenshots of the correspondence shown at court, Woodward and the victim had been in regular contact for months before to scheduling their first and last meeting. Woodward’s undiagnosed autistic spectrum diagnosis, the defense claimed, damaged his relationships and sense of his own se*uality in addition to a background in which his father publicly attacked homose*uality. His attorney underlined how inaccurate the dominant story of “N*zi kills gay Jew” is. “There is this narrative that’s been pushed: N*zi kills gay Jew. From the defense perspective, that’s inaccurate,” Woodward’s attorney stated.
The start of the trial was delayed for years due to questions about Woodward’s mental competency, which was resolved in late 2022. The trial started in late April and has now been ongoing for about a month. Authorities connected Woodward to the crime after Bernstein’s family looked over his social media and found interactions with Woodward. Searching Woodward’s family house turned out a black Atomwaffen mask bearing traces of blood and a folding knife with a bloodied blade. Woodward’s counsel in a pre-trial statement advised the public to honor the court system and not draw conclusions until all evidence is presented to the jury. For the past six years, the public has been reading and hearing a prosecution and muckraking narrative about this case that is simply fundamentally incorrect, the attorney added.
Woodward is charged with murder, with enhancements for use of a deadly weapon and for hate crime, which could put him in prison for life without parole.
