SANTA ANA – Samuel Lincoln Woodward, already charged with the murder of his former high school classmate Blaze Bernstein, will now face a hate-crime enhancement as well.

That means Woodward, if convicted, could spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“We will prove that Woodward killed Blaze because Blaze was gay,” Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said during a Thursday news conference at his Santa Ana office announcing the enhancement.

The enhancement, filed Thursday, arose from evidence discovered since Woodward’s initial arrest in his cellphone, laptop and social-media accounts that the district attorney described as revealing “the dark side of Woodward’s thoughts and intentions.”

That included a “large number of texts and images” that Rackauckas described as “graphic and chilling” and “spewing hate toward almost every protected group.”

“They could be described as racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic and anti-government,” Rackauckas said.

Bernstein’s father, Gideon, said the “truth of what happened to our son” is becoming more apparent as evidence is analyzed.

“Today we suffer an added layer of pain for learning he was killed for who he was as a human being,” Gideon Bernstein said.

Woodward, 21, is accused of stabbing to death Bernstein, whose body was found in a shallow grave at Borrego Park in Lake Forest early this year.

Sheriff’s investigators escort the suspect in the Bernstein murder case into their offices in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Jan 12, 2018. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sheriff’s investigators escort the suspect in the Bernstein murder case into their offices in Santa Ana, CA, on Friday, Jan 12, 2018. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Over 300 people gathered in Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch Lake Forest on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 for a candlelight vigil for Blaze Bernstein whose body was found in the park. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Friends, family and other mourners gathered in Borrego Park in Foothill Ranch, Lake Forest on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 to hold a candlelight vigil for Blaze Bernstein. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Blaze Bernstein (Orange County Sheriff’s Department via AP, file)



The parents of Blaze Bernstein, Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein, embrace prior to reading a family statement at a press conference at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in Lake Forest on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018 to announce that a body discovered in Borrego Park has been identified as their missing son Blaze Bernstein . (File Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

OCSA Montage! students perform during the memorial service for slain college student Blaze Bernstein in Costa Mesa on Sunday, Feb 25, 2018. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

With the words of the meaning of Passover projected on the wall, people of different backgrounds talk to each other about different topics in Santa Ana on Wednesday, Apr 4, 2018. For the first time, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Jewish Community Foundation held a special Passover Seder at the LGBT Center OC. The event was held in response to the Blaze Bernstein murder, which has left the LGBT community deeply affected. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)

This Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 booking photo provided by the Orange County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department shows Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20. Authorities arrested Woodward, described as a friend of Blaze Bernstein, in the killing of the 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania student found buried Jan. 8, in a shallow grave at a park in Lake Forest, Calif. Undersheriff Don Barnes says DNA evidence links Woodward to the crime. (Orange County Sheriff’s Department via AP)

Woodward and Bernstein were classmates at the Orange County School of the Arts in Santa Ana. Bernstein was home from college on winter break when he died.

Prosecutors allege that Woodward picked up Bernstein from his parent’s Lake Forest home around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2, driving him to a shopping center in Foothill Ranch and then to Borrego Park.

According to an affidavit filed by detectives, Woodward told investigators that he and Bernstein met up that night to catch up, and that Bernstein kissed him on the lips while the two were sitting in a parked car. Woodward told the investigators that he pushed Bernstein away, and that Bernstein exited the car and walked alone into the park.

Prosecutors allege that Woodward stabbed Bernstein to death and then buried his body in the dirt.

A day after their son went out, Bernstein’s parents reported him missing. Six days later, his body was discovered. And on Jan. 12, at his Newport Beach home, Woodward was arrested.

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Woodward has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Prior to the hate-crime enhancement, Woodward was facing 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

To prove the hate-crime allegation, the prosecutors must get the jurors to decide that Woodward committed the killing at least in part because of Bernstein’s sexual orientation. If prosecutors argue that there were multiple reasons Woodward is believed to have killed Bernstein, then sexual orientation must be a substantial factor.

State law does not allow prosecutors to consider a killing motivated by sexual orientation as a special-circumstances murder, a distinction that means Woodward, as currently charged, is not eligible for the death penalty.

Rackauckas said the evidence now available to prosecutors does not support charging Woodward with a sentencing enhancement alleging the killing was driven by Bernstein’s religion; he was Jewish.

Woodward was reportedly a member of the Atomwaffen Division, an armed fascist organization. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Atomwaffen Division is a “small neo-Nazi group whose members see themselves as soldiers preparing for an impending race war.”

“This case is a stark reminder of how white-supremacist organizations sweep up young recruits into their violent and hateful culture, with potentially deadly consequences,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League in a statement following the DA’s announcement.

Bernstein’s parents have started a group called Blaze It Forward in their son’s memory.

“We live in a world where hate is real, and the people who practice it can be hiding in your child’s bedroom, through their computer,” said Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, Blaze Bernstein’s mother, during the news conference.