Isidro “Blackie” Lopez Bernal convicted of murdering for marijuana dies in prison

News has been received from Lassen County that Isidro “Blackie” Lopez Bernal, age 30, died at High Desert State Prison in Susanville on March 15, 2018. The cause of death continues to be under investigation. The decedent is shown in the picture as the middle defendant.



Lopez Bernal was convicted by plea of second degree murder and gun use in February 2017 and sentenced in the Mendocino County Superior Court in March 2017 to state prison for 25 years to life.

In brief, in September 2015, Lopez Bernal, along with his two co-defendants, gathered and made plans in Cloverdale, traveled to Mendocino County, and carried out an armed robbery under cover of darkness of an illegal marijuana garden in the Yorkville area. The victim, a man watching over the garden, was murdered by the three would-be thieves. This is also the case where one of the co-defendants was shot by his associate and used his cell phone to call law enforcement for medical assistance after he was left behind to die by his "friends."