On May 5, 2021, a Humboldt County jury found
Jason Ryan Barnes, age 48, of Eureka, guilty of one count of involuntary manslaughter for the homicide of Bernhard “Ben” Bertain and two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The jury also found true the special allegations that Mr. Barnes personally caused great bodily injury or death and personally used a deadly weapon.
Barnes had been charged with second degree murder. Prior to jury deliberations, Judge Timothy Canning acquitted Mr. Barnes of that charge and the lesser included charge of voluntary manslaughter. Thus, the jurors returned guilty verdicts on the most serious charges they were allowed to consider.
From the Eureka Police Department:
On March 18, 2021, at about 9:10 p.m., officers with the Eureka Police Department
(EPD) responded to the intersection of Pine and West Hawthorne Streets for the
report of a hit and run vehicle vs pedestrian collision.
Surveillance from a nearby residence showed a small SUV flee the scene. Surveillance
was made public and EPD asked the community to assist in identifying the vehicle and/or
driver. The driver did not come forward.
A Detective from EPD’s Problem Oriented Policing Team (POP) was assigned to
investigate the case, with the assistance from an EPD Evidence Technician and an
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Posted By Thadeus Greenson@ThadeusGreenson on Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 8:52 AM Humboldt County is in the midst of a surge of fentanyl-related overdose deaths, alarming local officials who have long braced for the powerful opioid’s impact on the North Coast.
Fentanyl has accounted for nearly 50 percent of Humboldt County’s alcohol and other drug (AOD) deaths so far this year, with five overdose deaths logged in March alone, according to data provided by the Coroner’s Office. And through the first three months of the year, 2021 had already matched the number of fentanyl overdose deaths recorded in Humboldt County in all of 2019 and was on pace to more than triple last year’s tally.
Submitted.
Next week will mark the fourth anniversary of the fatal stabbing of David Josiah Lawson, a 19-year-old Humboldt State University sophomore whose still unsolved killings left fissures throughout the local community.
Lawson died early in the morning of April 15, 2017, after he was stabbed multiple times including once to the heart amid a series of fights at an off-campus house party in Arcata. Kyle Zoellner, a then 23-year-old McKinleyville man, was arrested at the scene and charged with Lawson s murder but within weeks a Humboldt County Superior Court judge had dismissed the case against him, finding there was insufficient evidence to hold him for trial.