Trial for Hermiston slaying slated to get underway in October

Oct. 14—HERMISTON — A trial for the slaying of a Hermiston man in 2020 is slated to finally get underway in October.

Keith Beridon, 27, lived in La Grande at the time of Jesus Lopez's death. Law enforcement extradited Beridon from California back to Umatilla County, according to the Hermiston Police Department's 2020 annual report, where he faces charges of second-degree murder, two counts of unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm.

Beridon pleaded not guilty on all charges. The court appointed Portland-based attorneys Robert Crow and Erik Eklund to represent Beridon. He has been held in the Umatilla County Jail without bail since July 7, 2021.

Jorge Gonzalez called Hermiston Police around 8:16 a.m. on June 9, 2020, after he found his 21-year-old grandson lying on the garage floor in a pool of his own blood, according to an affidavit police submitted to obtain a search warrant for cellphone records.

Lopez was living with his grandfather at the time. The pair shared dinner the night before and went to bed around 11 p.m. Gonzalez slept in the master bedroom on the top floor of the house and Lopez stayed in a bedroom on the first floor.

Gonzalez told police that on the morning of June 9, he went downstairs to put laundry away and noticed the hallway light was on and Lopez's door was open, according to the affidavit. His grandson was not inside the bedroom, so he went to check the garage. He found Lopez's pickup still in the garage and saw that one of the garage doors was open. Gonzalez told police he was on his way to check if Lopez was outside when he found his grandson on the floor and immediately called 911 for assistance.

Hermiston police Cpl. Riley Studebaker and Sgt. Christopher Martin were the first officers to respond before calling Sgt. Robert Guerrero and officer Freddy Sotelo to the scene. The Major Crimes Team and Oregon State Police lab technicians also were dispatched to assist. Law enforcement recovered Lopez's iPhone and four .40-caliber shell casings at the scene.

Police went door-to-door in the neighborhood to ask if anyone had seen or heard anything that night, according to the affidavit. Several people confirmed they heard loud bangs somewhere between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., which they believed to be gunshots. One neighbor told police he saw a man driving a red Subaru BRZ down the road around 1:30 a.m. when walking a friend out to their car. There is only one way in and out of the housing development.

Police obtained records from Sprint on Lopez's cellphone, according to the affidavit. They found that between 11:55 p.m. and 4:44 a.m. on the night of his death, 13 calls were made to and received from what police refer to as the "805 number." A search warrant secured the records of the number, and police found the 805 account holder often spoke with Matthew Edwards of La Grande.

Edwards informed law enforcement the 805 number belonged to a friend called "Breeze," who rented a room from him.

Edwards also told police Beridon drove a red Scion FR-S. After researching the car, police reported a BRZ and FR-S are essentially the same car. The two are identical outside of the manufacturer's emblems.

In a later conversation with police, Edwards told law enforcement Beridon left the area with his then-girlfriend, Natalie Sumerlin, of La Grande. He believed they possibly went to California. Edwards also said Beridon left a number of personal items in the rented room, which police recovered. Police located a California driver's license and debit card belonging to Beridon. Edwards confirmed Beridon and Breeze were the same person.

Police also found .40-caliber ammunition and a gun case for a Springfield XDM-40, according to the affidavit. The gun was missing from the case, but the manufacturer's test round casing was inside. The OSP crime lab matched the test round to spent casings recovered from the crime scene. The lab also determined the spent casings had Beridon's DNA on them, according to the affidavit. Police used the serial number from the gun case to find the individual — Nicholas McLean — who sold the gun to Beridon. McLean confirmed he sold "Breeze" a gun for $500 around December 2019.

Police interviewed Sumerlin a number of times. At first she said she didn't know anyone by the name "Breeze" or the owner of the 805 number. Later she admitted she lied to police because Beridon was present in the room during the phone call and had a firearm.

When arrested in California, Sumerlin agreed to speak with Hermiston police again, according to the affidavit. She told law enforcement she knew Beridon as "Breeze" and would often spend the night in his room at Edwards' house. On the night of Lopez's death she was in Beridon's room doing homework. She said Beridon went out at 10 p.m. in a red car and returned around 5 or 6 the following morning. When he left he said he was going to rob someone, according to Sumerlin.

She said Beridon had a black handgun, but when she asked him where it was he told her he had "dropped it because it was hot," according to the affidavit. Sumerlin believed this meant that he had gotten rid of the gun because he shot somebody with it.

Sumerlin said she was friends with Lopez and had hung out with him at his grandfather's house in Hermiston. She told police Beridon was extremely jealous and she believed he shot Lopez out of jealousy — mistakenly thinking Sumerlin and Lopez were romantically involved, according to the affidavit.

Beridon is scheduled to appear for jury trial starting on Oct. 24, at the Umatilla County Courthouse in Pendleton.

Isabella Crowley is a reporter for The Observer. Contact her at {span}541-624-6014 or{/span} icrowley@lagrandeobserver.com.