Two Men Will Face Trial for January 2021 Double Murder on Santa Barbara’s Eastside
Santa Barbara Judge Finds Enough Evidence to Proceed to Trial, Alleging Two Teenage Victims Were Killed for Benefit of Gang
Two men arrested in connection with a January 2021 shooting on Santa Barbara’s Eastside that left two teenagers dead and another two injured will now face trial for two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, with a Santa Barbara County judge finding there was enough evidence to show that the crimes were committed for the benefit of a Carpinteria street gang.
Santa Barbara District Attorney John Savrnoch announced Wednesday that both Oscar Trujillo-Gutierrez and Angel Varela — who were among at least five individuals arrested in the months following the shooting — appeared for a preliminary court hearing, which found that there was enough evidence to move forward with a criminal trial.
The shooting occurred in the early evening on January 3, 2021, when it is alleged that Varela, Trujillo-Gutierrez, and a juvenile from Carpinteria “attacked a group of rival gang members” near Liberty and Canada streets in Eastside Santa Barbara, pulling a firearm and shooting four teenagers, ultimately killing 17-year-old Angel Castillo and 18-year-old Omar Montiel Hernandez.
At the time, there was much debate over whether the shooting was gang-related, and in an interview with the Independent, Rita Castillo — the mother of one of the teenage victims — denied her son’s involvement in any gang activity: “I need to set the record straight,” she said in February 2021. “Angel wasn’t perfect. He got into trouble. Everybody does. But he was never in a gang. You can ask anyone who knew Angel; he was never in any gang.”
According to the latest statement from the District Attorney’s Office, there was enough evidence to charge Varela and Trujillo each with two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder, in addition to special circumstances that both committed multiple murders “as members of the Carpas gang to benefit the Carpas gang.”
Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez are both scheduled for arraignment in Santa Barbara Superior Court on December 11, 2023, at 8:30 a.m. in Department 12. The District Attorney’s Office did not provide any additional updates regarding the third individual alleged to have been an accessory to the crime, who was a juvenile at the time of the incident.
