‘Love Triumphs All’: Bride and Groom Speak Out after Armed Suspect Infiltrates Santa Ynez Wedding

[Updated: Sat., Oct. 19, 2024]

On September 13, TJ Ronacher and Mercy Fabila arrived at the Sunstone Winery’s villa with seven of their closest friends and family, excited to begin their wedding weekend away from the hustle and bustle of their Los Angeles home. Even with all the superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th, it had been a fairly normal day — travels were smooth, the weather was great, and vendors were prepped in Santa Ynez to marry the soon-to-be Ronachers the following day.

But as the group was coming in and out of the villa that evening, getting ready for an off-site rehearsal dinner, they noticed an unknown face circulating among the small crowd. A man had entered the home, allegedly pushed past Mercy’s brother, and headed up the stairs toward the villa’s watchtower. When Mercy’s brother asked who he was, the man simply said he was with IT and continued on his way.

The supposed IT man continued to exit and reenter the villa, bringing different pieces of equipment up to the watchtower each time.

That evening, Teddy and Djamila Cabugos, who bought Sunstone Winery in 2019 from the Rice family, received a phone call from the manager on duty. The manager had gotten word that Frederick Miles Rice, the 21-year-old son of Sunstone’s previous owner, was suffering from a mental-health episode and his car’s tracker showed him at the villa. 

Upon walking over to the villa to investigate, the manager witnessed the suspect entering the watchtower. According to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the manager contacted the authorities at 6:15 p.m. to report a trespasser on the property.

Soon after, the wedding group — not informed of the situation — packed into a couple of cars and headed to the rehearsal dinner. Not 30 seconds after they started driving, TJ and Mercy say they passed three sheriff’s cruisers rushing toward the villa, where they noticed something written on a wall outside.

“I luv U 2 death,” was written in red spray paint on the side of the building, signed “Rice” with a heart.

“I told them that we could power-wash everything and to go have fun at dinner,” said the wedding planner, Nicole Arena. “All I knew at that point was that someone had broken in and the police were handling it.”

“No one told us then that we had been left in the villa with an armed trespasser,” TJ said.

The trespasser, Rice, had allegedly barricaded himself in the villa’s watchtower while the wedding party was getting ready. Additionally, he posted a since-deleted video to social media while barricaded titled “Suicide — Taylor’s version,” likely referencing pop star Taylor Swift.

When the guests left for dinner, Rice’s family members joined the Sheriff’s Office’s Crisis Negotiation and Special Enforcement Teams to ensure his safety and coax him down from the tower.

However, Rice allegedly did not comply, and he claimed to be armed. 

Raquel Zick, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said there was no way to extract Rice from the watchtower by force. While authorities later learned that Rice had been armed with a samurai sword, they initially thought he was wielding a gun, according to court records. Deputies also didn’t know what other equipment or weapons were in the room with him. “If you don’t know what’s in a room, you don’t just walk into it,” said Zick.

“You also have to think about if this had been your own son or daughter experiencing a mental-health episode,” Zick added. “We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

Rice would have to come down on his own, and the wedding party would have to stay elsewhere for the weekend.

Cabugos arranged for the guests to stay at Hotel Corque in Solvang on Sunstone’s dime, but they couldn’t extract any of their belongings from the villa that evening. Tuxedos, rings, and dresses — including the bride’s wedding dress — stayed behind, and Cabugos was up all night with members of the Rice family and law enforcement to monitor the situation.

Overnight and well into the next day, all parties were hopeful that they would be able to convince Rice to come down from the tower before Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. wedding. Just in case, Cabugos’s wife, Djamila, offered up the winery’s tasting room for the celebration, a separate area down the hill from the villa, if all else failed.

As it crept into the afternoon, Rice was still barricaded in the villa, and it was time to make a decision. After talks of relocating the 70-person wedding to an entirely different venue fell through, the wedding party agreed to celebrate down the hill.

Law enforcement had to “tactically extract all of the wedding party’s belongings” SWAT-team-style to ensure everyone’s safety, Zick said. Deputies hastily packed their SUVs with everything from the guests’ toothbrushes to the ovens needed to heat the catered food, and drove it all down the hill. Mercy found her dress just in time in the back of one of the sheriff’s pickup trucks.

“It’s a ‘love triumphs all’ kind of story,” said Mercy Fabila Ronacher, who married TJ Ronacher on September 14, miraculously only a couple of hours behind schedule. 

Around 7 p.m. during the ceremony, Rice surrendered to the authorities, and he was booked for misdemeanor burglary and felony vandalism. Further, a gun-violence emergency protective order was issued against Rice on September 20, which required him to surrender all firearms in his possession. Sunstone did not press any additional charges.

Despite rings on their fingers, the Ronachers remain upset about communications with Sunstone throughout the standoff, all of which was going through their wedding planner. Cabugos said he communicated extensively with the wedding planner throughout the day but wasn’t made aware that the Ronachers wanted to speak with him directly. The Ronachers say they made multiple unsuccessful attempts to contact Sunstone and Cabugos throughout the day.

On September 23, Sunstone offered the Ronachers a full refund for the event, including wine, contingent on a liability release. However, the Ronachers remain on the hook for paying the vendors, many of whom worked overtime under the circumstances. The couple has not signed the liability release as of October 15.

“They’re dismissing our experience and leaving us with severe financial responsibility,” said Mercy. “We’re never getting back that day.”

“Although it was not what anyone had intended for, the wedding held at the tasting room turned out beautifully,” said Djamila Cabugos. “We genuinely care and feel horrible for the experience the clients had to endure on their wedding day.”

“Mental health challenges are a serious issue, and while we are relieved that this situation was resolved peacefully, we recognize that our journey toward healing is just beginning,” wrote the suspect’s father, Bion Rice, in a Facebook post following the incident. “We kindly ask for privacy as we recover and navigate the road ahead.”