Santa Barbara police have arrested two Lompoc men as suspects in the sexual assault of a 41-year-old woman during Fiesta weekend.
Jose Luis Castillo, 24, and Daniel Ordonez Jr., 20, were taken into custody Thursday on arrest and search warrants after a month-and-a-half investigation, according to Sgt. Riley Harwood, a department spokesman.
He said Santa Barbara officers responded to the 500 block of Olive Street on Aug. 4 to speak with the victim of a reported sexual assault.
The victim told the officers that at 2:30 a.m., she was intoxicated and was dropped off at the Artisan Court Apartments, 420 E. Cota St., to stay with a friend, according to Harwood.
Upon arrival, she told officers, the victim discovered that her friend was not home, so she waited in the parking lot.
While the victim was waiting, four men, including suspects Castillo and Ordonez, left a party from another apartment. She said the men tried to coax her to the parking lot on the north side of 525 Olive St. There, she said police, two of the men remained by a parked car while Castillo and Ordonez sexually assaulted her in the parking lot.
During the investigation, officers recovered several items of physical evidence and identified locations in the area with security cameras that might have documented the assault.
Ultimately, Harwood said, surveillance videos from three locations were recovered that depicted the suspects and aspects of the incident.
Investigators identified the suspects, and on Wednesday, $100,000.00 arrest warrants were obtained for Castillo and Ordonez, according to Harwood.
Castillo’s warrant was for the crime of attempted rape, and Ordonez’s warrant was for the crime of forced oral copulation. Search warrants were also obtained for Castillo’s residence at 814 W. Walnut Ave. and Ordonez’s residence at 917 North M St., both in Lompoc.
At 6 a.m. Thursday, Santa Barbara detectives assisted by Lompoc police served the arrest and search warrants and took Castillo and Ordonez into custody. They were booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail.
Harwood said the victim is being assisted by advocates from the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center.
— Noozhawk managing editor Michelle Nelson can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
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