A Santa Barbara Superior Court jury returned with guilty verdicts for two Carpinteria men accused of murder in the 2021 shooting that killed two people and injured two more in Santa Barbara.

Last week the jury found Angel Varela, 31, and Oscar Trujillo-Gutierrez, 29, each guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in relation to a gang-related shooting on Liberty Street in January 2021.

The shooting killed 17-year-old Angel Castillo and 18-year-old Omar Montiel-Hernandez of Santa Barbara.

Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez were also found guilty of premeditated attempted murder for shooting two other men during the attack.

Both of those victims survived their injuries.

Jury members also decided the special allegation that Varela personally discharged a gun, causing death, was true, and both men committed multiple acts of murder, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

On Wednesday, after a bifurcated trial to address gang-related allegations in the case, the jury returned with another verdict finding that Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez were members of the Carpinteria gang, the Carpas, and had committed the murders for the benefit of the gang.

The jury also found Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez guilty of an assault that occurred at the Santa Barbara County Jail in September 2022 while they were awaiting trial.

A third man accused in the shooting, Emilio Perez, was a minor at the time and was tried in juvenile court. He was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in 2024, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez remain in jail custody without bail pending sentencing. They both face possible lifetime sentences without the possibility of parole.

Sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on March 24 in Santa Barbara Superior Court.

Court Trial Testimony

Prosecutors claim that Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez targeted Liberty Street due to a feud with the Santa Barbara Eastside gang.

Over the course of the trial, which began in early December, prosecutors in the case portrayed the two defendants as loyal members of the Carpas, and the attack as an attempt to hunt members of the Eastside gang.

According to court testimony, Varela left Carpinteria along with Trujillo-Gutierrez and Perez in his blue Jeep. After driving around Eastside Santa Barbara, Varela left his car with Trujillo-Gutierrez and fired multiple shots with a 9mm Glock with an extended clip and threaded barrel.

Trujillo-Gutierrez acted as a lookout and backup, according to testimony.

Perez drove the car away while the other two fled on foot, according to court testimony.

Four people were injured in the shooting, including Castillo and Montiel-Hernandez. Both were shot in the back as they fled, according to court testimony.

The prosecution submitted photographs into evidence including photos of both defendants with gang tattoos, Varela with a gun, believed to be involved in the attack, and images of them with known members of the Carpas gang.

The alleged gun in the case was later recovered by the Santa Barbara Police Department, and included a threaded barrel matching the firearm in the photos, according to court testimony.

Detectives testified they were able to trace the three shooting suspects by using a mixture of home camera footage and cellphone signal tracking. They stated that the cellphone signals show the three men traveling from Carpinteria to the area of Liberty Street before the shooting and back to Carpinteria after the murder.  

Detectives also shared footage of two men fleeing Liberty Street shortly after the shootings, saying they matched the description of the defendants. The footage was gathered using home cameras and security footage.

The footage was also used to track the path of the Jeep, which matched the description of a vehicle owned by Varela, as it left Liberty Street.

The two defendants were able to meet up with the Jeep in a different location before heading back to the Carpinteria area, according to court testimony.

The prosecution also shared text messages recovered over the course of the investigation that show Varela communicating with his girlfriend, pressuring her to tell someone not to speak to the police.