A police officer walks in front of an apartment on the 100 block of Los Aguajes Ave. in Santa Barbara Wednesday morning. A body was found inside of an apartment on Wednesday.
A Santa Barbara police officer walks in front of an apartment building on the 100 block of Los Aguajes Avenue where officers found a body. Credit: Evelyn Spence / Noozhawk photo

Two people have been arrested and criminally charged in connection with a body found last week in an apartment in Santa Barbara’s West Beach neighborhood.

Jenica Ochoa, 45, and Kenneth Tompkins, 43, were separately booked into the Santa Barbara Main Jail on Thursday on suspicion of concealing an accidental death.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office arrest records indicate that both lived in the same building on Los Aguajes Avenue as the one in which the body was found.

Superior Court records show that Ochoa and Tompkins have separately been charged with felony conspiracy, concealing a death — a misdemeanor — and second strike enhancements.

Ochoa and Tompkins were arraigned on those allegations on Friday and are scheduled to return to court on Nov. 30.

Both remained in jail custody as of Monday afternoon.

Sheriff’s Office custody logs show that Ochoa’s bail was $100,000, while Tompkins’ was $500,000.

The Santa Barbara Police Department initially responded at 9:37 p.m. Oct. 27 for a welfare check in a home on the 100 block of Los Aguajes Avenue, according to Lt. Ryan DeJohn.

DeJohn said police officers contacted a resident at the scene and “identified suspicious circumstances.”

They returned Wednesday morning with a search warrant and found a deceased person.

Santa Barbara police are investigating a suspicious death after a body was found in an apartment on the 100 block of Los Aguajes Avenue.
Santa Barbara police are investigating a suspicious death after a body was found in an apartment on the 100 block of Los Aguajes Avenue. Credit: Evelyn Spence / Noozhawk photo

Santa Barbara Police Cmdr. Ben Ahrens on Monday confirmed that the investigation was ongoing.

Ahrens said Ochoa and Tompkins were the only people arrested in connection with the case as of Monday.

He called the investigation “intricate” and said additional information wasn’t available for release at this time.

“It’s going to take some time on this,” he said, adding that police were waiting on information from the Coroner’s Bureau.

The name of the person found deceased was not immediately available for release. Ahrens said police had been attempting to locate family members of the person who died.

According to Superior Court records, both Ochoa and Tompkins have previous criminal convictions.

Ochoa has been convicted of embezzlement, forgery, burglary, being a felon in possession of a firearm and conspiracy in charges dating back to 2007.

She was arrested alongside 19 other people in 2016, after a five-month investigation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Santa Barbara Police Department into the sale of illegal narcotics and firearms.

Tompkins has been convicted of driving under the influence, petty theft, burglary, forgery and presenting false identification to a peace officer in charges dating back to 2013.

— Noozhawk South County editor Evelyn Spence can be reached at espence@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.