Well, I clearly jinxed UC Santa Barbara’s hopes of a return trip to the College World Series, but having 10 Gauchos chosen in the Major League Baseball draft is not nothing. In fact, only three schools had more players drafted in 2019.
Congratulations to UCSB on a thrilling season, and best wishes with reloading for next year.
For a day I thought I had jinxed UCLA, too, but then I remembered that the top-seeded No. 1 Bruins haven’t lost a series all season and were unlikely to start with Loyola Marymount.
Now only Michigan stands in the way on their Road to Omaha. #takecareofbusiness like the national champion UCLA softball team did. Can you say 118?
Noozhawk’s professional journalists were taking care of business this past week, but as you’re about to read, they’re also encountering the silent treatment from one or two government agencies that would be wise to remember they’re accountable to the public, not the other way around.
According to our Google Analytics over the past week, Noozhawk had an audience of 160,355 readers, which I know includes many of the public servants bollixing up our reporting on your right to know. Hopefully, this is just a short-term challenge and not a long-term strategy.
In the meantime, here’s my take on your Top 5 stories of the previous week. You already know this is an opinion column.
1. Police Investigating Homicide on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside
A 29-year-old Santa Barbara man died from multiple stab wounds he suffered in an early morning attack June 1 on the Lower Eastside. Five people — including a female juvenile — have been arrested as suspects in what is considered to be a gang-related murder.
Santa Barbara police initially had little to go on after the incident was reported about 1:15 a.m. in the 1300 block of Cacique Street, just below South Salinas Street and five blocks east of Milpas Street.
The victim — identified as Alberto Suarez Torres by SBPD spokesman Anthony Wagner three days after his death — was unconscious when police arrived at the scene. In spite of the best efforts of first responders, he succumbed to his wounds after being transported by an American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Late on the afternoon of June 6, it was revealed that five people had been arrested in the case.
As our Tom Bolton reported, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said 19-year-old Igor R. Ortiz was booked into County Jail the night of June 5 on suspicion of murder, participating in a criminal street gang, vandalism and a probation detainer.
Wagner identified three of the other four as Angel R. Flores Barajas, 31; Adelaine L. Ibarra, 20; and Alondra Ochoa, 18. He said a female juvenile also was arrested but her identity is being withheld because of her age.
Barajas, Ibarra and Ortiz are being held at County Jail on $1 million bail apiece, and Ochoa is being held without bail.
Torres, who graduated from Santa Barbara High School after attending Franklin School and Santa Barbara Junior High, is survived by his mother, Rosa Suarez, and siblings Maria Torres, Leonel Torres, Cesar Torres, Yuliana Torres and Vicente Torres.
His obituary described him as “a happy guy with a friendly soul” who “loved the beach, music, his guitar and skateboarding.”
A rosary service is scheduled for 7 p.m. June 10 at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church, 21 E. Sola St., with a funeral mass at the church at 10 a.m. June 11. Interment will follow at Santa Barbara Cemetery, 901 Channel Drive.
While it’s one thing to keep mum on details of a sensitive police investigation and, especially, the hunt for suspects, I don’t understand why it took SBPD three days to officially release the name of a crime victim.
What I do understand is a troubling pattern of witholding information from the public. Given what seems like more than coincidental instances of revived gang activity — the victim and suspects are all alleged gang rats — on the Lower Eastside, it’s only a matter of time before the lack of transparency erodes the public’s trust and comes back to bite the department where the shield don’t shine.
It has now been exactly one month since Santa Barbara police officials chose the middle of the day, in a densely populated public housing apartment complex, across the street from San Marcos High School, as the ideal time and place to go after a convicted felon and Eastside gangbanger wanted as a suspect in a drive-by attempted murder.
Fortunately, the only casualty in that debacle — which shut down Highway 101 between Santa Barbara and Goleta, for hours May 7 — was the suspect, who was shot dead after he himself tried to kill the officers serving him with “high-risk” search and arrest warrants.
Still, police Chief Lori Luhnow has yet to make any public comment on the case and those decisions, even though it’s only the very last part — the officer(s)-involved shooting — that is under a protocol investigation by the Sheriff’s Department.
This community deserves far better than what appears to be a default setting of secrecy. And we’re still owed an explanation for May 7.
2. Police Investigating Possible Homicide on Santa Barbara’s Eastside
If our headlines are sounding repetitive, so are the stories behind them. Not only are Santa Barbara police investigating the second suspicious death in three days, this one was literally right around the corner from the first.
According to authorities, several 9-1-1 callers reported a fierce disturbance at a public housing complex at 13 S. Soledad St. around 4:45 p.m. June 4. SBPD spokesman Anthony Wagner said one caller described a woman crying into a phone.
He told our Giana Magnoli that responding officers found a dead woman inside an apartment at the complex, a Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara property, and they immediately took a man into custody outside it.
Two days later, Wagner identified the suspect as 28-year-old Omar Alberto Leon, and acknowledged that he had been arrested the day before in the death of 29-year-old Lilia Muñoz. He said the pair was in a relationship and shared the apartment.
Leon was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of murder, with bail set $1 million.
On June 6, the District Attorney’s Office charged him with one count of willfull, premeditated and deliberate murder. He is scheduled to be arraigned June 7 in Superior Court.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said an autopsy had been conducted on Muñoz, but a cause of death had not yet been revealed.
3. Explosion Leads to Suspected Drug Lab, Arrest in Goleta Neighborhood
A New York man suspected of operating a clandestine drug lab was arrested in Goleta after the apparently mobile workshop blew up on him.
The middle-of-the-night June 5 explosion woke up the neighbors in the 6500 block of Camino Venturoso, just a couple of hundred yards west of La Patera School. After the blast, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Senior Deputy Jeremy Rogers said, at least one neighbor called 9-1-1 to report a suspicious person in a parked vehicle.
“Upon arrival, deputies learned there had been an explosion involving one of the suspect’s vehicles,” Rogers said. “Multiple windows had been blown from the suspect’s vehicle, sending debris a distance of more than 40 feet to each side.”
That suspect — identified by authorities as 43-year-old James F. Girona — was treated for minor injuries.
“Further investigation revealed Girona had been using volatile chemicals as part of a suspected butane honey oil extraction, when something went wrong, sparking the explosion,” Rogers said.
In addition to finding items allegedly related to the suspected drug lab, he said a search of the vehicle also revealed a live alligator snapping turtle that Girona apparently had brought with him from New York.
The not-so-cuddly reptile is listed as a threatened species, although it also is considered an invasive one, especially around freshwater bodies of water.
The turtle did not appear to be hurt, or shell-shocked, and it was turned over to an animal shelter.
Girona was booked into County Jail on suspicion of manufacturing a controlled substance. Bail was set at $75,000.
There were no other injuries in the incident, but Rogers said a nearby parked car had minor collateral damage. I can almost see the new Farmers Insurance commercial for its Hall of Claims: “Oh, Snap.”
Hey, we know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.
4. BizHawk: Mesa Burger Opens in Goleta’s Camino Real Marketplace
Mesa Burger, which opened a few years ago at 315 Meigs Road in the heart of Santa Barbara’s Mesa neighborhood, has expanded to a second location at Camino Real Marketplace, which is essentially the heart of Goleta.
As our Josh Molina previously reported, Mesa Burger took over the former home of Kahuna Grill, which closed in February after 17 years in business.
“We think it’s a great family neighborhood,” regional manager Pixie Saavedra told Josh. “It’s been wonderful so far. The neighbors are friendly, the families are nice, and we’re just happy to be here.”
She also confirmed that the company, which is co-owned by celebrity chef Cat Cora and Chris Chiarappa, will be opening a third Mesa Burger at 1209 Coast Village Road, the Montecito space abruptly vacated by Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf last month. Construction is expected to begin in the fall.
5. Bill Macfadyen: Madness of the MAD Academy Not Limited to Santa Barbara High Campus
School’s out for the summer at Santa Barbara High School’s Multimedia Arts and Design Academy. And not a scandal too soon.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Trader Joe’s Store Robbed at Gunpoint on Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
My wife, Missy, is a true Steph Curry and Golden State Warriors, so this one’s for her: It Takes Real Skills to Be a Fake Stephen Curry. And click here to see the video that clicked with Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
I’m still glum about the abandoned, dilapidated baseball diamond adjacent to the beautifully maintained Los Alamos County Park. The saddest sight in Santa Barbara County is in my Instagram feed. #losalamos
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Watch It
My friend, former Santa Barbara County District Attorney Stan Roden, has been more than dabbling in videography in retirement. With this story, he became a documentarian. I won’t ever forget what happened in Montecito, but Stan’s helping to make sure our community won’t forget either.
(Stan Roden video)
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk and Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.