A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge sentenced two Carpinteria men to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday for the 2021 shooting that killed two Santa Barbara High School students and injured two other people. 

Family members spoke emotionally in court about the loss of the victims: 17-year-old Angel Castillo and 18-year-old Omar Montiel-Hernandez. 

“He was everything to me,” said Rita Castillo, Angel’s mother. “That day that he left the house it was like any other day.”

She told him to be careful, like always, she said, and he said, “’Don’t worry, mom, I always come back safe.’” 

“I still wait for him sometimes, thinking he’s going to come through the door,” she said.

In January, a Superior Court jury found Angel Varela, 31, and Oscar Trujillo-Gutierrez, 30, guilty of murder for the fatal shootings.

The jury also found them guilty of premeditated attempted murder for shooting and injuring two other men in the Jan. 3, 2021 attack on Liberty Street in Santa Barbara. 

Investigators said the shooting was gang-related. Prosecutors presented evidence, including vehicle tracking, security footage and cell phone activity for the suspects during the trial. 

Varela was convicted of personally discharging a gun causing death, and a jury also affirmed gang-related allegations. The jury found that both men were members of the Carpas criminal street gang in Carpinteria and had committed the murders for the benefit of the gang. 

Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez had driven around Eastside Santa Barbara as an attempt to hunt members of the rival Eastside gang, and targeted Liberty Street, prosecution witnesses said during the trial. 

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

Judge Stephen Foley sentenced Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders and enhancements, plus additional years in prison for the attempted murders. 

Both men have been held in county jail custody without bail since their arrests in April 2021. 

“Angel had a future. He didn’t deserve to die because of a stupid thing, because of a gang,” Rita Castillo said. 

“His little brother asks me all the time, ‘How come the bad guys killed his brother?’” she said. 

Every birthday wish and every letter to Santa he “asks for his brother back.” 

She told the judge she wants him to see that Angel was important, and that her whole family has suffered after his death. 

“They’re never going to know what they did to me, they’re never going to know what they destroyed in me,” she said of Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez.

She said she couldn’t keep hating them for what they did, and does forgive them. 

Richard Castillo said he loved seeing his nephew Angel grow from a baby to a young man. 

“He always looked after his family before he looked after himself,” he said. 

Rachel Castillo, another family member, said Angel loved to fish and barbecue for his family. He dreamed of having a big house one day, probably a ranch to fit all the animals he loved, she said. 

“He lit up our lives like a Christmas tree. and now that he’s gone, that light’s a little dimmer,” she said. “I don’t think the defendants know how much they ruined our lives forever.” 

Dyana Castro, one of Angel’s teachers at Santa Barbara High School, called him a bright and kind student. 

“It was a loss that also sent shock waves through our entire school community,” she said. 

Montiel-Hernandez’s mother, Nancy Hernandez, and other family members wore shirts with Omar’s face on them in the courtroom. 

“That day my life changed completely,” she recalled.

Losing him meant losing one of her biggest supports, and her younger son keeps asking when Omar will come back, she said. Every year on his birthday, they set aside cake for him and his little brother blows out the candles.

‘They don’t know the suffering they caused me and the suffering they caused their own families,” she said. 

Varela, Trujillo-Gutierrez and Emilio Perez, who was 17 years old at the time of the shooting, drove from Carpinteria to Santa Barbara the day of the murders, according to court testimony.

Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez left the car, and Varela fired multiple shots. Perez drove the car away while the other two fled on foot, according to court testimony. 

Perez was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in juvenile court, since he was a minor at the time, according to the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office. 

On Thursday, Foley sentenced Varela to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole and 133 years to life in prison. 

He sentenced Trujillo-Gutierrez to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole and 33 years to life in prison. 

Foley called it a horrific case. He said the “most shocking thing” was that both defendants were in their mid-20s at the time of the murders, grew up with both parents, did not have mental health issues and were employed.

“There’s nothing we can point to to explain,” he said. “The damage done by Mr. Trujillo and his codefendant will last forever.” 

Trujillo-Gutierrez’s attorney said his client was found to be the non-shooter and asked for the minimum sentence allowed under the law. 

Both defense attorneys said they advised their clients not to make statements at the sentencing since they may appeal the case. 

Foley also addressed and denied the defense attorneys’ motions for a new trial.

They alleged a juror could have seen one of the defendants in shackles during the trial, possibly prejudicing them in this case, and also argued the judge should have instructed the jury about self-defense. 

Noozhawk staff writers Pricila Flores and Daniel Green contributed reporting to this story.