Four people were arrested Thursday when authorities served search warrants connected to a double shooting near Goleta, and at least two allegedly are directly connected with the homicides, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
Two local college students were fatally shot midday on Jan. 7 in a vehicle parked in a residential neighborhood, during what Sheriff Bill Brown described as a “drug deal that went bad.”
At an afternoon press conference Thursday, Brown said that Enzo Marino Rastelli, 19, of Santa Barbara, and Jasper Pieter van der Meulen, 19, of Isla Vista, were attemping to sell marijuana when they fell victim to a “robbery ripoff.”
Both men were shot in the head and died of their injuries, Brown said.
On Thursday morning, sheriff’s deputies and SWAT team members served warrants at four locations in the city of Santa Barbara — on the 1900 block of Robbins Street, the 800 block of San Pascual Street, the 600 block of West Cota Street, and 600 block of North Voluntario Street — and arrested three men and a 15-year-old juvenile, Brown said.
A county helicopter and Santa Barbara police officers also were involved in serving the warrants.
Taken into custody were Bryan Munoz, 21, Joshua Isaac Vega, 24, and the teen, whose name was not released because of his age, Brown said. All are from Santa Barbara.
A fourth man — Jorge Luis Silva Guevara, 32, of Santa Barbara — was arrested on unrelated drug charges while deputies were serving search warrants, he added.
Munoz was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of homicide with special circumstances that there were multiple killings, and they were committed in the course of a robbery. He also is accused of robbery, conspiracy, and committing the crimes for the benefit of a criminal street gang.
He was being held without bail Thursday, according to Brown.
Vega was booked on suspicion of robbery and conspiracy, and was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
The juvenile was booked on an outstanding no-bail warrant for a probation violation, Brown said.
Brown said investigators have logged 2,000 hours on this case, and that there may be additional charges in the future.
“It appears as though these murders were the result of a drug deal that went bad, and that the suspects committed a robbery rip-off,” Brown said.
He said the two men who were shot were selling marijuana, and that investigators found about a half-pound of pot at the scene. Brown said there was no information that would connect this to a legal cannabis operation.
“The victims of this terrible crime … were two college students. Two college students who made some bad choices and fell victim to what is often thought to be a victimless crime, the illicit sale of drugs — in this case marijuana,” he said.
Rastelli was declared dead at the scene, and van der Meulen, who was critically wounded, died Jan. 28 at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
The neighborhood where the shootings occurred is south of Hollister Avenue, near San Marcos High School, and backs up to Atascadero Creek and then More Mesa.
After the shootings were reported, deputies scoured the area looking for the shooter, who reportedly fled the scene on foot, but did not contact anyone or take anyone into custody.
Hope Slason, a friend of Rastelli, attended the press conference with photos of Rastelli and “Justice for Jasper and Enzo” signs.
“I heard of this awful event that happened, and seven days later I saw Enzo’s face on the news,” Slason told Noozhawk. “I want humanity to know that when a young life is taken, he will be remembered and his legacy will live on.”
Brown asked members of the public to report instances of this type of drug-related “robbery ripoff” to authorities, since they are looking for other potential robbery victims.
People who get robbed in the commission of a drug sale can be reluctant to come forward, Brown said, but he added that the Sheriff’s Office is “not interested in the drug dealing part,” they’re interested in the robberies.
Anyone with information or video is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau at 805.681.4150, or call the department’s anonymous tip line at 805.681.4171.
Noozhawk Staff Writer Jade Martinez-Pogue contributed to this report.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
