Santa Barbara police have made another arrest in the investigation into the 2021 Liberty Street shooting deaths of 17-year-old Angel Castillo and 18-year-old Omar Montiel-Hernandez.
Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale said Tuesday that detectives arrested Jasmine Ochoa, 24, of Carpinteria on suspicion of aiding, assisting and harboring her boyfriend, Angel Eduardo Varela, one of the accused shooters, after the killings occurred on Jan. 3, 2021.
Ochoa was taken into custody on Friday, and booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail on suspicion of being an accessory to murder, Ragsdale said. She was being held without bail.
Ochoa was criminally charged as an accessory, which is a felony, on Monday, according to Superior Court records.
Two Carpinteria men have been charged with murder and attempted murder in connection to the shooting deaths of Castillo and Montiel-Hernandez.
Two other people were injured in the shooting, but their names and ages have not been released by police.
Varela, 27, and Oscar Martin Trujillo-Gutierrez, 26, have both pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and denied special allegations in Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
The criminal allegations include participating in a criminal street gang, committing murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang, and committing multiple murders.
They have been held in custody at the Main Jail with no bail set since their April 2021 arrests.
Varela and Trujillo-Gutierrez have court hearings scheduled for a preliminary hearing setting later this month.
Santa Barbara police arrested two other men last April while investigating this case: Fernando Gutierrez, 36, of Carpinteria and Edgardo Romero of Ventura.
Gutierrez, who is believed to have a gang association with the three homicide suspects, was arrested at a Carpinteria home, Ragsdale said at the time.
Gutierrez is being held in Main Jail custody in lieu of $500,000 bail, and has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and denied special allegations, including possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of ammunition, possession of an assault weapon, and participation in a criminal street gang, according to Superior Court records.
Romero, who was 30 at the time of his arrest, was arrested after warrants were served at a Ventura home, according to police.
In August, he pleaded guilty to an accessory charge, possession of an assault weapon, and unlawful assault weapon activity, according to court records.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.