Edhat Staff
Update by edhat staff
4:00 p.m., February 4, 2021
The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office arrested two people connected to the January 7th shooting that killed two teenagers in the Noleta area.
During a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Sheriff Bill Brown stated a total of four people were arrested during search warrants served at four locations earlier that day. Two of the people arrested are directly related to the double homicide while the other two were arrested during the search warrants, he said.
On January 7th, Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the 600 block of Burtis way in the unincorporated area between Goleta and Santa Barbara, also known as “Noleta,” for reports of gunshots. Witnesses in the area reported seeing a suspect flee the scene on foot.
View of Burtis Street and the victim’s vehicle (Photo: SBSO)
Deputies discovered two male victims in the front seats of a parked vehicle. Santa Barbara City College student Enzo Marino Rastelli, 19, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. UC Santa Barbara student Jasper Pieter van der Meulen, 19, also suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. He fought for his life for a number of days until he succumbed to his injuries and died on January 28, said Sheriff Brown.
Sheriff’s detectives logged over 2,000 hours investigating the case and as a result, they received information regarding two suspects involved in a criminal street gang, said Sheriff Brown. Warrants were served at four residences within the City of Santa Barbara on Thursday morning between 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. in the 1900 block of Robbins, 600 block of W. Cota, 600 block of N. Voluntario, and 800 block of San Pascual.
Three adult males and one juvenile male were arrested.
Bryan Munoz, 21 of Santa Barbara, was arrested for two counts of murder, special circumstances: more than one offense of murder, special circumstance: murder committed during commission of robbery, robbery, criminal conspiracy and felony committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang. He is being held without bail at the Santa Barbara County Jail.
Joshua Isaac Vega, 24 of Santa Barbara, was arrested for robbery and criminal conspiracy. He is currently being held at the county jail with a $50,000 bail amount.
Both Munoz and Vega are believed to be directly connected to the double homicide.
Bryan Munoz (left) and Joshua Isaac Vega (right) [Photos: SBSO]
Jorge Luis Silva Guevara, 32 of Santa Barbara, was arrested for possession of narcotics unrelated to the murder. When he was contacted inside the residence, he refused to comply and was subsequently tased, said Sheriff Bill Brown.
Additionally, a 15-year-old juvenile was arrested on an outstanding no-bail warrant for violation of probation.
Sheriff Brown stated it appears the murders were a result of a drug deal gone bad. The victims, Rastelli and Pieter van der Meulen, were attempting to sell the suspect illegal marijuana when the suspect attempted to rob them, ultimately shooting both men.
Sheriff Brown stated it’s unclear if the suspect intended to kill the men during the robbery or how much marijuana the victims were trying to sell. A half-pound of marijuana was recovered from the scene and it’s most likely illegal marijuana as it’s much cheaper than legal cannabis, he said.
Aerial view of Burtis Street (Photo: SBSO)
“[The victims] were two college students who made some bad choices and fell victim to what often is thought to be a victimless crime, the illicit sale of drugs, in this case, marijuana,” said Sheriff Brown.
The Sheriff’s Office believes this may not have been the first robbery during a drug deal and would like to know from the public if there have been any other instances of people being robbed in the commission of drug sales. They are not interested in the drugs, but want to know if there have been other violent robberies connected to these suspects or other people who may be involved. Anonymous tips can be made at 805-681-4171 or at sbsheriff.org.
“The arrests made today send a clear message to members of criminal street gangs and indeed any other criminal that would come into Santa Barbara County and commit these types of heinous and evil crimes. I can assure you that if you do commit crimes like this in our county, we will hunt you down, after you’ve been identified, we will arrest you, we will put you in jail and we will bring you to justice,” said Sheriff Brown.
Sheriff’s Detectives are continuing to investigate the case and hope to have additional charges, leads, and suspects. At this time they do not believe this event it is connected to the double-homicide that took place in Santa Barbara City on January 4.
Reported by edhat staff
11:30 a.m., February 4, 2021
The Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office conducted multiple raids connected to the January 7th shooting that killed two teenagers in the Noleta area.
Law enforcement officers and armored vehicles from the Sheriff’s Office and Santa Barbara Police Department raided at least three locations on Thursday morning around 9:00 a.m.
Officers were spotted on the Westside of Santa Barbara at San Pascual Street and Del Monte Ave as well as on the Eastside at Voluntario and Alphonse Streets. Scanner traffic stated another incident in the 1900 block of Robbins, although this has yet to be confirmed.
The Sheriff’s Office posted a message on Twitter stating major developments in the double homicide on January 7th will be announced during a press conference at 3:00 p.m.
Two 19-year-old men were shot at while sitting in a vehicle on Burtis Street in the Noleta neighborhood. Enzo Marino Rastelli, 19 of Santa Barbara, died at the scene while 19-year-old Jasper Pieter van der Meulen was taken to the hospital and died two weeks later.
Sheriff’s Detectives stated the suspect is at large but do not the general public is at risk. They asked anyone with information or security possible camera footage from the area to come forward.
This article will be updated following the Sheriff’s Office press conference.
Reported by Roger the Scanner Guy
9:37 a.m., February 4, 2021
Sheriff standoff with a subject tased in the 1900 block of Robbins. SBPD, Fire Department, and Medic’s are responding code 3 (with lights and sirens).
By Scanner Andrew
Photos of the standoff near San Andres on the Westside of Santa Barbara.
By Dr. Angela Duffy Kelly
I had just returned from my daily walk [on the eastside]. Every morning, I enjoy our beautiful city. I live in the house our family has owned for decades. This morning was different. I heard something that I thought was a television program. It was a loud voice coming through a loudspeaker saying the words ” We have a search warrant, Come out with your hands up.”
I have heard that in a movie theater but never while standing in my own living room. Then I heard a helicopter and what sounded like loud trucks. I could write pages about how disturbing this experience was since our family has lived in this house forever and although we have had a lot of neighborhood events, NEVER, have we seen military tank-like vehicles or swat officers who look like soldiers at first glance with machine guns within sight of our front porch. I now have a profound empathy for all who are living in places where armed soldiers are a common sight. I just never expected it to be in our sweet beach town Santa Barbara.
Sheriff raid in an eastside Santa Barbara neighborhood (Photo: Angela Duffy Kelly)
Photos by Angela Duffy Kelly
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I call them BFT’s.
do you really need someone to explain this to you? or are you just being sarcastic? i would hope for your own common sense that it’s the latter of the two. Look at the image. Do you see two large, military green painted APC? Because I do. They also have a shield turret mounted at the top, giving it the resemblance of a tank to those not well informed.
while i’m hoping they catch the monster that killed the two men, this military type raid is exactly what the ‘defund the police’ is about for those who didnt know. Sheriff departments across the nation are/were being militarized and loaded up with equipment and gear made for war, not community policing. I have several friends with SBPD, they can back this up. Not the PD, but the Sheriff department have this gear, aren’t trained in it’s proper use. This is a problem, but so are the bad guys….
They don’t have turrets, and they’re not tracked vehicles, but APCs, so Cwazy is sticking to technicalities. Whatever you call them, they’re complete overkill for local law enforcement unless they need to raid firearms worshippers like Cwazy.
LMAO…..”…my sweet Santa Barbara…” Pleeeeze! The cops have to go after bad people that live in your “Sweet Santa Barbara” and those same cops are allowed to do their JOB and then GO HOME SAFELY after their shift is over… If that means wearing full body armor and being protected by a SWAT vehicle against potentially lethal weapons. SO BE IT! Remember the guy in the Apt in Goleta last year that was shooting REAL bullets at the cops coming to get him….? Take a dose of reality please.
Two FBI agents were killed a couple of days ago while arresting a child porn suspect in suburban Florida. So no, it’s not too much for someone suspected of killing two young adults.
ZERO: “…giving it the resemblance of a tank to those not well informed.” Not-well-informed. You nailed it! That pretty much sums up the pearl-clutchers.
But, but, but…I thought decriminalization of marijuana was going to put an end to this sort of thing? A pro-legalization website, called DrugPolicy.org, specifically states that legalization will “Reduce Harm”:
“The criminalization of marijuana use disproportionately harms young people and people of color, sponsors massive levels of violence and corruption, and fails to curb youth access.” (1)
So how’s that working out???
(1) https://drugpolicy.org/issues/marijuana-legalization-and-regulation
Has Das issues a statement…seems to me to be appropriate since he Mr Marijuana
Not all of us kill over weed but some people kill over anything if they did not kill those poor kids over weed they would have killed someone over something else. They were looking to kill because they are killers. If they were to shut down legal weed tomorrow I would still be smoking it I would never kill over it wow I thought it was Heroin never weed that is shocking it was probably dirt weed too…As far as defunding the police I will never be for it they need all that shit to take the bad guys down that is my opinion. As far as Robbins street goes at least I spelled it correctly.
Never seen the Cartel or Bangers shooting people execution style over diamonds and furs.
“This incident is not about marijuana.”
Perhaps you should email the Edhat Staff so they can change the headline.
LOL!!! Guess they should show up next time in dockers and a polo shirt looking for these guys. Ask your ‘friends’ with the PD and I bet they’ll tell you they wish they had this type of equipment if in fact they don’t have it.
JFC @ Freak. Look a little deeper every once in a while.
For one thing, we are not unnecessarily spending billions of dollars keeping people in prison for smoking pot, where many of them inevitably would become a magnitude greater of criminal in order to survive being incarcerated and then bring that lovely new skill set back to society upon release.
You really love to cherry pick your issues don’t you, Freak.
Oops, pretty sure that they didn’t kill these young men over legal marijuana, which is what Das has promoted.
How is it that people like you are so incapable of the most basic rational thinking.
Zerohawk amd Angela Duffy Kelly – time to wake up to reality. Coastwatch summed it up. Go ahead, try and go in with a knock on the door and maybe pistol on your hip (or is that too much for you defender types?) and see if you get to go back home to your family that evening when you KNOW you’re about to face a cold blooded killer opening the door right in front of your face. There are some real hardcore criminals on the westside Angela, all around you. Surprised you haven’t noticed, but now you have.
Defund the police? I don’t think so.
So, what do you want zerohawk? A deputy with a six-shooter calling these guys out at high noon? Gangsters are seriously armed up now, so cops have to have ‘overwhelming force’ to take them down without major shootouts. I wish it were not so, but that’s the reality. Note please that no one was injured in this take-down, except maybe the tased idiot. And I take exception to the comment about deputies not being trained properly. There is zero evidence of this; the resources have been effectively deployed many times.
De-fund the GANGS.
Basic, i like how you really drop down to the other side of things to sway your opinion. A knock at the door and a pistol? Ok, that’s just dumb. When, since the 1960s, have any police department or sheriff department knock with a pistol? Maybe in some old timey movie. Your sarcastic comment is pointless. Using military grade gear and weapons and APC with shield turrets is over the top. Big time. Real hardcore criminals? There was two and they are arrested. This is Santa Barbara, not LA. We get some issues, but frankly, most of the murders in Santa Barbara are committed by the Sheriff department. Fact. Math doesn’t lie. Now go a head and keep arguing facts and reality with yourself. People like you create drama and problems and can’t look at things for how they are. Defender type? Seems that would be yourself as well. Defending the use of military grade weapons and APC. I have close friends at SBPD. I would want them safe and protected. They don’t use APC and military grade weapons. This is about the sheriff department in Santa Barbara, not the SBPD. Very different people…now continue your trumpeting. Carry on.
??it’s not about weed, FFS. two men lost their lives and you want to whine about the weed? grow up.
Oops, keep your rude politically charged comment for a thread related to such. This is about two men that were murdered. Das has nothing to do with this nor does a plant FFS
SWAT team could have handled this with their armored vehicle. Using military APC’s with shield turrets is over the top. SWAT and Sheriff. Two different groups. Again with the stupid 6 shooter comment. Is that all you fear mongering people have as a retort? I stated my opinion and some facts. What’s your problem? Not like i care really, and not like i’m going to check back for your response lol…
They should have just sent social service workers to have a nice chat with these killers right? Defund the police? Hell no.
Darn right it’s not about marijuana. It’s all about a bunch of gang members assassinating a couple of college guys who were competing with the gang’s illicit marijuana business.
Das has ruined our community over “Legal Weed”. We still have panga boats landing on our beaches, shoot outs in our neighborhoods, thankfully no innocent bystander was walking their dog near the car when this drug deal went down.
What is the next “harmless” drug on his list..mushrooms??
And Yes our politicians are & need to be held accountable!