Two Men Sentenced to Life Without Parole for 2021 Liberty Street Murders in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara County District Attorney John Savrnoch announced that Angel Varela and Oscar Trujillo-Gutierrez have been sentenced to life terms for the 2021 shooting that killed two people and wounded two others on Liberty Street in Santa Barbara.

A jury in January found both men guilty of two counts of premeditated and deliberate first-degree murder for the benefit of a gang, two counts of premeditated and deliberate attempted murder for the benefit of a gang, and an unrelated felony assault that occurred while they were incarcerated at the Santa Barbara County Jail.

Judge-imposed sentences are as follows:

• Angel Varela: two terms of life without the possibility of parole, plus 133 years to life.
• Oscar Trujillo-Gutierrez: two terms of life without the possibility of parole, plus 33 years to life.

Prosecutors said that on the evening of January 3, 2021, Varela, Trujillo-Gutierrez, and a juvenile drove from Carpinteria to the 1200 block of Liberty Street in Santa Barbara and opened fire on a group of individuals, killing two and injuring two.

The Santa Barbara Police Department investigated the case. The juvenile was prosecuted in Santa Barbara County Juvenile Court; after a 2024 trial, the court found true that he committed two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of premeditated and deliberate attempted murder for the benefit of the gang.

In the January verdict, jurors also found true special circumstances for multiple murders and a special allegation that Varela discharged a firearm causing death. In a bifurcated proceeding, the jury found both defendants were active participants in the Carpas gang of Carpinteria and that the murders were committed for the benefit of the gang, along with other gang-related allegations.

The defendants were additionally convicted of assault likely to cause great bodily injury for a September 19, 2022 attack inside the county jail while awaiting trial.

The victims of the shooting were identified as 17-year-old Angel Castillo and 18-year-old Omar Montiel-Hernandez, both of Santa Barbara. Family members remembered Castillo as a devoted older brother who dreamed of owning an autobody shop, and Montiel-Hernandez as a protective sibling who told his mother, “La vida es tan bonita” — life is beautiful.

Authorities arrested the three suspects on April 8, 2021, after SBPD and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office teams served warrants at locations in Carpinteria and Summerland, briefly locking down a Carpinteria neighborhood.

Following the verdicts in January, SBPD Chief Kelly Gordon thanked detectives and prosecutors, noting the significant impact of the case on the victims’ families and the community.