Photo: Jasmine Ochoa
January 10, 2022 – Santa Barbara, Ca.
It was almost exactly a year ago, in the early evening of January 2, 2021 when multiple gunshots rang through Santa Barbara’s lower Eastside. By the time the smoke cleared, 18-year-old Omar Hernandez and a male juvenile lay mortally on the sidewalk.
Upon the arrival of responding police patrol units and emergency medical teams, two additional gunshot victims were contacted and immediately treated for their wounds.
According to the Santa Barbara Police Department’s Community Engagement Manager at the time, Anthony Wagner, there were multiple witness reports, including “one resident who said he heard a rapid-fire of shots that he believed was from a handgun.”
The ensuing investigation led to the arrests of Carpinteria residents Angel Varela, Oscar Martin Trujillo-Guiterrez and Emilio Perez in April of 2021, all of whom have been in custody since then and are facing murder charges with special allegations pursuant to their criminal street gang affiliations.
More than a year after the killings, Santa Barbara Police detectives determined that 24-year-old Carpinteria resident Jasmine Ochoa “aided, assisted, and harbored. On January 7 th , detectives served a search warrant on her Walnut Avenue residence where “they recovered evidence linked to the murders.”
She was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where she was charged with accessory to felony murder and criminal street terrorism. She is currently held without bail.
Photo: courtesy Facebook.com
