Noleta Double Murder Was a Drug Deal Gone Bad, Sheriff Says

Santa Barbara SWAT teams arrested two men Thursday morning suspected in the January 7 murders of 19-year-old college students Enzo Marino Rastelli and Jasper Pieter van der Meulen. 

Both were shot in the head in their Audi station wagon parked along Burtis Street in a quiet Noleta neighborhood. Rastelli was declared dead at the scene; van der Meulen died two weeks later at Cottage Hospital. The motive for the brazen daytime killings had remained a mystery and a source of intense speculation among residents and classmates.

Taken into custody at their homes in Santa Barbara were gang members Bryan Munoz, 21, and Joshua Isaac Vega, 24. According to court records, both have only minor criminal histories with previous arrests for driving on a suspended license and evading a peace officer.