Jonathan Castaneda
Santa Barbara – What appears to have been a verbal confrontation between two men walking the streets of downtown Santa Barbara just after noon on February 10th led to a violent confrontation leading to the stabbing of one man and the felony arrest of the other.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman Lt. Kenneth Kushner, Jonathan Castaneda, a 27-year-old resident of Oxnard, was arguing loudly with his victim amid pedestrian traffic just outside of The Sportsman Bar.
Their discourse led them to a nearby alley, where “the victim grabbed Castaneda’s sunglasses and tossed them onto the roof of the Sportsman,” Kushner reported.
Undoubtedly frustrated and taking considerable umbrage at such a display of wanton disregard for his sunglasses, Castaneda allegedly pulled a knife and stabbed his disrespectful companion no less than three times, once in the face.
At that point, Castaneda fled the scene on foot, rushing off to join the throngs of tourists ambling down busy State Street.
Inexplicably, however, as responding police and detectives were at the scene of the attack conducting an investigation and retrieving evidence—including the sunglasses and the knife itself—Castaneda made his way back to The Sportsman Bar and was promptly identified as the suspected attacker.
At that point, Castaneda was taken into custody and arrested. He was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
His victim was transported to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital with, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoober, “non-life-threatening injuries.”
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
