Photo: Nicholas Lynch
September 22, 2020 – Santa Barbara, Ca.
The UCSB campus, virtually shut down for regular class sessions due to California pandemic restrictions, remains a stunning natural setting and a powerful magnet for visitors ranging from local area surfers to tourists to drug dealers eager to supply students with some form of recreation they can freely enjoy while locked down and engaged in day-long online classes.
Jerrod Kelly
Because the community of Isla Vista—usually an active student mecca immediately adjacent to the university campus—is currently something of a ghost town with the majority of retail and eatery establishments shut down, individuals driving those narrow streets are easily spotted by Santa Barbara County Sheriff and Isla Vista Foot Patrol deputies. Patrol deputies spotted an unfamiliar vehicle cruising the streets just after midnight on September 19 th , which prompted what SBSD Public Information Officer Raquel Zick described as “a traffic enforcement stop.”
When deputies made contact with the driver of the vehicle, Oceanside resident Nicholas Lynch, they discovered he was not in possession of a valid California Driver’s License. The deputies also spotted “a firework launching tube” on the back seat of the vehicle, prompting a further probable cause inspection of the car and its occupants.
Moments later, with Lynch and his companion Jerrod Kelly—also an Oceanside resident—standing outside their car, deputies discovered “multiple Xanax and oxycodone pills, black tar heroin, a scale covered in residue, cocaine, and over $6700 in cash.”
That was enough to put both Kelly and Lynch in handcuffs and on their way to Santa Barbara County Jail, where
they were booked on charges of transportation for sales of a controlled substance, conspiracy, and possession of a controlled substance.
Following their booking on the two felonies, Lynch and Kelly were “released with zero bail” pursuant to California’s Emergency Rule 4.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
