Police Warrant Opens Case Against Two in Brennen Death

Santa Barbara police found Lawrence Brennen’s body in his apartment after returning with a search warrant. A welfare check had become a criminal investigation, with charges against two people. Brennen, 39, lay wrapped in a bedroll, inside a metal container and covered with plastic wrap. Police haven’t determined how he died.

At shortly after 9:30 p.m. Oct. 27, police received a call asking them to check on a resident at an apartment in the 100 block of Los Aguajes Avenue. Officers contacted a resident and encountered what a police news release called suspicious circumstances. The next morning, investigators returned with a warrant and found Brennen’s body.

The police investigation

Benjamin Ahrens, commander of the department’s Criminal Investigations Unit, identified Brennen as the apartment’s resident. The unit is leading the inquiry. Ahrens said police consider the circumstances suspicious, but they haven’t determined the manner of death.

Toxicology results were still pending, and Ahrens said they’d probably take several weeks to return. Until then, a central question remains unanswered: how Brennen died. Police have established that they found his body; investigators are still looking into the circumstances surrounding his death.

The sequence matters. Police first responded to a welfare-check call, contacted a resident and noted suspicious circumstances. Investigators then returned with a search warrant and found Brennen. The warrant marks when police searched the apartment and located his body; the information provided doesn’t say what officers found during their first contact beyond those suspicious circumstances.

Charges remain allegations

Police arrested Jenica Monique Ochoa, 45, and Kenneth Eugene Tompkins, 43, on Oct. 28. A criminal complaint charges them with conspiracy to commit a crime and concealing a death. Prosecutors allege they concealed Brennen’s body sometime between Oct. 23 and Oct. 27. Both deny the allegations and have pleaded not guilty.

Those distinctions matter: the complaint contains prosecutors’ claims, not a finding of guilt. The case now moves through the court system, where the charges will be addressed. Ochoa and Tompkins were arraigned Friday and are due back in court Nov. 30, when the court will set a date for a preliminary hearing.

The court process ahead

Prosecutors also allege that both defendants qualify for sentencing enhancements because of prior strike felony convictions. The complaint cites Ochoa’s 2008 burglary conviction in Santa Barbara County and Tompkins’ 2014 burglary conviction in Tulare County. Prosecutors are raising those convictions as part of the case; they don’t resolve the allegations concerning Brennen’s death.

For now, police are conducting the investigation, prosecutors have filed charges, and the court will determine the next procedural steps. The available account gives no cause of death, toxicology findings or resolution of the allegations. It lays out the police timeline and prosecutors’ claims, while how Brennen died remains unsettled. Toxicology results will probably take several weeks to return.