A trial date has finally been set for a TikTok star accused of shooting his ex-wife and her lover to death after spying on them through their daughter’s iPad.
Ali Abulaban, 29, who went by JinnKid on social media, is accused of shooting his wife, Ana Abulaban, 28, and his friend Rayburn Cadenas Barron, 29, on October 21, 2021.
Prosecutors said Ali, who has a history of domestic violence, had surreptitiously installed a listening device on his five-year-old daughter’s tablet, and when he heard his wife and another man talking, he went to their apartment in San Diego and Shooting. them to death.
On Monday, Deputy Prosecutor Taren Brast told the court that Ali confessed to killing Ana and Rayburn to her mother and police, and at the time told her daughter that she “hurt mom.”
He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, allegations of use of a pistol and a special circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders.
A trial date has been set for Ali Abulaban, 29, accused of shooting his wife, Ana Abulaban, 28, and his friend Rayburn Cadenas Barron, 29, on October 21, 2021.
Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast told the court that Ali (right) confessed to killing Ana (left) and Rayburn to her mother and police, at which point he told his daughter that he “hurt mom.”
Prosecutors said the jealous Tiktoker believed his wife was cheating on him with Rayburn (pictured), as Brast said Ana and Ali had already been separated ‘for quite some time’ before that.
Ali, who has pleaded not guilty, remains held on bond and is expected to appear in Superior Court in downtown San Diego for a pretrial hearing Wednesday at 9 a.m. It’s unclear why it took him so long to schedule a trial date.
Around 3:10 p.m. on the day of the murders, police discovered both victims dead on the 35th floor of the Spire San Diego luxury apartment complex.
Prosecutors said the jealous Tiktoker believed his wife was cheating on him with Rayburn, as Brast said Ana and Ali had already been separated ‘for quite some time’ before that.
According to Brast, Ana had asked her husband to move out on October 18 while he checked into a hotel.
Three days later, Brast said, Ali sneaked back into the apartment and vandalized it while his wife was away. While she was there, she said she also installed the listening app on her daughter’s iPad.
Prosecutors believe Ali copied a key to Anna’s apartment and used it to get inside.
Hours later, Ali listened to the app and heard his wife and a man talking and laughing, before running back to the skyscraper, Brast said.
Security camera video showed him running out of the elevator on the 35th floor toward the apartment.
Brast said Ali shot Rayburn three times at close range, in the neck, cheek and back of the head, before turning the gun on his wife, shooting her once in the forehead.
After the shooting, prosecutors said Ali went to pick up his 5-year-old daughter from school with a loaded gun in the car. He told his daughter that he ‘hurt mom’ before being arrested by police
At the time of her death, Anna’s heartbroken family created a GoFundMe page to help them with funeral expenses and the cost of bringing her body back to the Philippines.
The suspect then called his mother and confessed, Brast said.
“The defendant then fled the building, went to pick up his daughter from school and still had the loaded gun in his car,” Brast said. ‘[He] He told his daughter that he “hurt mom” and was soon detained by police.
With his young daughter still in the car, Ali was stopped by police that same day and arrested, according to investigators.
A couple who lived across the street from Ali and Anna at the time testified that about a month before the tragic incident, Ana had knocked on their door and asked them to call the police because her husband was beating her.
Neighbors said Anna had asked to use her phone because Ali had taken hers.
Sergeant. Christopher Leahy of the San Diego Police Department later testified that officers were called to the couple’s apartment on nine different occasions since July 2021.
Ali was never arrested in connection with those incidents.
He previously said that he and Anna broke up after they settled in San Diego and that the move was “part of the downfall.”
“My wife wanted me to move her here with her friends to a life where there are tacos on Tuesday, women on Wednesday, partying on Saturday and a bar on Sunday,” Ali said.
While he claimed his ex-wife loved to party, her childhood friend Cassie Conroy said that wasn’t the case.
‘He’s a bad guy. There is nothing good in him. He is selfish. That’s all I can say: selfish,” Conroy said. fox 5.
According to testimony, another friend of Anna’s told police she had planned to get a restraining order against Ali, but she never showed up.
According to testimony, another friend told police that Ana had planned to obtain a restraining order against Ali, but it was never filed.
Before the shooting, Ali had amassed more than 940,000 followers on TikTok and had around 170,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. His account included comedy sketches and impersonations of the character Tony Montana from the 1983 film, “Scarface.”
Before the shooting, Ali had amassed more than 940,000 followers on TikTok and had around 170,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.
His account included comedy sketches and impersonations of the character Tony Montana from the 1983 film Scarface.
Just days before filming, Ali posted an audio trailer for his film Montana: Scarface Prequel Film, which he said was his “vision and desire to give the world a new Scarface story.”
At the time of her death, Anna’s heartbroken family created a GoFundMe page to help them with funeral expenses.
‘Losing a loved one is never easy. Losing a daughter, a sister, a mother in such a violent way is unfathomable,” the page said.
In the most recent update, a family member said that Ana’s body would be sent back to her home in the Philippines.
‘I am heartbroken that this happened to such a beautiful soul. Ana is always in my memories of school with her kind spirit and her contagious laugh,’ a friend commented on the page that has raised more than $20,500.