00:00:00
[AUDIO LOGO] [LIGHT MUSIC] [gunshots] Zara Barker: There's a dark
side to social media,
00:00:23
and I think that's what
we saw with the rise and fall of JinnKid. Taren Brast: People thought
that Ana and Ali were happy
00:00:32
together because there
were a lot of posts that they were
in a happy marriage and everything was great.
00:00:37
And making posts about
not only their lives together, but about
his career, him wanting
00:00:43
to do comedy impersonations,
but behind the scenes, it was a lot different. Zara Barker: Ali
seemed to really like
00:00:52
to control
the narrative of what other people could see between
his relationship with his wife.
00:00:58
There was a point where
he was live streaming fights that him
and his wife were having for the world to see.
00:01:04
And he didn't seem to have
any shame about it. Christopher Leahy: The verbal
arguments are escalating
00:01:15
into physical assault. Summer Stephan: Ana was trying
to get a restraining order.
00:01:21
She kicked him out. Ana made the fatal mistake
of being happy for a moment, and he couldn't stand that.
00:01:35
Christopher Leahy:
But then our communications division received a 911 call. Summer Stephan: This is
the most selfish, narcissistic
00:02:00
mindset, when people take
another life, especially a mother's life, like that.
00:02:10
[theme music] ♪ ♪ Zara Barker: Ali Abulaban
had joined the military. And he was stationed
in Okinawa, Japan.
00:02:39
While he was in Okinawa, he had
enjoyed some of the nightlife. And while he was
there, he ended
00:02:44
up having some mutual friends
and ran into a woman named Ana. Christopher Leahy: Ana
was a Filipino national,
00:02:53
but living in Okinawa. She had a group of friends. There's a large Filipino
community in Okinawa, Japan.
00:03:02
Zara Barker: They
didn't start talking or have a relationship
right away, but there was one day
where Ali was working
00:03:08
the gate on the military
base in Japan, and Ana ended up driving
through that base.
00:03:14
He stopped her and asked
for her identification. And instead of maybe
going through the process
00:03:18
he was supposed to, he ended
up giving her his phone number. And that's where we see
the Ali and Ana story begin.
00:03:27
Ali and Ana started dating. They talked on the phone. They talked on social media.
00:03:31
Their relationship seemed
to blossom very fast. They were hanging out with
each other as friends,
00:03:36
mutual friends,
going to parties, bars, and then they kind
of became inseparable.
00:03:44
narrator:<i> Before long,</i>
<i> Ana and Ali's relationship</i>
00:03:47
<i> turned serious.</i> <i> From the outside, they seemed</i>
<i> like a normal loving couple.</i>
00:03:52
<i> But on an August night</i>
<i> in 2015, Ali is involved</i>
00:03:57
<i> in a violent incident.</i> Taren Brast: There
is an incident where Ali struck another male,
and so that case was reported.
00:04:08
Zara Barker: Ali ended
up getting discharged from the military
because of an alleged fight
00:04:12
that he had had with
one of Ana's friends. Now, his version
of that story and
00:04:17
her friend's version of that
story are very different. [airplane's engine]
00:04:22
Ali had moved back to Virginia
after being discharged, and Ana had moved back
to the Philippines
00:04:27
to be with her family. Shortly after moving
back to the Philippines, Ana found out she was
pregnant with Ali's daughter.
00:04:35
narrator:<i> With</i>
<i> a daughter on the way,</i> <i> Ali and Ana decide to raise her</i>
<i> together in the United States.</i>
00:04:43
Taren Brast: He did help Ana
come to the United States to get a visa to be
able to live there
00:04:48
after their daughter was born. And so Ana and Ali lived in
Virginia for a couple of years.
00:04:55
They were both working. They got a house. They lived near his family, but
Ana wasn't necessarily
00:05:01
happy there. It was more isolating. She didn't have a lot
of friends around.
00:05:06
She didn't have her
own family around. And so she did want
to move to San Diego.
00:05:14
She had some friends from
high school, from Japan here, and so she came out
to visit with Ali.
00:05:24
They hung out at a party with
several of Ana's friends. That's where they
both first met Ray.
00:05:31
And Ray had shown
some interest in Ana and told Ali he was
lucky to have her. - He was making these
comments to Ali, commenting
00:05:39
about how beautiful Ana was. Ricardo Escalante: Ali was very
jealous, and because of that,
00:05:48
you know, he didn't like him. narrator:<i> When they returned</i>
<i> to Virginia after their trip</i>
00:05:55
<i> to San Diego, Ali</i>
<i> decides to chase</i> <i> his dream of becoming</i>
<i> an actor and starts</i>
00:06:00
<i> making videos on social media.</i> Zara Barker: Around
the pandemic time,
00:06:15
Ali went to social media and
started doing impersonations. Ricardo Escalante: He
basically portrayed
00:06:22
characters like Tony Montana. [Banging the door] - You wanna [beep] with me? OK, now, OK.
00:06:29
Jenna, Jenna, where's
my [beep] lighter? Ricardo Escalante:
Characters like Tekashi 69.
00:06:35
Zara Barker: Ali
Abulaban had grown into what some would consider
a social media star or
00:06:41
a social media celebrity. He had amassed more
than 1 million followers on all of the platforms
he was on,
00:06:47
such as Instagram and TikTok. He was known under
the username as JinnKid, and he often did these
impressions of characters that
00:06:55
were often pretty violent. - Find me up in the bathtub. Hector comes with
the [beep] chainsaw.
00:06:59
Manoro comes in, he shoots
the [beep] lady on the bed. I shoot two guys, kill Hector.
00:07:04
Everybody's [beep] dead. Zara Barker: In some of his
early JinnKid videos, we could see Ana
in the background.
00:07:10
We could hear Ana
in the background laughing. So we know, at least
from social media,
00:07:14
that she was very involved
in his early days of JinnKid and seemed to really approve
of what he was doing.
00:07:22
narrator:<i> Ana began building</i>
<i> her social media following</i>
00:07:25
<i> by sharing everyday</i>
<i> moments of joy</i> <i> with her daughter, friends,</i>
<i> and her seemingly healthy</i>
00:07:30
<i> relationship with her husband.</i> Taren Brast: Making posts
about not only their lives
00:07:36
together but about his
career, him wanting to do comedy impersonations. And so he and Ana
started that in Virginia,
00:07:45
but it was more when
they moved to San Diego that the fame was there for Ali
where he got more followers.
00:07:53
Ali did not want
to move here, but Ana wanted to and so he
knew that he could get more famous
being near LA, and
00:08:01
so they ultimately decided
to move to San Diego in February of 2021. [cool music]
00:08:13
They moved into a high
rise apartment complex in East Village called
Spire San Diego.
00:08:19
They had an apartment
on the 35th floor where they lived with their daughter. Zara Barker: If you saw Ali
Abulaban on social media
00:08:29
and his beautiful wife,
Ana, you would look at them and think, wow,
they have it all.
00:08:35
They have a beautiful life. They have a beautiful
home and a daughter. They seem to have
it all together.
00:08:40
This case just proves that what
you see online is not something you can believe.
00:08:45
There's always
more to the story. narrator:<i> The picture-perfect</i>
<i> relationship seen online</i>
00:08:51
<i> hit a far different and violent</i>
<i> reality behind closed doors.</i>
00:08:58
Taren Brast: Ali had hit Ana,
punched her a couple times in the face in July of 2021.
00:09:04
She didn't report
it to police, but she left him for a couple
of days, told him
00:09:09
that he was wrong for what
he did and he can't be violent with her like that.
00:09:14
And he did make some
admissions over messages through Instagram where he
apologized for losing control.
00:09:21
And he won't do it again,
and he'll change and get help. That's a typical cycle
of domestic violence
00:09:28
where an abuser hurts
the victim and then apologizes. I love you, you know. Take me back.
00:09:36
And so she took him back. narrator:<i> Fights between</i>
<i> the couple-- once confined</i>
00:09:43
<i> to behind closed</i>
<i> doors-- began playing</i> <i> out in the online world.</i>
00:09:48
Zara Barker: There
was a point where he was live streaming
fights that him and his wife
00:09:52
were having. What would usually be a private
fight between two parents, between two partners, he was
live streaming these fights
00:10:00
for the world to see. And he didn't seem to have
any shame about it. narrator:<i> Ali was paranoid</i>
<i> that Ana was cheating on him.</i>
00:10:26
- When Ali started live
streaming the fights that him and Ana were
having, this really
00:10:31
blurred the lines of his
personal and his private life. Taren Brast: As he
got more fame,
00:10:37
he thought he was
invincible, that he could do whatever he wanted and there
wouldn't be any repercussions.
00:10:43
- He's actually telling
Ana that, you know, he's a internet star,
and he called himself a god.
00:11:04
Zara Barker: The fame maybe
really got to Ali's head. He was blurring the lines
of who Jinn Kidd was,
00:11:09
who Ali Abulaban was,
and his loyal fan base really seemed to maybe
stroke his ego at the time.
00:11:28
Zara Barker: Ali had
a lot of followers online. And even in the midst
of his own personal decline,
00:11:33
his followers still seem
to stay loyal to him. Summer Stephan: Unfortunately,
with social media
00:11:38
now, it's very confusing. Kids don't know what's
real and what's not real.
00:11:44
They see so many
examples of violence that makes it seem cool and OK. Zara Barker: As we saw
his marriage declining,
00:11:54
it seemed that he cared
more about his followers, his fame and his presence
online than he did about Ana.
00:12:01
- Ultimately, things
kept escalating into August, and especially
in September of 2021.
00:12:08
She did report one
incident to the police on September 8 of 2021. Taren Brast: Ali had pushed
her down in their bedroom.
00:12:33
She hit her head on the bed. She got some scrapes
on her elbow and knee. At the same time, Ana was
calling 911 on that date,
00:12:42
Ali was making a live
stream on TikTok where he was essentially
berating Ana and accusing her
00:12:51
of calling the police to rat
him out when he's the one who brought her to this country.
00:13:24
Zara Barker: These were really
disgusting and disturbing things for anyone to hear,
especially for a husband to be
00:13:30
saying this about his wife. narrator:<i> These altercations</i>
<i> escalate further and further,</i>
00:13:50
<i> but little did Ana know they</i>
<i> would ultimately turn deadly.</i>
00:13:55
[audio logo] <i> In 2021, Ana Abulaban is living</i>
<i> in San Diego with her husband,</i>
00:14:16
<i> Ali, and their young daughter.</i> <i> Ali is a viral</i>
<i> TikTok star known</i>
00:14:20
<i> as JinnKid, best known for his</i>
<i> Tony Montana impressions.</i>
00:14:25
<i> Behind the scenes, however,</i>
<i> he's abusing cocaine</i>
00:14:28
<i> and behaving erratically.</i> <i> Tensions at home escalate</i>
<i> into violent arguments, some</i>
00:14:34
<i> of which Ali even livestreams.</i> Taren Brast: There were
a couple other incidents
00:14:47
of violence in September where
Ana reported to a neighbor that she was being hurt and
where she reported to a friend
00:14:57
that he had hit her. narrator:<i> Ali is paranoid</i>
<i> that Ana is cheating on him,</i>
00:15:03
<i> when in fact, he is the one</i>
<i> who has been unfaithful.</i>
00:15:09
Christopher Leahy:
In early October, Ana confirmed that Ali
had been having an affair
00:15:14
with an 18-year-old
girl that lived in the condominium complex. That 18-year-old girl
approached Ana and disclosed
00:15:21
to her that she was under
the impression that they had separated, and that she
had recently had sex with
00:15:27
Ali inside their apartment. Zara Barker: She made
a TikTok post about it and he was not happy.
00:15:32
He begged and pleaded with
Ana to take that down. Christopher Leahy:
And so at that point,
00:15:38
Ana told Ali, like,
the relationship is over. So she does move out
with their daughter
00:15:44
and they move in with
one of her girlfriends, who also lived
here in San Diego. - She told him she didn't want
to be married to him anymore,
00:15:53
and he cheated
and the relationship just disintegrated. Christopher Leahy:
Ali started to kind
00:16:01
of tailspin in his life,
decisions he was making, the drugs he was using. And so, ultimately, Ali's
father had a very, very
00:16:10
good relationship with Ana. He loved Ana, he
loved Ana's daughter, and he recognized that his son
was spinning out of control.
00:16:20
Ali's father lived in Virginia,
so his ability to intervene was only so much.
00:16:25
Ultimately, Ana and her
daughter flew out to Virginia and stayed with Ali's
father for about a week,
00:16:33
and Ali's father
encouraged Ana to move. He offered to pay
for an apartment for her,
00:16:40
first and last
month's rent, and get her started because he
was fearful of what Ali
00:16:44
he might do. So he encouraged Ana. He's like, please
just find a place. I'll pay for it.
00:16:50
You know, you need to move out. At some point, Ana and Ali
make this arrangement.
00:16:58
Taren Brast: On October
18, Ana and Ali decided that she
and their daughter would move back
into the Spire Apartment
00:17:05
and he would move out
so that their daughter could have more stable lifestyle. Christopher Leahy:
Ali ends up moving
00:17:11
into a Holiday Inn, a hotel. It's a hotel up
in Mission Bay, which is kind of near the Pacific
Beach area of San Diego.
00:17:19
narrator:<i> Despite</i>
<i> their separation,</i> <i> Ali was unwilling</i>
<i> to accept it was over.</i>
00:17:52
Christopher Leahy: In the
agreement that the couple made was Ali would turn over all of
his electronic key cards, which
00:17:58
would allow him access
into the building and into the apartment
unit, that he would turn that over
to management, which is
00:18:03
what he told Ana he had done. But he had gone to a store and
had one of the keys duplicated,
00:18:09
so he had duplicated
an electronic key card. narrator:<i> Behind</i>
<i> Ana's back, Ali</i>
00:18:17
<i> made a duplicate</i>
<i> of the key card</i> <i> so he could sneak</i>
<i> into the apartment at any time.</i>
00:18:24
Zara Barker: On October
21, 2021, that morning, Ali had been scheduled
to go to Los Angeles
00:18:30
to do something with
his JinnKid persona, or some sort of comedy
skit where he was meeting
00:18:35
up with other personalities. He had been scheduled to go on
that trip for quite some time.
00:18:41
Before he went
on that trip, he had decided that he was going
to send over some groceries and
00:18:46
some Halloween goodies. He had those
groceries delivered, and he waited by his phone
and he didn't hear Ana say
00:18:53
thank you for the groceries. So, in what seemed
to be a fit of rage, Ali drove to the apartment,
went up to the 35th floor
00:19:02
of the Spire Apartments,
went inside the apartment where he used to live. So he had a key
card at that point.
00:19:08
He got into the apartment,
saw the groceries there, and he ended up
trashing the apartment.
00:19:14
He had bought
daughter a pumpkin, threw it on the ground. There were flowers sprung
all throughout the apartment.
00:19:20
After he had trashed
the apartment with the groceries he
had just bought her, Ali saw his daughter's iPad.
00:19:28
Now, Ali had been trying to
catch his wife cheating on him, but he could never prove it
during this time of separation.
00:19:35
So Ali saw his daughter's
iPad, he immediately thought of the app Discord. narrator:<i> Discord</i>
<i> is an app that lets</i>
00:19:42
<i> users chat and voice call.</i> <i> Ali decides to weaponize it</i>
<i> and spy on Ana in her own home.</i>
00:19:51
Zara Barker: He hooked up
the Discord app from that iPad to his phone, so that he could
listen in on everything that
00:19:55
was going on in that
apartment, all by the ease of his own iPhone. Taren Brast: Then he exited.
00:20:04
He threw some of her
clothing in the trash chute. Then he called
Ana on the phone,
00:20:09
Ali accusing her of cheating,
and asking where she was and who she was
with, and her just
00:20:17
constantly telling him
to leave her alone, to stop contacting her. She wasn't with anyone else.
00:20:22
And that was about 9:45. So, Ali left the building. Zara Barker: When he got back
to his hotel, he was tired,
00:20:31
hadn't slept at all
the night before. And he was supposed
to go to Los Angeles.
00:20:35
But at this point, it seemed
that he had kind of canceled that trip because he
was so determined
00:20:40
that he was going to try
and catch Ana with another man. Ali went to sleep. He woke up to the sound
of another man's
00:20:47
voice and R&B music playing
from the iPad to his phone. narrator:<i> Ana is hanging</i>
<i> out with her friend,</i>
00:20:55
<i> Rayburn Cardenas Barron.</i> <i> Ali had always been jealous of</i>
<i> the bond between Ana and Ray,</i>
00:21:01
<i> and constantly accused</i>
<i> her of sleeping with him.</i>
00:21:06
Taren Brast: He hears that Ana
came back with another man. They're giggling,
laughing about him,
00:21:12
and so he was upset and angry. Zara Barker: He jumped
up, grabbed his gun, took cocaine, and sped
to the Spire Apartments.
00:21:23
Once he got
to the Spire Apartments, he put his gun
in his waistband and he went up to the 35th floor.
00:21:31
Taren Brast: He had
a baggy sweatshirt on that covered the belt
area and the holster,
00:21:35
so you couldn't see the gun. And then you see the elevator
open on the 35th floor,
00:21:41
and Ali doesn't even wait
for the elevator to fully open before he's running
down the hallway
00:21:46
to where their apartment was. Zara Barker: He goes
inside with the key card. He pulls out his gun,
and he finds Ana and
00:21:58
Rayburn Barron on the couch. [audio logo] narrator:<i> October 21, 2021,</i>
<i> TikTok creator Ali Abulaban,</i>
00:22:27
<i> known as JinnKid, enters</i>
<i> a downtown San Diego apartment</i>
00:22:31
<i> complex high on cocaine</i>
<i> and armed with a gun.</i>
00:22:35
<i> He has been spying on his</i>
<i> estranged wife, Ana Abulaban,</i>
00:22:39
<i> through a social</i>
<i> media app installed</i> <i> on their daughter's iPad.</i>
00:22:43
<i> Convinced she is sleeping</i>
<i> with another man,</i>
00:22:45
<i> he enters the apartment</i>
<i> and finds Ana on the couch</i>
00:22:48
<i> with her friend,</i>
<i> Rayburn Barron.</i> <i> Moments later, he makes</i>
<i> a chilling 911 call.</i>
00:22:56
Christopher Leahy: 3:11 PM,
our communications division received a 911 call
from Ali, where he is
00:23:03
reporting that he has
just found his wife, and he says, another man. - He is starting to act upset
and say it was so horrible,
00:23:29
he just found them. Christopher Leahy:
And he's almost speaking as if he's
in the apartment,
00:23:45
discovering
the traumatic injuries that they had sustained. So the dispatcher is
trying to confirm things
00:23:51
and is asking him questions. The dispatcher realizes that
he's no longer at the scene,
00:23:56
so the dispatcher
tries to encourage him to come back to the scene. Ali gets very
agitated and angry,
00:24:02
and he terminates the call. narrator:<i> Emergency</i>
<i> services are immediately</i>
00:24:08
<i> dispatched to the scene.</i> Ricardo Escalante:
When it first came out,
00:24:13
we were just listening
to the radio. And we heard that
two people had been shot inside an apartment.
00:24:20
And so, obviously, we
started paying attention. And eventually, when
it was confirmed,
00:24:26
we ended up having
to drive four blocks down and assemble out here. Christopher Leahy: Based
on the limited information
00:24:33
we had at the time, it sounded
like it was very possible that it could be just
like a murder-suicide,
00:24:38
because, Ali, the 911 caller,
was reporting that there were two deceased people inside
of the apartment on the couch.
00:24:45
And then once
officers attempted to establish communication with
the folks inside the unit, when
00:24:50
they got no response, they
developed a tactical plan to force entry into the unit.
00:24:58
Ricardo Escalante:
When I went inside, I observed items in the
apartment basically thrown
00:25:06
all around on the ground. There was a pumpkin
that was smashed. There was flower petals.
00:25:11
And then, of course,
we observed shell casings, unfired rounds. And then Ray and Ana
were on the couch.
00:25:20
They were, obviously, deceased. And you can see that
they had gunshot wounds. Christopher Leahy:
The officers cleared
00:25:35
the apartment,
determined that there were no other subjects inside. narrator:<i> Investigators</i>
<i> spread out</i>
00:25:41
<i> across the floor</i>
<i> of the building,</i> <i> looking for witnesses.</i>
00:25:45
Christopher Leahy: They
started interviewing neighbors. The neighbors, specifically
Carolina and Daniel
00:25:50
who lived directly across
from the Abulabans, Carolina said she heard six gunshots.
00:25:58
She believed she looked
out her peephole, she saw Ali exiting
the apartment, found
00:26:04
that very odd and peculiar. Moments later, sees him
through the peephole returned to the apartment,
sees and hears him screaming.
00:26:14
Christopher Leahy: And then
sees him leave again. She called her husband, who was
somewhat dismissive about what
00:26:20
she had reported to him. And then her husband,
coincidentally, was just coming
home and ends up
00:26:25
taking the elevator with Ali
immediately after the shooting. And we got
a statement out of him
00:26:31
about how Ali kind
of seemed agitated and like something
was wrong with him. narrator:<i> CCTV footage</i>
<i> is gathered as evidence.</i>
00:26:39
<i> What it reveals is shocking.</i> Taren Brast: The Nest camera
from a neighboring apartment
00:26:44
captures him running from the
elevator bank down the hallway. And then he's out
of view, but he's
00:26:50
running towards the hallway--
down the hallway to where their apartment was. And he's walking closer
to his victims at that point.
00:26:57
Then he stands right
in front of Ana-- you can hear her scream. Then he fires one final shot.
00:27:03
[gunshot] And at 3:02 PM, he
calls his mother on his cell phone,
which is also picked
00:27:12
up from that Nest camera. - And you can hear his mom
screaming over the phone. And then ultimately, he leaves
and goes down the elevator.
00:27:37
You can see him on the elevator
looking at his cell phone. He looks at the photo
of the bodies,
00:27:43
interacts with the neighbor,
and then leaves the building at about 3:07 PM. narrator:
<i> Investigators identify</i>
00:27:53
<i> Ali as their prime suspect.</i> <i> Armed and dangerous, they</i>
<i> need to find him quickly.</i>
00:28:00
Christopher Leahy:
They interviewed a security guard that talked
about seeing Ali come and go.
00:28:04
And so a description
of Ali's Jeep-- which was a really unique Jeep. It had Virginia license plates.
00:28:09
We're obviously
in the state of California. There were a bunch add-on
additions to the Jeep
00:28:13
that he had made to make
it look more unique. The officers
realized that there was a five-year-old girl
that also lived in the condo
00:28:20
with them.
She was unaccounted for. The information that they were
able to get from management
00:28:24
was that she was enrolled
at a nearby elementary school, so officers were
dispatched to that area.
00:28:30
And as officers were
responding to the school, they saw Ali's Jeep pulling
away from the school
00:28:36
and getting onto the freeway. Thank goodness San Diego
Police Department officers
00:28:40
see and recognize the Jeep
getting onto the freeway, because had they
not seen that, this
00:28:46
could have been a different
outcome, potentially, for their daughter. The officers developed
a tactical plan,
00:28:55
knowing that there was
a five-year-old girl inside the Jeep with
a potentially armed subject.
00:29:00
Once they got enough
resources together, they initiated a high-risk
vehicle stop on the freeway.
00:29:07
narrator:<i> Police pull</i>
<i> Ali over on the freeway</i>
00:29:10
<i> and arrest him at gunpoint.</i> [chatter] Taren Brast: And Ali
asked about his wife.
00:29:28
He said, oh, you how's my wife? Fully knowing that she
was already deceased.
00:29:34
He did admit that there
was a gun in the trunk. He had his safe
in the vehicle that
00:29:39
had multiple magazines,
over 100 rounds of ammunition, a holster. Christopher Leahy:
Their daughter was recovered.
00:29:53
She was taken
into protective custody. We coordinated with
Rady's Children's Hospital
00:29:58
to have a forensic nurse
conduct an interview of their daughter. She told the forensic
interviewer
00:30:06
that her daddy told her
that he had hurt mommy and that he was going to be
going to jail for a long time.
00:30:12
Their daughter made
some disclosures about some domestic
violence incidents that she had witnessed
between her mother and father,
00:30:19
describing Ali as the dominant
aggressor in those incidents. And then we placed her
in Child Protective Services
00:30:28
because at the time,
we had no other family members here in San
Diego to release her to.
00:30:36
Summer Stephan:
Supporting children that are left behind
from violence, and sometimes children who
have sensed the violence--
00:30:44
like in this case,
the murderer, her father, took her and had her
with him in the car
00:30:50
after the murder-- so this
child, she was terrified. narrator:<i> Now that</i>
<i> their daughter</i>
00:30:58
<i> has been safely accounted for,</i>
<i> investigators turn their focus</i>
00:31:01
<i> back to their suspect.</i> Christopher Leahy: Ali
was transported back to
00:31:07
San Diego Police headquarters. We collected DNA samples from
him, gunshot residue samples
00:31:14
from him. We photographed him
to document the existence or absence of any injuries
that he might have.
00:31:22
During the forensic
processing, he was making spontaneous
statements to us that he did not
intend to speak to us,
00:31:28
he didn't want to talk to us,
which is his decision to make. But once we got
into the interview room,
00:31:35
he seemed to just want to tell
us his version of events. One of the most
interesting things
00:31:40
about the interview
with him was he interjected and interrupted
us and asked, how's Ana?
00:31:45
What's her status? Was she alive? Did she make it? Detective Newquist told Ali,
he's like, she did not make it.
00:31:52
She passed away. And then for close
to a minute, he was just screaming and wailing
in the interview room
00:31:59
and grabbing tissues
and pretending to cry. I never saw a tear. But to me, after
learning more about him
00:32:06
and his acting
capabilities, I believe that's just what it was. narrator:<i> Ali Abulaban admits</i>
<i> to murdering his wife Ana and</i>
00:32:16
<i> her friend, Ray,</i>
<i> but investigators never</i>
00:32:18
<i> expected the reasons</i>
<i> he gave for such</i> <i> a cold, calculated act.</i>
00:32:26
[audio logo] narrator:<i> On October 21, 2021,</i>
<i> TikTok creator Ali Abulaban</i>
00:32:47
<i> storms into a San</i>
<i> Diego high rise</i> <i> and guns down his</i>
<i> estranged wife</i>
00:32:51
<i> Ana Abulaban, along with</i>
<i> her friend, Rayburn Barron.</i>
00:32:56
<i> Hours later he is</i>
<i> in custody, already</i> <i> spinning a story where despite</i>
<i> committing a double murder,</i>
00:33:02
<i> he is the real victim.</i> Christopher Leahy:
He definitely seemed like he was trying
to convince detective Newquist
00:33:10
and that he was the good
guy in this whole thing. He essentially painted
a picture of Ana
00:33:16
as a terrible person, that
she was ruining his life. She was blackmailing him. She was threatening
to call the police on him.
00:33:22
She was cheating on him. She was a cocaine addict,
and painting a very terrible picture of her.
00:33:28
He told us that when
he broke into the condo earlier that morning,
he took all of Ana's--
00:33:34
and his words-- slutty
clothing and threw them down the garbage bin. He spoke terribly
of her friends,
00:33:40
talked about how they ruined
Ana's life and brainwashed her. narrator:<i> Ali</i>
<i> Abulaban is officially</i>
00:33:50
<i> charged with the murder of Ana</i>
<i> Abulaban and Rayburn Barron.</i>
00:33:54
<i> While preparations are</i>
<i> underway for the trial,</i>
00:33:57
<i> investigators compiled</i>
<i> digital evidence</i> <i> from the cell phone</i>
<i> and social media</i>
00:34:01
<i> accounts of both the victims</i>
<i> and the perpetrator.</i>
00:34:07
Ricardo Escalante:
One of the challenges is that as digital evidence
becomes more abundant,
00:34:15
it is a lot to go through. These cases, when
we have a case with a lot of digital
evidence, it
00:34:22
could take months
or years to really go through all the different
pieces of evidence in a case.
00:34:31
Taren Brast: There was
a significant amount of evidence in this
case, with all that we gathered from the cell
phones, from social media,
00:34:40
from the crime
scene, the vehicle, and through friends and family. And so we knew that this
was first degree murder,
00:34:48
but it was proving
that to the jury. So we have to prove that
beyond a reasonable doubt,
00:34:54
and we had a lot of good
evidence to be able to do that. narrator:<i> The trial takes place</i>
<i> at San Diego Superior Court</i>
00:35:02
<i> in April of 2024.</i> Zara Barker: I've never seen a
courtroom as packed as it was.
00:35:09
Because Ali had
so many followers, that drew so much attention to
this case from the beginning.
00:35:16
When you hear of a TikToker,
a TikTok star-- whatever you want to call them--
on trial for murder,
00:35:23
it just adds so many
layers to this. [cameras clicking] There were outlets
and documentary crews.
00:35:31
And the courtroom was packed
with not only local media, but national media and media
from out of the country
00:35:36
as well. Ana's friends, Ray's
family and friends, all packed the courtroom
every single day,
00:35:44
and this was
a really long trial. It lasted nearly a month. The key players in this
case were actually
00:35:51
Ana's friends, who
testified about the years of manipulation and abuse
that Ali had put Ana through.
00:35:59
narrator:<i> Through Ana's</i>
<i> friends and family,</i>
00:36:01
<i> it came to light that</i>
<i> the abuse started early</i>
00:36:03
<i> in the relationship,</i>
<i> and the events</i> <i> that led up to Ali's military</i>
<i> discharge in Okinawa in 2015</i>
00:36:10
<i> began to emerge.</i> Christopher Leahy:
What we learned through talking
with Ana's sisters
00:36:18
and later reviewing
the military records, is that there was an incident
at a bar in which Ali
00:36:25
assaulted Ana pretty badly. - He struck Ana and he struck
another male who was trying
00:36:33
to intervene to help her. So that case was reported,
and ultimately, Ali was discharged from the Air Force.
00:36:41
All of that was really
important to paint the picture of who Ali was
as a domestic violence abuser.
00:36:47
interviewer: You caused those
injuries to Ana's face, right? Ali Abulaban: I did.
00:36:51
interviewer: You gave her
a huge bump on her face, right? - Yes. interviewer: You gave
her cut near her eye?
00:36:55
- Yes. interviewer: And you
would convince her not to call
911 or the police to report your violence, tight?
00:37:01
- Yes. I just didn't think it needed
to go there, with legal. I took responsibility
in the sense
00:37:08
that I immediately apologized
and I was willing to work away, you get past it, but--
00:37:13
interviewer: Also,
an apology by you makes everything OK, right? - No, but it's a start.
00:37:18
Zara Barker: Ali had years to
think about exactly what he was going to say on that
stand, and the moment he
00:37:24
took the stand,
when he got a chance to describe his point of view,
he still turned it around
00:37:29
in a very narcissistic way. And in of apologizing
for what he had done, his words were, "I
couldn't believe
00:37:38
that Ana would do this to me." Ali Abulaban: I couldn't
believe that she could do
00:37:42
that to me, to our daughter. And before I could stop
myself, I just fucking snapped.
00:37:50
And my gun was in my hand, and
next thing I'm shooting and-- and I can't stop.
00:37:55
I mean, I'm like, I'm in the
passenger seat of my own body. I can't stop it, and I hear
Ana screaming and crying.
00:38:01
- Ali made that courtroom
like it was his stage. It seemed like he was
putting on a performance.
00:38:08
Even the judge had said that he
didn't know if this was real. He didn't know if this was
true or a performance, either.
00:38:15
And the judge even
alluded to wondering if his tears were real. If you saw JinnKid
on social media,
00:38:23
he knew how to capture
people's attention, and he maybe took those same
skills into the courtroom.
00:38:31
Christopher Leahy:
Ultimately, his defense, because we had eliminated
all other potential defenses
00:38:39
by just doing a thorough
comprehensive investigation, became heat of passion. Heat of passion is husband
comes home from work,
00:38:48
walks into the house,
and finds his wife in bed with another man. Completely unexpected,
the husband
00:38:55
is so overcome with
emotion and rage and shock that he grabs the golf club
that happens to be just there.
00:39:06
He's not searching for it. It just happens
to be right there. And he clubs the guy to death.
00:39:10
In this case, Ali tells us that
he suspected Ana was cheating. We had established that
they had separated.
00:39:17
They were no longer
together, OK. So, technically still
married, yes, but they were no longer
together, and they were
00:39:24
not getting back together. This isn't something
like unexpected where he walks in on his
wife and everything's
00:39:30
fine in the relationship. This is something
totally different. He doesn't live there anymore.
00:39:34
He believes she was getting a
restraining order against him. So he's kind of seeing
that her life
00:39:39
is about to become more and
more separated from his life. So he installs this
eavesdropping application,
00:39:48
this listening app, secretes
the iPad underneath Ana's bed, and then he leaves and wakes up
to the sounds of a male voice
00:39:57
and Ana giggling. And then he gets
into his Jeep and drives approximately-- give or take--
00:40:03
20 minutes straight
down to the condominium with the firearm
in the Jeep, and beelines
00:40:10
it straight for the apartment. So my point being is
there's all these, like, logical steps
that he was taking,
00:40:17
a very goal oriented behavior. The listening app, I
want to confirm this. I need to know.
00:40:22
Now he's hearing a male
voice in the apartment, I'm going to walk in and I'm
going to find them having sex.
00:40:26
And they weren't having sex. They were sitting
on a couch, fully clothed, and he still
shoots both of them
00:40:32
within seconds of entering. narrator:<i> Alongside</i>
<i> the building.</i>
00:40:36
<i> CCTV footage, some</i>
<i> of the most damning</i> <i> evidence that</i>
<i> showed premeditation</i>
00:40:41
<i> came from Ali's own phone.</i> - Ali actually had audio
recorded the entire event.
00:40:49
So he started recording
on his phone, the shooting. And you' actually hear Ana
and Rayburn are screaming
00:41:08
as they were being fired upon. [gunshots] Then you see him coming
out of the apartment,
00:41:16
and then he places
a phone call to his mom. And you can hear
the audio during the trial
00:41:21
where he's actually notifying
his mom that he had killed Ana. Christopher Leahy: The jury,
they saw him for what he is.
00:41:31
He's a narcissist,
a manipulator of truth. And so they heard
all the evidence,
00:41:36
and they rejected that he
had a passionate defense. narrator:<i> The jury</i>
<i> concluded that not</i>
00:41:41
<i> only did Ali</i>
<i> Abulaban deliberately</i> <i> plan to murder his</i>
<i> estranged wife, Ana,</i>
00:41:46
<i> he also stole the life of an</i>
<i> innocent man, Rayburn Barron.</i>
00:41:53
Taren Brast: It was
just a feeling of relief that the jury made
the right decision,
00:41:58
the right convictions. And I just felt
for the families that they were so happy
that they got their justice.
00:42:08
Of course, nothing would
bring back Ana or Ray. Jury member: We, the jury,
in the above entitled cause,
00:42:15
find the defendant,
Ali Nasser Abulaban, guilty of the crime of murder
in the first degree--
00:42:22
[cheers] --of Rayburn Cardenas. Taren Brast: His
sentence was two counts of life without parole, as well
as 50 years to life in prison.
00:42:39
narrator:<i> Although Ali</i>
<i> Abulaban dreamed of a career</i>
00:42:42
<i> as a famous actor</i>
<i> launched by social media,</i>
00:42:46
<i> it was the toxic</i>
<i> side of online fame</i> <i> that ultimately led</i>
<i> to his downfall.</i>
00:42:52
Zara Barker: There's a dark
side to social media, and I think that's what
we saw with the rise
00:42:57
and fall of JinnKid. This case is really
unique because Ali documented every
moment of his life
00:43:04
for years leading
up to this murder. He used his platform
to get a lot of followers,
00:43:10
and he quickly declined
from his mental health into a cocaine addiction, into
shooting, and killing his wife.
00:43:17
And we saw all of that
play out on social media. Summer Stephan:
This terrible murder
00:43:27
is at the top of the list
of cruel murders, completely senseless. The image of Ana and Rayburn
just laughing, giggling,
00:43:39
enjoying a little bit
of happiness and friendship on a couch
and having their life
00:43:44
end in this terrible,
violent way, it's a case that stays with me. I'm going to use that
pain from that case
00:43:54
to continue to forge forward. There's still a lot
of work to be done. The tech companies can
do more to prevent and
00:44:03
to alert law enforcement to the
threat of domestic violence, a threat of an attack.
00:44:09
They can do more to help us
stop bad things from happening before they happen,
to prevent another Ana and
00:44:18
Rayburn from happening. [theme music] ♪ ♪