00:00:03
[tense music] - You better get
out of his way. There's a bad guy
coming through.
00:00:13
Yo. Yo, this is crazy, right? What are the chances? - He had almost a million
followers on TikTok.
00:00:22
- It almost seems as if he
thinks he's untouchable. RACHEL MILLER: He was funny.
00:00:27
He was confident. Instantly, she fell
in love with him. [gripping music] - Not only do you have
a double murder in San Diego,
00:00:55
but also the killer
is a TikTok star. - This is a highly
controlling and abusive
00:01:02
man who cannot face rejection. - Someone who was
trying to be funny, impersonating violent
killers, and ultimately
00:01:15
became one of those killers. OFFICER: Oh, [bleep]!
We got two down. We got two down.
00:01:20
[theme music] [intense music] [pensive guitar music] - Ali Abulaban was
born May 18 in 1992
00:02:27
in Staten Island, New York. ALI: So I was born in New York. My parents moved me out when I
was two years old to Virginia.
00:02:36
So I grew up in Virginia
my whole life. - Ali's parents
are Palestinian, and they came to America
as immigrants.
00:02:47
ALI: I'm first-generation
American. I want it to be American. I want it to be how
my friends were.
00:02:53
- Ali grew up in a Middle
Eastern family where they had very
strict religious rules.
00:02:59
What he's talked about
a lot is that his father was emotionally
and physically abusive,
00:03:04
not only to him,
but also to his mom. ALI: Very early on, we
had this fear instilled
00:03:11
in us that if we
did something wrong, our father would find out. Don't tell dad.
00:03:17
Things of that nature. So I wasn't sure why, but I
was already scared of my father
00:03:21
before I fully understood. [tense music] - It's very
difficult to grow up trapped between two cultures.
00:03:33
His father is a very
strict Muslim. Not only that, but his
father is abusive. If you are a child who is
subject to physical abuse,
00:03:43
although it's not
inevitable, you can grow up to have all manner
of emotional difficulties.
00:03:50
You can have heightened
levels of fear, of anxiety. You can struggle
in relationships.
00:03:57
[tense music] ALI: I kept getting
in trouble in school. Just the outbursts
or being the class clown.
00:04:05
I didn't know when
enough is enough. - Ali said he would get bullied
in school because he had bigger
00:04:10
ears and he just
looked different from some of the other people
that were in his classes.
00:04:17
- My ears, it's not
going to be a problem. We could use tape.
You know what I'm saying?
00:04:20
Look, look. OK, now-- now I
don't have ears, OK? But it's cool, you
know, because I
00:04:24
got cute Mickey Mouse ears. You know, I get to go
into Disneyland for free, so--
00:04:30
like, I know I got
satellite dishes for ears, you know, but I get SiriusXM. I get 93.9, WKYS.
00:04:36
Yo, I get all this
radio stations for free. RAIN: I think he was
trying to make people laugh
00:04:42
with him rather than at him. I think this is kind of, like,
a coping strategy for him,
00:04:47
a survival skill, if you will. [tense music] ZARA BARKER: Ali was like
every other American kid
00:04:56
despite growing up
in a Middle Eastern, strict religious household. He wanted the same toys
that his friends had.
00:05:02
And he specifically wanted
this Darth Vader mask that changed his voice, and he
kept begging his mom for it.
00:05:08
His father seemed
to be against the idea of buying him this toy. ALI: He didn't like
the fact that it was
00:05:14
kind of childish in his mind. I think I was about 14, 15. And his response to me
pestering my mother
00:05:25
to purchase this for me was
to grab the vacuum cable and whip me repeatedly. And that was the worst pain
I've ever felt physically.
00:05:36
I literally would
beg him to stop. And he's asking me, why
are you [bleep] crying?
00:05:40
Why are you crying? As he's whipping me. [tense music] - When you're subjected
to violence of this type,
00:05:50
you can really go
in two directions. You can either
think to yourself, I don't want to ever
become this man,
00:05:57
I'm going to do something
very, very different, or you can start to identify
with the person who
00:06:05
abuses you and think,
well, OK, maybe this is what masculinity is about. It's about control
of the children.
00:06:12
It's about control
of the women in my life. ALI: After I graduated high
school, a lot of my friends
00:06:20
were taking a break. I wanted to do that. I wasn't allowed to. I mean, I was dragged to the
nearest community college
00:06:27
and forced to sign up. I didn't know what
I wanted to do. I didn't know what
to do with my life.
00:06:32
RAIN: Ali would say
that he had ADHD and it was kind
of keeping him from being able to concentrate and focus.
00:06:38
He found college
pretty difficult. And he had to leave
college because he couldn't really concentrate
with his ADHD problems.
00:06:46
- College is [bleep]. I'm a college dropout [bleep]. [light music] ZARA BARKER: After Ali
dropped out of college,
00:06:53
he enlisted in the military,
in the Air Force, and he got stationed
in Okinawa, Japan.
00:06:58
[light music] RACHEL MILLER: Okinawa is
probably the most beautiful place to be in this world.
00:07:15
It's a small island, an hour
away from the Philippines. It's pretty much
run by military.
00:07:24
Kadena, which is in Okinawa,
is the second biggest Air Force base in the world. [gripping music]
00:07:31
ALI: Initially,
it was beautiful. It was amazing. I mean, the culture,
the people, all that,
00:07:36
everything was beautiful. I was proud to be
in the military. [hopeful music] RACHEL MILLER: Ana
was definitely a light
00:07:47
as far as being a friend. She was a happy-go-lucky,
nerdy gamer girl. She loved her video games, and
she loved being around friends.
00:08:00
It was what made her happy. [bright music] Ana met Ali in Okinawa around
the beginning of his career.
00:08:12
Ana was married to one
of his coworkers, and their marriage
was not working out.
00:08:19
It being a small community,
friends introduced friends. Instantly, she fell
in love with him.
00:08:30
Ali was funny. He was confident. He was everything
she wanted to be. [light music]
00:08:42
ZARA BARKER: In the very
beginning of Ana and Ali's relationship, there
were already a lot of signs
00:08:46
that he was controlling
and possessive of Ana. He didn't like when
any of her guy friends
00:08:51
would compliment her,
and he would even try and stop her from going out. RACHEL MILLER: He didn't like
other people even looking
00:08:59
at her, and it was almost like
he was in competition with her. TAREN BRAST: In August
of 2015, there
00:09:11
were police reports
regarding Ali Abulaban being drunk and hitting
Ana and trying
00:09:19
to grab her and control her. And Ali ended up driving
away from the scene while he was drunk.
00:09:26
And so there were
charges that were brought against Ali Abulaban
in the military,
00:09:32
and he was other than
honorably discharged. [tense music] - When Ali assaults Ana,
this is the first time
00:09:42
that we know
of that he's engaged in intimate-partner violence. And in this moment, there's
the potential for him
00:09:48
to learn that this is
something that shouldn't be done, for him
to be punished,
00:09:52
for him to have
legal consequences. But that doesn't happen. And so instead, what it
could be he's learning
00:09:58
here is, maybe I can
get away with this. [tense music] ZARA BARKER: After
Ali was discharged,
00:10:12
he moved back to Virginia. Ana moved to the Philippines. And shortly after that, Ana
found out she was pregnant.
00:10:20
RACHEL MILLER: When Ana
found out she was pregnant, she was definitely nervous
and scared, because she didn't
00:10:26
know what she was going to do. She was living with her mom
and her stepdad in their home
00:10:31
in the Philippines. And Ali convinced her that
they would get married and they would build
a life in America.
00:10:38
[hopeful music] In 2016, Ana and Ali's
daughter was born, and Ali flew down
to the Philippines
00:10:47
for about three months
to meet his daughter and experience living with Ana. ZARA BARKER: When their
daughter was nine months old,
00:10:57
Ana's visa got approved. So they moved
to Northern Virginia, where Ali's family lived.
00:11:02
Ana and Ali got married. They bought a house,
and they were starting their family life together.
00:11:06
[light music] ALI (VOICEOVER): Hello, sir.
Can we speak to Ali? - Who? Oh, no, he died.
I'm sorry.
00:11:14
ALI (VOICEOVER): Oh,
that's unfortunate. - No, he dead. He went [snorts], you know?
00:11:18
ALI (VOICEOVER): We just
spoke to him on the phone. - OK, don't live here.
OK?
00:11:21
ALI (VOICEOVER): OK,
all right, thank you. - Back in, like,
2016, 2017, Ali started making online videos--
00:11:28
- One month watching
"Scarface," the greatest movie I ever seen in my life.
00:11:32
You're not going
to find a better movie. - --making impersonations
and impressions
00:11:36
of political figures, other
musicians, and movie stars. - What can I get for you today?
00:11:41
(DEEP, RASPY VOICE)
I'll take your mocha. (NORMAL VOICE)
OK, and what size? (DEEP, RASPY VOICE) A large.
00:11:45
(NORMAL VOICE)
You mean a venti? (DEEP, RASPY VOICE) No. I meant a large, [bleep].
00:11:49
- Ali always loved to make
other people laugh, and being able to have that
outlet on social media,
00:11:55
it just made it
so accessible for him to get that in the attention
that he wanted.
00:11:59
- You guys aren't real. - Are you kidding me, Owen? - No, I'm serious. - Nah, I'm real as [bleep].
00:12:07
- Both of you guys are
characters that I play. - So you're telling
me that you're me?
00:12:13
- Well, no. You're me. OK, I'm you. Who is he? - He's me. - He had about 40,000
followerr, but it quickly grew
00:12:21
over to like, about 100,000. And from there, it just
rapidly started growing. [upbeat music]
00:12:29
He went by JinnKid online. - What's up, you guys. This is JinnKid here. - Guys, make sure you follow
his Instagram, @JinnKid
00:12:36
- JinnKid, J-I-N-N-K-I-D. MAN: Yup. Everybody follow @JinnKid. - This guy has a whole
YouTube channel where
00:12:44
he posts these all the time. Like, I was sitting
there crying, laughing at his channel.
00:12:48
- Is that the name
of it, JinnKid? - JinnKid, yeah. [happy music] RAIN: The Islamic
religion, jinn
00:12:53
is an unseen and typically
unknown being, and it's not really something
that is good nor bad.
00:13:01
And I think with
all these persona, he didn't want to be portrayed
as either good or bad, but just
00:13:07
someone who is
making people laugh. ANA: (LAUGHING) Stop. It's stupid. ANA: [laughs]
00:13:15
No. - [laughs] It's [bleep] funny. - One of his most, like, famous
lines was "need something,"
00:13:23
which is from the video
game "Skyrim," when a non-playable
character, or an NPC,
00:13:27
is essentially glitching
and saying "need something" over and over again
because you just ran into it
00:13:32
or ran past the character. RAIN: People loved his skits. I mean, they just couldn't
get enough of them.
00:13:46
And he would write back
to the fans and, you know, heart-react all
of their messages.
00:13:49
You know, he really
loved the attention. When you start getting a lot
of positive attention online,
00:13:55
it's like
an adrenaline rush, and you're just
constantly chasing it and trying to see what the next
big thing that you can do is.
00:14:01
[tense music] Ana would appear
in some of these videos. Her hand was commonly used
as, like, the POV hand.
00:14:09
In the video game "Skyrim"
skits as well as, you know, some of the Tony Montana
skits, she was usually playing,
00:14:16
you know, a beautiful
woman that Tony Montana is trying to impress. [sinister music]
00:14:33
Ali felt pretty validated
by that blue check mark. He felt like things were really
taking off at that point,
00:14:37
and he felt like there
was no looking back and he was unstoppable. - No, no, no!
00:14:41
Wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm verified on Instagram. I got the blue check
mark and everything, man.
00:14:48
[tense music] TAREN BRAST: Ana and Ali lived
in Virginia for several years, but Ana had a lot of friends
from Japan and from high school
00:14:58
that lived in San Diego. And so Ana and Ali visited
San Diego in August of 2020.
00:15:08
Ana loved San Diego,
loved the lifestyle, loved the beautiful
scenery, all that San Diego has to offer.
00:15:15
And Ana would tell Ali that
she wanted to move here. - Even though Ali didn't want
to go to San Diego right away,
00:15:23
Ana convinced him. And Ali saw the opportunity
that was in front of him. Ali was close to LA.
00:15:30
He could collaborate with more
social media personalities, and he really saw the idea
that his social media
00:15:35
presence could grow. Ana and Ali moved
with their daughter to San Diego
in February of 2021.
00:15:41
[bright music] - They moved into a apartment
complex called Spire San Diego. It was a new, modern
high-rise building,
00:15:55
and it had beautiful
views of the Bay and of downtown San Diego. [curious music]
00:16:03
- They posted a video online
with a caption that said, "When your relationship
is drama free,"
00:16:08
and it shows this perfect
couple living a gorgeous life, showing videos
of them dancing around
00:16:13
their high-rise apartment
to spending time together with their daughter. And everything really
did seem perfect.
00:16:20
When Ali and Ana
moved to San Diego, they got more involved
in a party lifestyle
00:16:24
than they were used
to in Virginia. - Hey! - They started going out, going
to clubs together with friends,
00:16:32
and they started
doing drugs a lot more than they
had, specifically doing a lot of cocaine.
00:16:37
[tense music] - Ali was telling me
that it was making him feel more euphoric and it
was helping him to accomplish
00:16:46
more in some of his content. But on the other hand, he
would have some breakdowns
00:16:50
from his cocaine usage. He realized it was
becoming a problem. [light piano music]
00:16:57
Ali had almost a million
followers on TikTok. When Ali got millions
of views, he was just,
00:17:02
like, so excited and happy. He was like screaming
in happiness. But whenever his videos
weren't doing so well,
00:17:07
he just kind of wanted
to withdraw a little bit. He was just pretty
low about it.
00:17:11
- "Holy, [bleep] I've
missed you, JinnKid. It feels like it's been ages."
00:17:13
It has been ages. I have not felt like
a JinnKid in a long time. - But the numbers
going up and down
00:17:18
is really playing a number
on his mental health. - Oh, no. Do you wanna play nice?
00:17:23
OK, I play with you. RAIN: Ali's personality
started changing from just, like,
cheerful, happy and joking
00:17:29
to more of that
self-sabotage humor. - I have a condition
that nobody knows about,
00:17:34
but I'm ready to share it. It's called Tony
Montana Tourette's. [tense music]
00:17:41
RACHEL MILLER:
Around May of 2021, Ali found out that
his mother was leaving their family for another man.
00:17:49
Ali felt that his mother was
abandoning her whole family, and he is in disbelief that all
the values that he knows just
00:17:57
went out the window. Ali felt resentment towards
his mother for having an affair
00:18:05
and abandoning his
family, so he took it out on Ana instead of his mother. [tense music]
00:18:13
- It's rare that
we direct the anger that we store onto
the person or persons
00:18:18
that it's actually meant for. Ali's response to his
mother leaving his father,
00:18:25
and in his mind
abandoning the family, speaks to how he views
women and, of course,
00:18:31
would have carried through into
how he would have viewed Ana. He would have been looking
at her and thinking, well,
00:18:40
do you meet my core values? You know, to what extent
are you behaving in the way
00:18:45
that I expect
for a woman to behave? - Ali often made
audio recordings of arguments that he had with
Ana, disagreements they had.
00:19:01
ANA: Give me my phone back. Enough! Ali, enough! [door slams]
Ali! ALI: Stop. ANA: Give me the [bleep] phone.
00:19:10
ALI: Stop. ANA: Give me
my [bleep] phone back. ALI: Close the door. ANA: You're hurting
my [bleep] finger!
00:19:15
ALI: You're out of control. ANA: Give me my phone. You're the one out of control!
00:19:19
I'm trying to leave this house!
ALI: Yeah. That's not cool.
ANA: Give me my phone.
00:19:22
ALI: With a bunch of guys? ANA: Give me my phone. ALI: A bunch of guys, huh? ANA: Give me my phone.
00:19:26
There's no guys. Give me my phone. This is not [bleep]
healthy, man. ALI: You're not
healthy, [bleep].
00:19:35
- Everything that
Ali was saying to Ana was actually a reflection of
how he felt about his mother.
00:19:43
ALI: Look how lame you are. KERRY DAYNES: Ali
is recording what you would think would
be private moments,
00:19:51
and he's recording
arguments and discussions that he has with Ana. And I think that he's doing
this because there's a level
00:19:59
of-- of paranoia setting in. It's a very worrying
escalation in his behavior.
00:20:04
[tense music] - There was an incident
in July of 2021 when Ali got
into an argument with Ana,
00:20:17
and he ended up punching her
multiple times in the face. She had a bruised eye. She had swelling on the right
side of her face.
00:20:28
Meanwhile, Ali was
sending Ana messages, telling her he loved her. He just lost control,
and he wouldn't do it again
00:20:38
and that he would get help. [phone dings] Ali was able to convince
Ana to stay with him,
00:20:45
stay in their marriage. She had left the home
for a couple of days but ultimately came back.
00:20:50
[gripping music] DISPATCHER: State
your emergency. - You're not even
an American citizen.
00:21:14
I brought you to this
goddamn country. Name one man that would do
that [bleep] for you, [bleep].
00:21:19
[bleep] women, man. Ungrateful [bleep]. - Oh, great. You're on the phone with
police while I said that?
00:21:36
Wow. - This my [bleep] [bleep]. I dedicate my life to her. One day she wakes up, she
don't [bleep] love me no more.
00:21:50
I'm [bleep] out here. ANA: Stop lying to them, Ali. ALI: No, it's the truth.
00:21:54
You're a [bleep] test. Shut the [bleep] up. [tense music] - San Diego Police Department
arrived at this fire
00:22:06
apartment complex. I think he just left the house.
OFFICER: He just left? Is it just you?
- It's just me.
00:22:13
My daughter's here. OFFICER: Did you
say he took off? - Yeah, he just took off.
00:22:16
OFFICER: What was
the fight about? - So it's been happening for,
like, the last, I would say,
00:22:22
two weeks. It was just a lot
of verbal stuff. OFFICER: Just a lot
of verbal stuff?
00:22:25
OK. How about tonight? ANA: It was physical tonight.
OFFICER: It was physical? How did he hit you?
00:22:31
- Like, if he's facing me, then
he'd just push me this way. I fell and hit my head here.
00:22:35
OFFICER: Let me just
get a full-body picture, and then I'll move
on to your injuries, OK?
00:22:39
[camera shutter clicks] TAREN BRAST: She had
a scrape on her elbow. She had a bruise on her leg.
00:22:45
She had some pain to her head. And that was the first
time that she herself made a report to the
police about domestic violence.
00:22:54
[gripping music] KERRY DAYNES: Ali is
so entitled at this point. He is so emboldened,
and possibly disinhibited
00:23:03
due to the long-term
effects of drug use, that he's livestreaming
his abuse of Ana.
00:23:10
And it is very, very telling
to his state of mind. He is berating her. It is because of me that you
are actually in this country.
00:23:19
You owe me. Therefore, I own you, and you
have to behave in the way that I expect.
00:23:29
Otherwise, there are
going to be consequences. JULIA SHAW: He knows deep
down that hitting a woman
00:23:37
is definitely always wrong,
and yet he's doing it. And so he is choosing
to override his own better
00:23:42
judgment, his own
feelings, and not get help and to engage in this
violence anyway.
00:23:46
[gripping music] RAIN: Ali is going
in a downward spiral. I mean, his addiction was
increasing to the cocaine,
00:23:54
and his marriage problems
were getting worse. Everything was breaking down. [gripping music]
00:24:04
ANA: Who is she? I don't know. Who is she? She was obsessed? - Ana had found out that Ali
cheated on her with a girl
00:24:14
he met in an elevator. ANA: Why do you play
these games, Ali? You want a marriage where
you're playing these games,
00:24:20
that you're [bleep]
somebody else. ALI: What game? ANA: That you're
[bleep] somebody else.
00:24:24
ALI: I have another option. - During September
and October of 2021, Ali continued to seek
out other women,
00:24:33
either through social media
or through escort services. ANA: How do I break
your heart, Ali,
00:24:40
when you're telling me you're
[bleep] some other girl [bleep]. ALI: [bleep] stripper, too.
00:24:44
If you don't want
to be with me, you don't have to [bleep] me. I have no use for you.
00:24:48
I have no use for you. [pensive music] RACHEL MILLER: Ana
hosted a TikTok mentioning that
for seven years,
00:24:56
she's been dealing with
abuse and cheating. After Ana had found out
everything, she was hurt.
00:25:06
She was done. It was like everything
that she had been holding on to in her
marriage went out the window.
00:25:14
And she left. [tense music] KERRY DAYNES: Ana
has made the decision that she's ready to leave.
00:25:23
This is the time
when the risk to her increases massively,
because it's going to be such a threat
to Ali's sense of masculinity,
00:25:36
sense of control over her. And if there's another person
who comes into the picture,
00:25:43
then it's losing
even more control. [tense music] RACHEL MILLER: Ray was
a sweet, kind-hearted soul.
00:25:52
There was no angry
bone in his body. From the moment he met
Ana, he saw her light,
00:25:59
and Ana ended up building
a relationship with him. - Ray was a very
hardworking man.
00:26:06
He worked in construction
with his brother. ZARA BARKER: Rayburn Barron was
inside of Ana's friend group.
00:26:13
He was often out with
them at restaurants, at clubs, going out. And Ali didn't like
him from the beginning.
00:26:21
ANA: When we moved
here, I didn't want you to be close to Ray. I saw that they
were bad people and
00:26:25
that they had their [bleep]
tongues melting before you. They wanted
to [bleep] you so bad.
00:26:29
And what do you do? You follow them,
and you party with them. That tells me your character.
00:26:35
You are [bleep] trash. - Ray said that Ali was lucky
to have a woman like Ana as his wife.
00:26:42
Ali, being the jealous
person that he is, immediately didn't
like Ray after that.
00:26:48
RACHEL MILLER: Ray
was a gentleman. The way he spoke
to women was so delicate. He was respectful.
00:26:55
It seemed like Ana
and Ray were falling in love with each other. [gripping music]
00:27:08
He had begged her, just please,
can we have a family dinner? She agreed. Ana is trying to leave,
and he gets in the car.
00:27:16
ALI: You've been sucking me
dry for everything I got. ANA: There is nobody.
ALI: There has to be.
00:27:20
ANA: Can you get out
of my car before I [bleep]? I swear to God, you're going
to do some crazy [bleep].
00:27:24
Get out of the car, please.
ALI: Who are you calling? ANA: The [bleep] police.
ALI: Why?
00:27:27
ANA: Because you need
to get the [bleep] out of my car and my life. [screams] You can hear them arguing,
and you can hear Ali hit Ana.
00:27:41
And she screams. And that was in front
of their child. [tense music] Ana wanted to get a restraining
order against Ali, as he
00:27:51
wouldn't leave her alone. ALI: I want to know
what's going on. Talk to me.
00:27:56
Respond to my text. You said you're not
going out tonight. You lie to me all the time.
00:28:01
Are you with another man? Just let me know
so I can leave! Let me know! Are you with another man?
00:28:06
There's no way that you lost
love for me just overnight! - Ali was essentially
stalking her and constantly
00:28:15
texting her and calling her. ALI: Hey, Ana. I just want to say
good morning. I've been sitting here
for, like, an hour or two.
00:28:25
And I just went through
all of the audio recordings that I have of us arguing. I'm an idiot.
00:28:35
I'm so sorry. I'm so [bleep] sorry. I get it, why
you're sick of me.
00:28:41
I get it, why you
don't want to see me. Yeah, I just need to be
responsible for what I did.
00:28:46
I just want to let you know
I'm learning, and I see the-- I see the truth. And I do very much love you.
00:28:54
And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all this. So-- [tense music] ZARA BARKER: Ana
and their daughter
00:29:03
were living
at a friend's house. But Ali decided
that he was going to leave the apartment
so Ana and their daughter
00:29:09
could have the apartment
to themselves, and he was going to stay
at a hotel in San Diego.
00:29:13
[tense music] TAREN BRAST: Ali was
trying to get Ana back, making another effort
to try to keep her
00:29:25
with him in their marriage. He sent her groceries
and flowers and a pumpkin to the apartment.
00:29:35
RACHEL MILLER: Ana gets her
daughter ready for school, takes her to school. And after she had lunch
with some girlfriends,
00:29:47
she went back to the apartment,
and the whole apartment was vandalized. [dramatic music]
00:30:18
[gripping music] - In the police
department's mind, the suspect is probably
still either in the area
00:30:24
or in the building or maybe
even in the apartment. [gripping music] - At 3:13 PM, officers had
to do an emergency breach
00:30:33
of the apartment because no one
was answering, and they knew that someone was shot inside.
00:30:39
OFFICER: Stand by, stand
by, stand by, stand by - Yep.
Sorry. Go left.
OFFICER: We gotta clear.
00:30:43
Oh, [bleep].
We got two down. We got two down.
Merge the entry. I need a team. CAMERON JACKSON:
The police officers make
00:30:48
entry at the Spire apartment. They find two bodies-- One male, one female-- on the couch.
00:30:56
OFFICER 1: Hey,
bathroom's clear. Slow down, slow down. Slow down.
Hold on. Hey.
00:31:00
OFFICER 2: --clear
the bathroom. OFFICER 1: I already cleared.
I already cleared it.
00:31:03
OFFICER 3: I'm here. OFFICER 2: Clear that
room right there. OFFICER 3: All right.
OFFICER 1: Bathroom's clear.
00:31:07
Bathroom's clear.
OFFICER 2: Mark that room. OFFICER 1: I got it, I got
it, I got it, I got it.
00:31:10
I got a closet.
I got a closet. All right, room's clear. Room's clear. TAREN BRAST: They're
trying to find out
00:31:16
who lives there, who
the suspect could be, who the shooter could be. OFFICER 1: Hold on.
We got a balcony.
00:31:22
We got a balcony. [suspenseful music] We're clear. We're clear. We're clear.
00:31:34
OFFICER 2: [muffled speech] OFFICER 1: Wait.
OFFICER 2: Anyone got out? OFFICER 1: Hey, stand by.
00:31:39
Hey, once this place
is clear, we're going to need to hold the evidence. We need to clear out
and just hold it off.
00:31:42
- Don't move anything.
- Don't fire. OFFICER 4: Have you guys
checked to see how--
00:31:45
OFFICER 2: Guys,
have we checked-- OFFICER 4: --any
chance of breathing? - Any breathing?
00:31:48
OFFICER 2: Have we
checked pulse, guys? - No.
OFFICER 4: Check pulse. OFFICER 2: Check pulse.
00:31:52
It sounds like there's
a third shooter. Someone came here
and shot them. That's the guy that
he's describing.
00:31:57
[gripping music] TAREN BRAST: The police
learned that Ali also lived in that
apartment and that he
00:32:04
had a Jeep that
he drove that was registered to the apartment. And so now the police are out
looking for this black Jeep.
00:32:12
[gripping music] ALI: Did they-- did
they get my wife? Did they get my wife? OFFICER: We'll get
that figured out now.
00:32:27
OFFICER 2: Are there
any guns in the car? ALI: It's in a safe.
It's locked in a safe.
00:32:33
OFFICER 2: All right,
don't mess with that. Try not to move
your hands, all right, bro.
00:32:36
ALI: Did the ambulance
getting my wife? OFFICER 2: I don't know, man. I wasn't down there, OK?
00:32:40
CAMERON JACKSON:
After being arrested, Abulaban was taken back
to the San Diego headquarters building.
00:32:45
There, homicide detectives
interviewed him. [gripping music] TAREN BRAST: Ana left
around 8:40 AM to take
00:33:00
their daughter to school. And so Ali went up
to the apartment. He arrives about 9:12 AM.
00:33:09
There's surveillance
video showing him going up to the 35th floor. He ended up trashing
the apartment.
00:33:15
He smashed the pumpkin
on the floor. He threw the flowers
on the floor. All this time, he was
recording it on his phone.
00:33:25
ALI: Lock your husband? You cheating on me? CAMERON JACKSON: He downloads
an app onto his daughter's iPad
00:33:32
so he can listen
in to whatever's going on within the apartment. And then he leaves.
00:33:40
Ana enters the apartment
to find it trashed. Ray shows up to the apartment
to help Ana clean up.
00:33:47
They're inside talking,
but unbeknownst to them, Ali is listening
in on his daughter's iPad.
00:33:52
[gripping music] At 2:50 PM, Abulaban
enters the parking garage of the apartment complex.
00:34:03
He starts recording on his
phone and enters the elevator. [gripping music] At 2:58 PM, Abulaban
arrives at the apartment,
00:34:16
on the 35th floor. [gripping music] - You hear the door open. And just over a second later,
you hear Ali rack his gun.
00:34:33
[gun cocks] [gunshot] [gripping music] - It was just
so raw and visceral. The striking part of it is they
realize what's going to happen.
00:34:44
[gripping music] [gunshot] She kind of screams out, and
then he just starts shooting.
00:34:59
- Abulaban leaves
the apartment and pretty much just turns around
right away, comes back inside.
00:35:04
[gripping music] ALI: Help! Help! - At 2:59 PM, Ali took
two photos of his dead victims on his cell phone.
00:35:25
[camera shutter clicking] And he sends those photographs
to both of his parents.
00:35:31
And at 3:02 PM, Ali calls
his mother on his cell phone. TAREN BRAST: He gets
on the elevator about 3:04 PM.
00:36:02
He encounters a neighbor
on the elevator. He's calm. You could see the picture
of the dead bodies
00:36:09
on his cell phone,
and then, you know, he just rides it down. - As soon as he's in his
Jeep, he calls 911.
00:36:15
[suspenseful music] - He doesn't give any
information that he was the one who just shot and killed Ana.
00:36:35
And he ends up hanging
up on the 911 dispatcher. [line disconnects] ZARA BARKER: Ali
gets on the freeway.
00:36:46
He has their five-year-old
daughter in the car, and he starts driving away. Within minutes, he's surrounded
by police and helicopters.
00:36:55
He ended up pulling off
the freeway and surrendering. OFFICER: Stop! Spin around in a circle.
00:37:04
[tense music] TAREN BRAST: Ray had
three gunshot wounds. One entered through his cheek.
00:37:20
One entered his neck,
and then one of the bullets entered the back of his head. Ana had one gunshot wound.
00:37:31
She was shot once
in the top of her forehead, and the bullet exited
through the back of her head,
00:37:37
cracking her skull. He was trained as a military
police officer, and he knew how to shoot
someone to kill.
00:37:45
And that's exactly what he did. RACHEL MILLER:
And I receive a call from one of my close
friends, and she's crying.
00:37:52
She said, he did it. I think he finally did it. JULIA SHAW: Ali,
in his delusional mind,
00:38:00
he's been obsessing
over this idea that she's sleeping
with other men. And now she actually might be.
00:38:06
And because he hasn't stopped
at all of the red flags up to this point and intervened
and sought help,
00:38:12
he instead allows himself
to lean into his emotions. He lets his rage
get out of control,
00:38:18
and he decides that
he's just going to solve this problem by killing her. He wants revenge and wants to
finally resolve those feelings
00:38:27
and thoughts and fears that
have been festering in his mind for so long. [dark music]
00:38:35
TAREN BRAST: Ali was
pleading not guilty. When one of the detectives
was talking
00:38:39
about seeing some Instagram
messages between Ana and Ray where they discuss that
they were going to meet up
00:38:47
at a hotel, Ali just blew up. DETECTIVE: Mr. Abul-- ALI: I [muted] did [bleep] her?
00:39:01
DETECTIVE: Mr. Abulaban,
I need you to stop. DETECTIVE: Mr. Abulaban,
I need you to stop.
00:39:09
KERRY DAYNES: Ali Abulaban
absolutely explodes in court, and that's
because he was having
00:39:15
to listen to text messages
between Ana and her friend Ray. And he was jealous. Even with-- with Ana
and Ray no longer alive,
00:39:25
it just shows you how
threatening he found that. So this is evidence of what
he would have perceived
00:39:32
as his woman with another man. This is her betraying him. And for it to be read out in
court is humiliating for him.
00:39:42
And I think this is why we get
this huge explosion of anger. [gripping music] - I was the only reporter that
was inside of the courtroom
00:39:54
covering the Ali Abulaban
trial every single day. The double-murder
trial is expected
00:40:00
to start later this week. In court on Monday, we learned
that Ali Abulaban is planning
00:40:05
to testify in his own defense. This was a very high-profile
case in San Diego. Not only do you have a murder,
a double murder, in San Diego,
00:40:15
but also the killer
is a TikTok star. So this had a really
far-reaching audience
00:40:20
that spread beyond San Diego. Ali had 2 and 1/2 years
to rehearse exactly what he was
00:40:27
going to say on that stand. When he started talking, it
is so quiet in that courtroom,
00:40:32
you could hear a pin drop. [suspenseful music] ALI: I didn't expect Ana
would ever do that to me.
00:40:41
I couldn't take it. I couldn't take
the [bleep] betrayal. I couldn't believe that
she could do that to me.
00:40:49
And before I could stop
myself, I just [bleep] snapped. My gun was in my hand,
and next thing I'm shooting.
00:40:55
And-- and I can't stop. I'm just shooting. I'm shooting. And I-- I'm even startled.
00:41:00
It's like I'm
watching it happen. I'm like-- I'm in the passenger
seat of my own body.
00:41:04
[gripping music] JULIA SHAW: You can see
that Ali, till the end, really paints himself as the
victim and Ana as the betrayer.
00:41:13
She is the one who caused
this whole situation and caused this
anger inside him.
00:41:17
And this out-of-body reaction
that he's talking about, which might be true,
it still is her fault.
00:41:24
It's not his fault
for not seeing the signs. It's her fault for evoking
this feeling in him.
00:41:28
And that's the classic
defense that we often get from men who
have not controlled
00:41:32
their anger over
a long period of time and then blame the victims when
they act out and kill them.
00:41:38
TAREN BRAST: He was using
the heat-of-passion defense. Part of heat of passion is
that the defendant, Ali, has
00:41:44
to prove that he was provoked. You can't provoke somebody
by being with another man who
00:41:50
she's allowed to be
with because she's no longer with her husband. None of that was sufficient
provocation to prove
00:41:57
a heat-of-passion defense. And certainly Ray did
nothing to provoke Ali. [dramatic music]
00:42:04
- The prosecution showed
some of his Google searches in the days and the moments
leading up to this murder.
00:42:09
At one point, he had
searched chopping up bodies. His actions wasn't
of someone that had just
00:42:16
committed a crime
of passion, but instead someone that had just
committed premeditated murder.
00:42:21
The defense really
tried to paint Ali as this kid who went through
a really rough childhood
00:42:27
and had some untreated issues
that went into his adulthood, whether that was ADHD,
abuse, addictions.
00:42:35
They tried to claim that he had
bipolar disorder, that his drug addiction had gotten so bad
that it was overconsuming
00:42:41
everything he did. - There was no diagnosis that
he had bipolar disorder or any other ailment before--
00:42:48
on the day of the murders. It was only after
the fact, years later. There's no history
of him seeing
00:42:54
anybody to get help for it. [pensive music] JUDGE: If we ask,
who is Ali Abulaban?
00:43:05
he's somebody that is only
thinking about himself, and the idea of killing
two innocent people
00:43:16
doesn't disturb him. It's chilling. - [no audible dialogue] - Ali Abulaban was
sentenced to 25 years
00:43:23
to life for each
count of murder-- 25 years for Ana,
25 years for Ray. JUDGE: So the bottom line
here is he will die in prison.
00:43:33
He will never be a free man. He will take his
last breath there. [applause] - [no audible dialogue]
00:43:41
JUDGE: [indistinct]
Please, please, please. - Ali was extremely abusive,
controlling, jealous,
00:43:51
narcissistic,
possessive, someone who was trying to be funny,
impersonating violent killers,
00:44:01
and then ultimately became
one of those killers. [brooding music] JULIA SHAW: What I find
most striking about Ali
00:44:10
is that he got so tangled
in his own fabricated reality that he started to shift
the baseline of what he thought
00:44:17
was acceptable behavior to not
just perpetrate, but share. And that is unusual, that
perpetrators actually
00:44:23
video and-- and show
live some of the abuse that they're hurling
at their partner
00:44:29
to hundreds
of thousands of people. You could see these
critical moments where he's reported
to the police
00:44:35
or he's kicked out
of the military. Or Ana just says,
this is enough. He chose each
time to ignore it.
00:44:43
KERRY DAYNES: I always say
there are no crimes of passion, only crimes of possession.
00:44:48
This is a highly
controlling and abusive man who cannot face rejection. In Ali's mind,
he is the victim.
00:44:59
He has been betrayed. He had that change
in thinking where he thought, well, I can no longer control
her, so I'm going to kill her.
00:45:08
This-- this should never
have escalated into-- into homicide. It was very, very predictable.
00:45:14
And that's what I find
just so tragic about it. [pensive music] - I hope that this
case brings awareness
00:45:24
about domestic violence
to the community. We encourage abuse
to be reported. The more that people are
aware of domestic violence and
00:45:34
the cycle of power
and control, the more that we can help get victims
away from that violence
00:45:41
and that these abusers
get consequences and counseling so that it
doesn't lead to murder.
00:45:46
[pensive music] ZARA BARKER: Ray and Ana
didn't deserve this. They didn't deserve
to be shot and
00:45:54
killed over someone's
jealousy and anger that he couldn't control. - I think Ana and Ray
should be remembered
00:46:02
for who they were, removing
Ali from the situation. Ray needs to be remembered
as that light, that ray
00:46:10
of sunshine, you
know, that person that is willing to help
anyone who needs it. Ana brought joy
anywhere that she went.
00:46:19
She was funny, and she
just gave you that space to be yourself, be weird,
and really enjoy life
00:46:29
and be in the present. [tense music]