Trial begins for TikTok star accused of murdering wife

Ana and Ali Abulaban / Facebook

SAN DIEGO – Opening statements were delivered Wednesday in the murder trial for a social media personality accused of fatally shooting his wife and another man at an East Village high-rise apartment building.

Ali Nasser Abulaban, 31, is charged in the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting deaths of 28-year-old Ana Abulaban and 29-year-old Rayburn Cardenas Barron at the Spire San Diego luxury apartment complex, where Abulaban and his wife
previously lived.

Police who responded on the afternoon of Oct. 21 found both victims dead on a couch in the living room of the Abulabans’ 35th floor unit.

Abulaban allegedly picked up his 5-year-old daughter from her school after the shooting – telling her at some point that he “hurt Mommy,” prosecutors allege – but was stopped in his vehicle by police later that day near the interchange of the 805 and 15 freeways and arrested.

Abulaban, who went by the handle JinnKid on various social media platforms, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, allegations of using a handgun in the slayings, and a special-circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders. His trial is expected to last about a month.

@jinnkids

How To Sound Like Tony! #jinnkid #fyp #foryoupage #foryou #foryourpage #viral #skit #impressions #scarface

♬ original sound – JinnKid

Prosecutors allege the couple’s marriage was deteriorating in the months leading up to the shooting.

Ana Abulaban asked her husband to move out of their apartment, but according to testimony from a preliminary hearing more than two years ago, he secretly made a copy of the apartment key.

He allegedly later told investigators that while his wife was away on the morning of Oct. 21, he used the copied key to enter the apartment, vandalized the unit, then installed an app on his daughter’s iPad that allowed him to monitor live audio inside the apartment.

While listening to the app later that day, he overheard his wife and a man “giggling,” SDPD Det. Sgt. Christopher Leahy testified, then drove to the complex from a Mission Bay hotel where he was staying.

According to Leahy, Abulaban told police that upon entering the apartment, he saw Barron and his wife sitting on the couch, and Barron had his arm around Ana. Abulaban said he then shot both victims shortly after entering the unit, Leahy testified.

Abulaban called 911 following the shooting, telling a dispatcher that he arrived at the apartment and found both victims dead, according to the detective, who said that when the dispatcher asked him to remain at the scene, Abulaban “said he had to go” and ended the call. (CNS)