True Crime Documentary - TikTok Star Killer： Ali Abulaban

0:09 You better get out of his way. There's a bad guy coming through.

0:13 Yo.

0:14 Yo, this is crazy, right?

0:17 What are the chances?

0:19 He had almost a million followers on TikTok.

0:23 It almost seems as if he thinks he's untouchable.

0:25 He was funny. He was confident. Instantly, she fell in love with him.

0:32 San Diego emergency.

0:35 Yes, ma'am.

0:36 My wife and another man were... I found them dead on the couch, bullet holes to the face.

0:41 Someone was shot?

0:43 Two people, a man and my wife.

0:45 Okay, stand by.

0:46 Please help my wife.

0:47 Please help my wife.

0:48 Okay, hold on, sir.

0:49 Not only do you have a double murder in San Diego, but also the killer is a TikTok star.

0:59 This is a highly controlling and abusive man who cannot face.

1:05 Rejection.

1:07 Someone who was trying to be funny, impersonating violent killers, and then ultimately became one of those killers.

1:19 Oh, we got two down.

1:20 We got two down.

1:56 I saw my wife on the couch with one hand on her head. I don't know who he is. Your wife was shot in the face.

2:02 Is that what you said?

2:03 Yeah, in the forehead.

2:05 Was there anyone else in the apartment? What is your name?

2:09 My name is Ali.

2:10 Ali?

2:10 Abulaban.

2:24 Ali Aboulaban was born May 18th in 1992 in Staten Island, New York.

2:31 So I was born in New York. My parents moved me out when I was two years old to Virginia. So I grew up in Virginia my whole life.

2:39 Ali's parents are Palestinian and they came to America as immigrants.

2:48 I'm first generation American. I wanted to be American. I wanted to be how my friends were.

2:53 Ali grew up in a Middle Eastern family where they had very strict religious rules. What he's talked about a lot is that his father was emotionally and physically abusive, not only to him, but also to his mom.

3:08 Very early on, we had this fear instilled in us that if we did something wrong, our father would find out. Don't tell dad, things of that nature. So I wasn't sure why, but I was already scared of my father before. I fully understood.

3:24 It's very difficult to grow up trapped between two cultures. 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, although it's not inevitable, you can grow up to have all manner of emotional difficulties. You can have heightened levels of fear. of anxiety, you can struggle in relationships.

4:00 I kept getting in trouble in school. Just the outbursts or being the class clown. I didn't know when enough was enough.

4:08 Ali said he would get bullied in school because he had bigger ears and he just looked different from some of the other people that were in his classes.

4:17 My ears, it's not going to be a problem. We can use tape, you know what I'm saying?

4:21 Like, okay, now I don't have ears, okay?

4:23 But it's cool, you know, because I got cute Mickey Mouse ears. You know, I get to go into Disneyland for free. So, like, I know I got satellite dishes for ears, you know, but I get Sirius XM.

4:34 I get 93.9 WKYS. Yo, I get all these radio.

4:37 Stations for free.

4:40 I think he was trying to make people laugh with him rather than at him. I think this is kind of like a coping strategy for him, a survival skill, if you will.

4:54 Ali was like every other American kid, despite growing up in a Middle Eastern strict religious household. He wanted the same toys that his friends had, and he specifically wanted this Darth Vader mask that changed his voice, and he kept begging his mom for it. His father seemed to be against the idea of buying him this toy.

5:11 He didn't like the fact that it was kind of childish in his mind. I think I was about 14, 15. And his response. To me pestering my mother to purchase this for me was to grab the vacuum cable and whip me repeatedly. And that was the worst pain that I've ever felt physically. I literally would beg him to stop. And he's asking me, why are you crying? Why are you crying as he's whipping me?

5:46 When you're subjected to violence of this type, you can really go in two directions. You can either think to yourself, I don't want to ever become this man. I'm going to do something very, very different. Or you can start to identify with the person who abuses you and think, well, okay, maybe this is what masculinity is about. It's about control of the children. It's about control of the women in my life.

6:18 After I graduated high school, a lot of my friends were taking a break. I wanted to do that. I wasn't allowed to. I mean, I was dragged to the nearest community college and forced to sign up. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't know what to do with my life.

6:32 Ali would say that he had ADHD, and it was kind of keeping him from being able to concentrate and focus. He found college pretty difficult, and he had to leave college because he couldn't really concentrate with his ADHD problems.

6:46 College is.

6:47 I'm a college dropout.

6:51 After Ali dropped out of college, he enlisted in the military, in the Air Force, and he got stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

7:10 Okinawa is probably the most beautiful place to be in this world. It's a small island an hour away from the Philippines. pretty much run by military. Kadena, which is in Okinawa, is the second biggest Air Force base in the world.

7:28 Initially, it was beautiful. It was amazing. I mean, the culture, the people, all that. Everything was beautiful. I was proud to be in the military.

7:39 Anna was definitely a light as far as.

7:45 Being a friend.

7:50 She was a happy-go-lucky, nerdy gamer girl. She loved her video games, and she loved being around friends. It was what made her happy. Anna met Ali in Okinawa around the beginning of his career. Anna was married to one of his coworkers, and their marriage was not working out. It being a small community, friends, introduced friends, instantly she fell in love with him. Ali was funny. He was confident.

8:35 He was everything she wanted to be.

8:42 In the very beginning of Anna and Ali's relationship, there were already a lot of signs that he was controlling and possessive of Anna. He didn't like when any of her guy friends would compliment her, and he would even try and stop her from going out.

8:57 He didn't like other people even looking at her, and it was almost like he was in competition with her.

9:08 In August of 2015, There were police reports regarding Ali Aboulaban being drunk and hitting Anna and trying to grab her and control her. And Ali ended up driving away from the scene while he was drunk. And so there were charges that were brought against Ali Aboulaban in the military. And he was, other than honorably discharged....

9:39 When Ali assaults Anna, this is the first time that we know of that he's engaged in intimate partner violence. And in this moment, there's the potential for him to learn that this is something that shouldn't be done, for him to be punished, for him to have legal consequences.

9:54 But that doesn't happen.

9:56 And so instead, what it could be he's learning here is... maybe I can get away with this.

10:11 After Ali was discharged, he moved back to Virginia. Anna moved to the Philippines. And shortly after that, Anna found out she was pregnant.

10:20 When Anna found out she was pregnant, she was definitely nervous and scared because she didn't know what she was going to do. She was living with her mom and her stepdad in their home in the Philippines, and Ali convinced her that they would get married and they would build a life in America. In 2016, Anna and Ali's daughter was born, and Ali flew down to the Philippines for about three months to meet his daughter and experience living with Anna.

10:55 When their daughter was nine months old, Anna's visa got approved, so they moved to Northern Virginia, where Ali's family lived. Anna and Ali got married, they bought a house, and they were starting their family life together.

11:11 Hello, sir. Can we speak to Ali?

11:12 Who?

11:13 Oh, no, he died.

11:14 I'm sorry.

11:15 Oh, that's unfortunate.

11:16 No, he did.

11:17 He went, you know.

11:18 We just spoke to him on the phone.

11:19 Okay, don't leave here.

11:21 Okay.

11:21 Okay, all right, thank you.

11:24 Back in like 2016, 2017, Ali started making online videos.

11:28 One month watching Scarface, the greatest movie I've ever seen in my life.

11:32 You're not going to find a better movie.

11:34 Making impersonations, impressions of political figures, other musicians, and movie stars.

11:40 What can I get for you today? I'll take your mocha. Okay, and what size?

11:44 A large.

11:45 You mean a venti? No, I meant a large.

11:49 Ali always loved to make other people laugh, and being able to have that outlet on social media, it just made it so accessible for him to get that and the attention that he wanted.

11:59 You guys aren't real.

12:02 Are you kidding me?

12:03 No, I'm serious.

12:05 Nah, I'm real as f * * *.

12:08 Both of you guys are characters that I play.

12:11 So you're telling.

12:11 Me that you're me.

12:14 Well, no, you're me.

12:15 Okay, I'm you.

12:17 Who's he? He's me.

12:19 He had about 40,000 followers, but quickly grew over to about 100,000, and from there, just rapidly started growing. He went by Jenkid online.

12:31 What's up, you guys?

12:32 It's Jinn Kid here.

12:33 Guys, make sure you follow his Instagram at Jinn Kid.

12:37 Jinn Kid.

12:37 J-I-N-N-K-I-D.

12:39 Yup.

12:40 Everybody follow at Jinn Kid.

12:42 This guy has a whole YouTube channel where he posts these all the time.

12:45 Like, I was sitting there crying laughing in his channel. Is that the name of it?

12:49 Jinn Kid?

12:49 Jinn Kid, yeah.

12:52 In the Islamic religion, Jinn is an unseen and typically unknown being, and it's not really... something that is good nor bad. And I think with Ali's persona, he didn't want to be portrayed as either good or bad, but just someone who is making people laugh. One of his most, like, famous lines was, need something, which is from the video game, Skyrim, when a non-playable character or an NPC is essentially glitching and saying need something over and over again because you just like ran into it or ran past the character.

13:34 Need something?

13:37 Need something.

13:39 Need something?

13:41 Need something.

13:43 People loved his skits. I mean, they just couldn't get enough of them and he would write back to the fans and, you know, heart react all of their messages. You know, he really loved the attention. When you start getting a lot of positive attention online, 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. Anna would appear in some of these videos.

14:06 Her hand was commonly used as like the POV hand. In the video game Skyrim skits, as well as, you know, some of the Tony Montana skits, she was usually playing, you know, a beautiful woman that Tony Montana is trying to impress. Ali felt pretty validated by that blue checkmark. He felt like things were really taking off at that point and he felt like there's no looking back and he was unstoppable.

14:40 No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

14:44 I'm verified on Instagram.

14:46 I got the blue checkmark and everything, man.

14:50 Anna and Ali lived in Virginia for several years, but Anna had a lot of friends from Japan and from high school that lived in San Diego. And so Anna and Ali visited San Diego.

15:04 In August of 2020.

15:05 Anna loved San Diego, loved the lifestyle, loved the beautiful scenery, all that San Diego has to offer. And Anna would tell Ali that she wanted to move here.

15:20 Even though Ali didn't want to go to San Diego right away, Anna convinced him, and Ali saw the opportunity that was in front of him. Ali was close to LA, he could collaborate with more social media personalities, and he really saw the idea that his social media presence could grow.

15:37 Anna and Ali moved with their.

15:38 Daughter to San Diego in February of 2021.

15:45 They moved into a apartment complex called Spire San Diego. It was a new, modern, high-rise building, and it had beautiful views of the Bay and of downtown San Diego.

16:03 They posted a video online with a caption that said, when your relationship is drama-free, and it shows this perfect couple living a gorgeous life showing videos of them dancing around their high-rise apartment to spending time together with their daughter, and everything really did seem perfect. When Ali and Anna moved to San Diego, they got more involved in a party lifestyle than they were used to in Virginia.

16:29 They started going out, going to.

16:30 Clubs together with friends, and they started doing drugs a lot more than they had, specifically doing a lot of cocaine.

16:41 Ollie was telling me that it was making him feel more euphoric and it was helping him to accomplish more in some of his content. But on the other hand, he would have some breakdowns from his cocaine usage. He realized it was becoming a problem. Ali had almost a million followers on TikTok. When Ali got millions of views, he was just like so excited and happy. He was like screaming in happiness. But whenever his videos weren't doing so well, he just kind of wanted to withdraw a little bit. It was just pretty low about it.

17:11 Holy, I've missed you, Gen Kid. It feels like it's been ages.

17:14 It has been ages.

17:14 I have not felt like Gen Kid in a long time.

17:17 With the numbers going up and down, it's really playing a number on his mental health.

17:22 Okay, I'll play with you.

17:25 Ollie's personality started changing from just like cheerful, happy, and joking to more of that self-sabotage humor.

17:32 I have a condition that nobody knows about, but I'm ready to share. It's called Tony Montana Tourette's.

17:42 Around May of 2021, Ollie found out that his mother was leaving their family for another man. Ollie felt that his mother was abandoning her whole family. And he is in disbelief that all the values that he knows just went out the window. Ali felt resentment towards his mother for having an affair and abandoning his family. So he took it out on Anna instead of his mother.

18:13 It's rare that we direct the anger that we store onto the person or persons that it's actually meant for. Ali's response to his mother leaving his father and in his mind abandoning the family speaks to how he views women and of course would have carried through into how he would have viewed Anna. He would have been looking at her and thinking, well, do you meet my core values?

18:42 You know, to what extent are you behaving in.

18:44 The way that I expect.

18:46 For a woman to behave? Ali often made audio recordings of arguments that he had with Anna, disagreements they had.

19:00 Give me my phone back.

19:03 Enough! Ali, enough.

19:06 Ali!

19:08 Stop.

19:08 Leave me alone!

19:11 Stop.

19:11 Give me my phone back.

19:13 Close the door.

19:15 Bigger.

19:16 You are out of control.

19:17 Give me my phone. You're the one out of control. I'm trying to leave this house.

19:20 Yeah, that's not cool.

19:21 Give me my phone.

19:22 With a bunch of guys?

19:23 Give me my phone.

19:24 A bunch of guys, huh?

19:25 Give me my phone.

19:26 There's no guys.

19:28 Give me my phone.

19:28 This is not healthy, man.

19:30 You're not healthy.

19:35 Everything that Ali was saying to Anna was actually a reflection of how he felt about his mother.

19:43 Look how lame you are.

19:47 Ali is recording what you would think would be private moments, and he's recording arguments and discussions that he has with Anna. And I think that he's doing this because there's a level of paranoia setting in. It's a very worrying escalation in his behavior.

20:09 There was an incident in July of 2021 when Ali got into an argument with Anna 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. Meanwhile, Ali was sending Anna messages telling her he loved her. He just lost control and he wouldn't do it again and that he would get help. Ali was able to convince Anna to stay with him, stay in their marriage. She had left the home for a couple of days, but ultimately came back. What is your name?

20:57 Are you having a fight with a spouse or a boyfriend?

21:00 Yes.

21:09 Did he hit you?

21:11 Yes.

21:11 No.

21:13 You're not even an American citizen.

21:14 I brought you to this goddamn country.

21:16 Name one man that would do that for you. Women, man.

21:23 Ungrateful.

21:26 I'm still here for you.

21:28 Thank you so much.

21:30 Yeah, just don't say anything to him. That way, he doesn't flare up again. Oh, great.

21:34 You were on the phone with police while I said that?

21:37 Wow.

21:39 Are we on speaker? Yes, ma'am.

21:41 Can you take me off the speaker, please?

21:43 No, it's the truth.

21:45 You're a test. Shut the up.

22:03 San Diego Police Department arrived at the Spire apartment complex.

22:09 I think he just left the house.

22:11 He just left?

22:11 Is it just you? It's just me and my daughter's here.

22:14 Did you say he took off?

22:15 Yeah, he just took off.

22:16 So what was the fire about?

22:18 Um, so it's been happening for like, I.

22:22 Would say two weeks.

22:23 It was just a lot of verbal stuff. A lot of verbal stuff?

22:25 Okay.

22:26 How about tonight?

22:28 It was physical tonight. It was physical.

22:29 How did he hit you?

22:30 Like, if he's facing me, then he just pushed me this way.

22:33 I fell and hit my head here. I'm going to just get a full-body picture.

22:37 And then I'm going to run to your entrance, OK?

22:41 She had a scrape on her elbow. She had a bruise on her leg. 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.

22:57 Ali is so entitled at this point. He is so emboldened and possibly disinhibited due to the long-term effects of drug use that he's live streaming his abuse of Anna. 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.

23:19 You owe me.

23:21 Therefore, I own you.

23:25 And you have to behave in the way that I expect. Otherwise, there are going to be consequences.

23:35 He knows deep down that hitting a woman is definitely always wrong.

23:39 And yet he's doing it.

23:40 And so he is choosing to override his own better judgment, his own feelings, and not get help and to engage in this violence anyway.

23:50 Ollie was going in a downward spiral. I mean, his addiction was increasing to the cocaine, and his marriage problems were getting worse. Everything was breaking down.

23:58 Who is she?

24:04 I want.

24:07 To know.

24:07 Who is she?

24:08 Someone's upset?

24:11 Anna had found out that Ollie cheated on her with a girl he met in an elevator.

24:16 Why do you play these games, Ollie?

24:18 You want a marriage?

24:19 During September and October of 2021, Ali continued to seek.

24:21 Out other women, either through social media or through escort services.

24:23 I have no use.

24:25 For you.

24:52 Anna hosted a TikTok mentioning that for seven years she's been dealing with abuse and cheating. After Anna had found out everything, she was hurt. She was done. It was like everything that she had been holding on to in her marriage went out the window.

25:13 And she left me.

25:19 Anna has made the decision that she's ready to leave. 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, sense of control over her. And if there's another person who comes into the picture, then it's losing even more control.

25:48 Ray was a sweet, kind-hearted soul. There was no angry bone in his body. From the moment he met Anna, he saw her light. And Anna ended up building a relationship with him.

26:04 Ray was a very hardworking man. He worked in construction with his brother.

26:09 Rayburn Barone was inside of Anna's friend group. He was often out with them at restaurants, at clubs, going out. And Ali didn't like him from the beginning.

26:21 When we moved here, I didn't want you to be close to Ray. I saw that they were bad people and that they had their tongues melting before you. They wanted to f * * * you so bad. And what do you do?

26:30 You follow them and you party with them.

26:33 That tells me your character. You are f * * * ing trash.

26:38 Ray said that Ali was lucky to have a woman like Anna as his wife. Ali, being the jealous person that he is, immediately didn't like Ray after that.

26:49 Ray was a gentleman. The way he spoke to women was so delicate. He was respectful. It seemed like Anna and Ray were falling in love with each other. He had begged her, just please, can we have a family dinner? She agreed. Anna is trying to leave, and he gets in the car.

27:17 You've been sucking me dry for everything I got.

27:18 There is nobody.

27:19 There has to be.

27:20 Can you get out of my car before I.

27:21 I swear to God, you're going to do some crazy shit again.

27:25 Get out of the car, please.

27:26 Who are you calling?

27:26 The police.

27:27 Why?

27:27 Because you need to get the out of my car and my life.

27:33 Get out!

27:33 Get out! You can hear them arguing, and you can hear Ali hit Anna, and she screams, and that was in front of their child. Anna wanted to get a restraining order against Ali as he wouldn't leave her alone.

27:54 I want to know what's going on.

27:55 Talk to me.

27:56 Respond to my text. You said you're not going out tonight.

27:59 You lie to me all the time.

28:01 Are you with another man? Just let me know so I can leave.

28:04 Let me know.

28:05 Are you with another man?

28:07 There's no way that you lost love for me.

28:09 Just overnight.

28:12 Ali was essentially stalking her and constantly texting her and calling her.

28:16 Hey, Anna. Just want to say good morning.

28:22 I've been sitting here for like an hour or two, and I just went through all of the audio recordings that I have of us arguing.

28:34 I'm an idiot.

28:35 I'm so sorry. I'm so f * * * ing sorry. I get it why you're sick of me. I get it why you don't want to see me. Yeah, I just need to be responsible for what I did.

28:46 I just want to let you know I'm learning, and I see the truth. And I do very much love you. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all this.

29:03 Anna and their daughter were living at a friend's house, but Ali decided that he was going to leave the apartment so Anna and their daughter could have the apartment to themselves, and he was going to stay at a hotel in San Diego.

29:19 Ali was trying to get Anna back, making another effort to try to keep her with him in their marriage. He sent her groceries and flowers and a pumpkin to the apartment.

29:35 Anna gets her daughter ready for school, takes her to school. And after she had lunch with some girlfriends, she went back to the apartment and the whole apartment was vandalized.

30:02 San Diego emergency?

30:04 Yes, ma'am.

30:04 My wife and another man were... I found them dead on the couch. Bullet holes to the face.

30:09 Someone was shot?

30:11 Two people, a man and my wife. Okay, stand by. Please help my wife.

30:15 Please help my wife.

30:16 Okay, hold on, sir.

30:20 In the police department's mind, the suspect is probably still either in the area or in the building or maybe even in the apartment.

30:30 At 3.13 p.m., officers had to do an emergency breach of the apartment because no one was answering and they knew that someone was shot inside.

30:37 Stand by, stand by, stand by, stand by.

30:41 We got it clear.

30:43 Oh, we got two down, we got two down.

30:44 Emergency entry, I need a team.

30:47 The police officers make entry at the Spire apartment. They find two bodies, one male, one female.

30:53 On the couch.

30:55 Hey, bathroom's clear, slow down, slow down.

30:59 Slow down.

31:00 I already cleared it.

31:02 I already cleared it.

31:03 Clear that room right there.

31:04 Bathroom's clear.

31:05 Bathroom's clear.

31:06 I got it.

31:07 I got it.

31:07 I got it. I got it.

31:08 I got it.

31:08 I got it.

31:09 I got a closet.

31:09 I got a closet.

31:12 All right.

31:12 Room's clear.

31:13 Room's clear.

31:15 They're trying to find out who lives there, who the suspect could be, who the shooter could be.

31:22 Hold on. We got a balcony.

31:22 We got a balcony.

31:31 We're clear.

31:32 We're clear.

31:35 We're clear.

31:36 Wait. Hey, stand by.

31:38 Hey, once this place is clear, we need to hold the evidence.

31:41 We need to clear it out and just hold it off.

31:42 Oh, yeah, yeah.

31:43 Don't look anything.

31:44 No.

31:45 No fire.

31:45 Guys, have we checked anything?

31:47 Have we checked holes, guys?

31:49 Checked holes.

31:50 Checked holes. It sounds like there's a third shooter.

31:53 Someone came here and shot them.

31:56 That's the guy that he's describing.

31:59 The police learned that Ali also lived in that apartment and that he had a Jeep that he drove that was registered to the apartment. And so now the police are out looking for this black Jeep.

32:21 After being arrested, Abulawan was taken back.

32:27 To the San Diego headquarters building.

32:30 There, homicide detectives interviewed him.

32:57 Anna left around 8.40 a.m. to take their daughter to school. And so Ali went up to the apartment. He arrives about 9.12 a.m. There's surveillance video showing him going up to the 35th floor. He ended up trashing the apartment. He smashed the pumpkin on the floor.

33:18 He threw the.

33:19 Flowers on the floor. All this time, he was recording it on his phone.

33:25 You locked your husband?

33:26 You cheating on me?

33:30 He downloads an app onto his daughter's iPad so he can listen in to whatever's going on within the apartment.

33:36 And then he leaves.

33:40 Anna enters the apartment to find it trashed. Ray shows up to the apartment to help Anna clean up. They're inside talking, but unbeknownst to them, Ali is listening in on his daughter's iPad. At 2.50 p.m., Abu Laban enters the parking garage of the apartment complex. He starts recording on his phone and enters the elevator. At 2.58 p.m., The boulevard arrives at the apartment on the 35th floor.

34:24 You hear the door open. And just over a second later, you hear Ali rack his gun.

34:38 It was just so raw and visceral, the striking part of this. They realize what's going to happen. She kind of screams out and then he just starts shooting. Abulaban leaves the apartment and pretty much just turns around right away, comes back inside.

35:18 At 2.59 p.m., Ali took two photos of his dead victims on his cell phone. And he sends those photographs to both of his parents. And at 3.02 p.m., Ali calls his mother on his cell phone.

35:36 I was just trying to go in to look for everyone else.

35:41 I was just trying to go in to look.

35:44 For everyone else.

35:57 He gets on the elevator. About 3.04 p.m., he encounters a neighbor on the elevator. He's calm. You can see the picture of the dead bodies on his cell phone. And then, you know, he just rides it down.

36:13 As soon as he's in his Jeep, he calls 911.

36:17 He doesn't give any information that he was the one who just shot and killed Anna.

36:21 And he ends up hanging up on the 911 dispatcher.

36:45 Ali gets on the freeway, he has their five-year-old daughter in the car, and he starts driving away. Within minutes, he's surrounded by police and helicopters. He ended up pulling off the freeway and surrendering.

36:58 Stop!

37:00 Turn around.

37:07 And circle!

37:13 Ray had.

37:15 three gunshot wounds. One entered through his cheek, one entered his neck, and then one of the bullets entered the back of his head. Anna had one gunshot wound. She was shot once in the top of her forehead, and the bullet exited through the back of her head, cracking her skull. He was trained as a military police officer, and he knew how to shoot someone to kill, and that's exactly what he did.

37:46 And I receive a call from one of my close friends, and she's crying. She said he did it. I think he finally did it.

37:58 Ali, in his delusional mind, he's been obsessing over this idea that she's sleeping with other men, and now she actually might be. And because he hasn't stopped at all of the red flags up to this point and intervened and sought help, he instead allows himself to lean into his emotions.

38:16 He lets his rage get out of control.

38:19 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 and thoughts and fears that have been festering his mind for so long.

38:35 Ali was pleading not guilty. When one of the detectives was talking about seeing some Instagram messages between Anna and Ray, where they discussed that they were going to meet up at a hotel, Ali just blew up. Do you think I wanted this?

38:55 I wanted this!

38:58 Who the f * * * are you?

39:01 Mr.

39:02 Abolbon, I need you to stop.

39:09 Alia Boulaban absolutely explodes in court, and that's because he was having to listen to text messages between Anna and her friend Ray. And he was jealous. Even with Anna and Ray no longer alive, it just shows you how threatening he found that. So this is evidence of what he would have perceived as his woman with another man.

39:36 This is her betraying him. And for it to be read out in court is humiliating for him. And I think this is why we get this huge explosion of anger.

39:51 I was the only reporter that was inside of the courtroom covering the Ali Aboulaban trial every single day. The double murder trial is expected to start later this week.

40:02 In court on Monday, we learned that Ali.

40:04 Aboulaban is planning 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, but also the killer is a TikTok star. So this had a really far-reaching audience that spread beyond San Diego. Ali had two and a half years to rehearse exactly what he was going to say on that stand.

40:29 When he started talking, it is so quiet in that courtroom, you could hear a pen drop.

40:37 I didn't expect that Anna would ever do that to me.

40:42 I couldn't take it.

40:43 I couldn't take the f * * * ing betrayal.

40:47 I couldn't believe that she could do that to me.

40:49 And before I could stop myself, I just.

40:51 F * * * ing snapped.

40:53 My gun was in my hand, and next thing I'm shooting, and I can't stop.

40:57 I'm just shooting, I'm shooting, and I'm even startled.

41:00 It's like I'm watching it happen. I'm like I'm in the passenger.

41:03 Seat of my own body.

41:06 You can see that alley to the end really precisely paints himself as the victim and Anna as the betrayer. She is the one who caused this whole situation and caused this anger inside him. And this out-of-body reaction that he's talking about, which might be true, it still is her fault. It's not his fault for not seeing the signs.

41:25 It's her fault for evoking this feeling in him. And that's the classic defense that we often get from men who have not controlled their anger over a long period of time and then blame the victims when they act out and kill them.

41:38 He was using the heat of passion defense. Part of heat of passion is that the defendant, Ali, has to prove that he was provoked. You can't provoke somebody by being with another man who she's allowed to be with because she's no longer with her husband. None of that was sufficient provocation to prove a heat of passion defense.

41:59 And certainly Ray did nothing to provoke Ali.

42:04 The prosecution showed some of his Google searches in the days and the moments leading up to this murder. At one point, he had searched chopping up bodies. His actions wasn't of someone that had just committed a crime of passion, but instead someone that had just committed premeditated murder. The defense really tried to paint Ali as this kid who went through a really rough childhood and had some untreated issues that went into his adulthood.

42:31 Whether that was ADHD, abuse, addictions.

42:35 They tried to claim that he had bipolar disorder, that his drug addiction had gotten so bad that it was over-consuming everything he did.

42:43 There was no diagnosis that he had bipolar disorder or any other ailment before or on the day of the murders. It was only after the fact, years later. There's no history of him seeing anybody to get help for it.

43:03 We ask, who is Ali Aboulaban? He's somebody that is only thinking about himself, and the idea of killing two innocent people.

43:16 Doesn't disturb him.

43:17 It's chilling.

43:18 It's chilling.

43:20 Ali Aboulaban was sentenced to 25 years to life for each count of murder. 25 years for Anna, 25 years for Ray.

43:29 So the bottom line here is he will die in prison. He will never be a free man. He will take his last breath.

43:36 Ali was.

43:43 Extremely abusive, controlling, jealous, narcissistic, possessive, someone who was trying to be funny, impersonating violent killers, and then ultimately became one of those killers.

44:08 What I find most striking about Ali is that he got so tangled in his own fabricated reality.

44:14 That he started to shift the.

44:16 Baseline of what he thought was acceptable behavior to not just perpetrate, but share. And that is unusual, that perpetrators actually video and show live some of the abuse that they're hurling at their partner to hundreds of thousands of people. You could see these critical moments where he's reported to the police or he's kicked out of the military or Anna just says, this is enough.

44:39 He chose each time to ignore it.

44:44 I always say there are no crimes of passion, only crimes of possession. This is a highly controlling and abusive man who cannot face rejection. In Ali's mind, he is the victim. 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. This should never have escalated into homicide. It was very, very predictable.

45:15 And that's what I find just so tragic about it.

45:21 I hope that this case brings awareness about domestic violence to the community. We encourage abuse to be reported. The more that people are aware of domestic violence and the cycle of power and control, the more that we can help get victims away from that violence. and that these abusers get consequences and counseling so that it doesn't lead to murder.

45:50 Ray and Anna didn't deserve this. They didn't deserve to be shot and killed over someone's jealousy and anger that he couldn't control.

46:00 I think Anna and Ray should be remembered for who they were removing Ali from the situation. Ray needs to be remembered as that light, that ray of sunshine, you know? that person that is willing to help anyone who needs it. Anna brought joy anywhere that she went. She was funny, and she just gave you that space to be yourself, be weird, and really enjoy life and be in the present.

46:38 Thank you.