Former TikTok star testifies about the moment he killed his wife

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) – Ali Abulaban testified in his own defense Wednesday about the day he shot his wife, Ana Abulaban, and the man she was in any physical relationship with, Rayburn Barron.

One of the main questions in this double murder trial is what Ali’s motive was behind the shooting. The jury heard Ali’s answer to that question on Wednesday.

“Was it your intention to kill her?” Jodi Green, Ali’s lawyer, asked him. “No,” Ali replied.

Ali also talked about the day of the shooting and his mindset.

“I didn’t think Ana would ever do that to me, of all people. She knew how I felt about him, she knew what I felt. I tried to believe her, I tried to believe that she wasn’t cheating on me, that she was letting me fix it because I was sick and struggling with drugs and mental illness,” Ali testified. “But I tried to fix it and when I saw it was him, I couldn’t take it, I couldn’t take the betrayal, I couldn’t believe she could do this to me, to our daughter, and before I could stop myself I just freaked out, I had my gun in my hand and the next moment I’m shooting and I can’t stop, I just shoot, I shoot and I’m even scared, it’s like I’m watching, like I’m sitting in the passenger seat of my own body… I can’t stop it and I hear Ana screaming and crying. And I don’t even remember shooting Ana. All I remember is that I ran back to the front door, grabbed the doorknob and then it hit me. I thought, did that just happen? And I turn around and see Ana leaning over and there’s blood. I think, Ana, Ana, Ana, I couldn’t believe I did that. I don’t know, I didn’t want to do that.”

Ali said he was addicted to cocaine in the months before the shooting and there were many heated arguments in their marriage.

“It was tormenting, it was very confusing,” Ali testified.

Ali remembers the day of the shooting

On the morning of October 21, 2021, the day of the shooting, Ali sent a video to Ana saying, “I’m an idiot, I’m so sorry… what happened to me, was it the drugs, was it my insecurities.” “…I love you, I’m sorry about all of this,” he said, adding that he was optimistic and excited because he thought he and Ana were doing well and working on their marriage.

He testified that he had not slept the night before and had consumed large amounts of cocaine.

Ali said that day that he was going to Los Angeles to collaborate with other content creators, but before he left, he said he sent a grocery delivery order with roses for Ana to her apartment. He claims he waited for the delivery notification and for Ana to “thank” him for the flowers, and Ali said he asked her where she was and she said she was home, but Ali and Ana went to the apartment, too, and was not home and blocked Ali on the phone.

Ali had often recorded some of his interactions with Ana, and he also recorded the moment when he entered the apartment and Ana was not there. In the recording, Ali could be heard talking to herself: “She’s lying…she’s cheating on me…she said she’s home, I’m home…” the video was played in court.

Ali testified of that moment: “The suspicion that she was cheating on him had been going on for months.”

In the recording, Ali could be heard becoming increasingly frustrated and starting to throw things around the apartment, throwing some of Ana’s clothes into the garbage chute of her apartment complex, which was located right next to the front door of her apartment.

“I threw the roses and had a huge tantrum,” Ali testified.

While inside, he said he had an idea to catch Ana cheating to confirm his months-long suspicions.

“I didn’t want to miss the opportunity…” he testified. “I saw my daughter’s iPad and immediately thought… Discord.”

He says he set up Discord chat on the iPad and his phone so his phone could listen to the sounds the iPad picks up, and put it plugged in behind the bed in the master bedroom to catch her in case she were having sex with another man.

He said he felt “so mentally and physically drained” at the time, didn’t sleep, and returned to his hotel room, where he fell asleep. He was awakened by the laughter of Ana and a man, which he could hear through the Discord app.

“I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s Ana… who is this man? … I’m freaking out,” Ali said.

He said he took about four to five doses of cocaine before leaving his hotel and then took more cocaine in the car, bringing the whole bag up to his house and snorting it.

“That’s probably the most coke I’ve ever done in one moment,” he testified.

He said he listened to them on the Discord app during the roughly 15-minute drive from his hotel to the Spire apartment complex and heard the man ask Ana if Ali had trashed the apartment, and Ana said he had hers Bought “cheap ass roses”.

“Then it goes quiet and I hear R&B music,” Ali testified. “I’m totally high.” He said he drove over 90 miles per hour to get to the apartment complex to catch her cheating.

He said when he arrived at the complex, he parked illegally on a red light and walked toward the apartment complex with the gun holstered around his waist. He said he often carried the gun and had a concealed carry permit during his time in Virginia.

Ali claims he went up to the apartment with no intention of killing Ana or the man she was with.

“I opened the door and was startled…they weren’t in the bedroom, they were laying right there cuddling on the couch,” he said.

Ali said he was “like a deer in headlights” and didn’t expect them to be in the living room. He waited for her in the bedroom and claimed he thought he had had a few moments to “compose himself” before he saw her.

He testified that he felt like he was sitting in the passenger seat of his own body and didn’t realize what he had done. He remembers screaming for Ana and then immediately calling his mother before getting back in his car and calling 911. He testified about why he called: “I called 911 to ask for their help with the chance to save her,” he said.

He said he coordinated with his mother, father and stepmother about where he could place their daughter before turning himself in. He testified that he went to pick up the daughter from school, held her hand and asked her where her mother was. “I said please don’t ask me about mom… I started crying,” he testified.

He said he heard sirens downtown and his daughter asked about police cars in the area, and that’s when he noticed there were police officers behind him without their blue lights on.

He said he voluntarily stopped his car before police turned on their lights or sirens and told his daughter, “I hurt Mommy, I have to go now.”

Ali said his body was shaking. “It’s frightening when guns are pointed at you,” he said.

On the officer’s body-worn camera, Ali was seen asking police if they had gotten “his wife.” He said he did not believe he had killed Ana and wondered if she had been taken to a hospital.

There were some tense moments in the courtroom on Wednesday afternoon during Ali Abulaban’s cross-examination.

Assistant District Attorney Taren Brast asked Abulaban a question, which he answered in the negative, to which she replied, “I can’t ask her that,” referring to Ana Abulaban.

Ali replied: “That’s so inappropriate, that’s so inappropriate.”

In the courtroom, Ali spoke to the judge on the microphone, stopping the proceedings and saying that someone in the audience was taunting him. The judge reminded the audience of the courtroom rules and about ten minutes later, Ali asked to remove one of the audience members, whom he identified as one of the people from the group of friends they would be spending time with in court, from the courtroom for alleged taunting.