A TikTok star faces trial soon, two years after being accused of shooting his estranged wife and a friend, suspected of having an affair.
Ali Abulaban, aged 31, is charged with first-degree murder among other offenses, in connection to the October 2021 killings of his estranged wife, Ana Abulaban, 28, and her friend, 29-year-old Cadenas Barron, according to NBC San Diego.
Ali is set to appear in San Diego Superior Court at 9 a.m. on April 24. Jury selection is planned for the subsequent week.
Prosecutors revealed that Ali, boasting nearly a million TikTok followers, had taken up residence in a hotel while obsessively tracking Ana since she requested he vacate their shared San Diego apartment on October 18, 2021.
Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast stated in court that Ali suspected Ana of infidelity. Brast claimed that exploiting Ana’s absence, Ali secretly returned to the apartment. He then installed an application with a listening device on his 5-year-old daughter’s iPad, which he left in a bedroom.
He allegedly used the app later that day and claims to have overheard Ana conversing with another man. Driven by what he heard, he hurried back to the apartment. He’s accused of then shooting Barron three times and hitting Ana in the head.
According to reports, authorities have stated that Ali reportedly confessed to the murders to both his mother and the police. This led to his immediate arrest.
The TikTok Star Has Been Accused of Violence in the Past
Authorities noted that this was not the first instance of Ali being accused of violence towards his wife. Brast mentioned that approximately a month before her tragic death, Ana had lodged a police report against Ali. She alleged that he had pushed and injured her.
Next week, a readiness hearing for Abulaban is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday at the Superior Court in downtown San Diego. He will likely be represented by public defender Jodi Green, with Judge Jeffrey Fraser presiding over the case.
Fraser has managed numerous high-profile cases, such as the tragic stabbing of a Marine in 2017; the prosecution of Anthony Arevalos, a police officer who targeted young women during traffic stops between 2009 and 2011, and more recently, a case involving a San Diego resident tormented by an ex-roommate who stole and handed his passport to the police upon being arrested for various crimes.