'I Just Snapped': TikToker Learns Fate After Murdering Estranged Wife and Man He Suspected She Was Dating
“My gun was in my hand and next thing I'm shooting,” Ali Abulaban recalled during the double-murder trial
The famous TikToker convicted of brutally killing his wife and the man he believed she was dating will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
A California judge handed down the sentence Sept. 6, following Ali Abulaban’s double first-degree murder conviction in May.
"The bottom line here is you will die in prison," Judge Jeffrey Fraser said to an outburst of applause from the gallery at the sentencing hearing live-streamed by Court TV Friday. "You will never be a free man."
The judge sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole plus another 50 years behind bars for gun enhancement charges, Emily Cox of the San Diego County Superior Court confirms to PEOPLE.
Calling Abulaban "a very selfish person," Fraser noted that the TikToker had not shown remorse: "It's chilling," he said.
At the hearing, per Court TV, Abulaban said he deserved parole. ”Being sent to prison forever feels like I’m being sent to hell and I don’t think that’s fair," he told the judge.
Ali was already estranged from his wife, Ana Marie Abulaban, when, listening in on her private conversations through a listening device he had secretly installed on their 5-year-old daughter’s iPad, he overheard the voice of another man in the couple’s home in October 2021.
Bursting into their San Diego apartment, he shot the man — Rayburn Barron, 29 — three times, then turned the gun on his wife, shooting her in the head.
Hours earlier, Ana had texted Ali telling him under no uncertain terms: “I want you out of my life,” NBC San Diego later reported from the courtroom.
After shooting his wife, Ali promptly called his mother, confessing to the murders, per CBS 8.
Abulaban confessed again while on the stand.
“I'm shooting and I can't stop,” he said during the televised proceeding on Court TV. “I just snapped.”
“My gun was in my hand and next thing I'm shooting,” he added.
It was not the first time the TikTok star – made famous for his comedic impersonations of characters like Scarface and Skyrim – had been violent with his wife, Ali reportedly testified. (On the stand he admitted to drug use and to previously punching Ana.)
A month before the shooting, Ana had filed a police report documenting his abuse, Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast said at a pretrial hearing reported on by The Los Angeles Times.
The tumultuous relationship was no secret.
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He kept careful documentation of the couple’s turmoil in personal videos– some of them shared with his nearly 1 million TikTok followers, who knew his beautiful wife from cameo appearances in his content.
In one such livestream featured in Peacock’s original documentary TikTok Star Murders, Abulaban talks into his phone camera, while his wife sits quietly on the couch.
“Don’t get married guys, I threw my whole life away for her,” he says.
Viewers sent their support to Ali in comments, one telling him to “be strong.” Another suggested that the police might be en route to his home: “When they get there just keep your mouth shut.”
Related: Former TikToker Convicted of Killing Wife and the Man He Thought She Was Cheating with in 2021
During a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing, Ana's sister said, per Court TV that if she had known what Ana was going through, “I would have flown again to see her and done my best to take her away from you.”
Born in the Philippines, Ana’s body was slated to be returned to her parents – following the murder investigation – so she could be buried in her hometown, according to a GoFundMe set up by her family to cover the expenses.
Calling the shooting a “senseless tragedy,” and a “devastating loss,” a relative, Ana Guajardo, wrote on the GoFundMe page that her murder had “left a crater of sorrow in not only our family but among her friends and colleagues as well.”
“Losing a loved one is never easy,” Guajardo added. “Losing a daughter, a sister, a mother in such a violent manner is unfathomable.”
Ana’s friend, Barron, was described in another GoFundMe set up for his burial in Mexico by his relative Omar Barron, as “the glue to his family, always reaching out to family to bring everyone closer.”
He added: “He was a loyal friend who you could always count on to be there in a time of need.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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