171: ‘TikTok Star Murders’: Everything Peacock Left Out & The FULL Story of Ali Abulaban
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Hey true crime besties, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialistly.

Hey everybody, welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly with me, Annie Elise. As you can see, I am not in my current studio. I am still on vacation, but I brought all of my recording equipment with me because I had a little sneaky suspicion that something was going to happen. There was going to be either a case update, a brand new breaking case, something where I was going to need to just jump on my mic, turn on my camera, and bring it to you. And I

Sure enough, that's why we're here. So now I'm just sitting on the floor in the bedroom of our rental in the Hamptons because I got to talk about this case with you guys. Now, the case we're talking about today, it's one that I previously talked about very, very briefly on a Headline Highlights episode. And I also talked about it on my YouTube channel, 10 to Life, many, many years ago. But the reason that I'm talking about it again today is because the trial has finally finished.

There is so much more information that we never even knew, and it's a case that is just very, very upsetting. So as we were working on this episode, Peacock actually came out with a documentary called The TikTok Murders. There's so much never-before-seen audio, video, so much more information. And when I tell you that this documentary is unhinged,

It truly is unhinged guys. My jaw was on the floor. There was so much that went down in the trial and so much more information that we found out through the trial. The trial was not completely televised 100%. So unless you pulled these court records or attended the trial, you wouldn't even know about this other slew of information that comes into play in here. So I knew when I saw this documentary, I was like, hold on.

We need to talk about this because there is a whole other half to this that's missing. Again, that doesn't make anything right, wrong, indifferent, whatever. I just feel like, you know, I always want to jump on here and give you the full picture of a case in the most neutral, unbiased way. And so oftentimes with these documentaries, we've talked about it with American Nightmare, with the Denise Huskins story, so many other ones.

it just doesn't tell you the whole thing. It doesn't give you the full picture. So I was like, no, we need to give them the full picture. We need to break it all down. And so much information that was just left out, quite honestly. So in today's episode, we're not only going to talk about what was featured in that documentary, but we're going to talk about the trial, about the case. We're going to dive way deeper into things, like I mentioned, that weren't even touched on in this documentary or that people haven't touched on in any case coverage, really.

and go through it all. Especially with the trial, because like I said, it wasn't completely publicized, only bits and pieces were put in the media. But this trial was a whole new level of unhinged. And one of the things that we love to see is when defendants testify. And this defendant is no exception. It was unbelievable.

One of the craziest things about his testimony was that he was truly giving the performance of a lifetime. I mean, it was crazy. It was the biggest display of narcissistic...

personality that I've ever seen just trying to sell his story. It was unbelievable. It was almost like he was trying to gaslight anybody who was watching this go down that he was telling the truth. It was like he was a master manipulator. But then in typical narcissistic fashion, he slipped.

And when he did, it got ugly. So buckle up. Let's jump right in. We have got a lot to talk about. On October 25th, 2021, police were dispatched to the Spire apartment complex in San Diego. This was after they got a call that reported hearing multiple gunshots. The witness described the suspect as a Middle Eastern male that goes by the name of Ali. Yes, ma'am. My wife and another man were at home.

Okay, stand by. Okay, hold on, sir. Tell me what you saw when you went in there.

When the police arrived and entered the apartment that these gunshots came from, they were met with a truly haunting and gruesome scene. There were two people inside the apartment, both dead on the couch.

One was shot in the face, and the other was shot in the head. Now, there's never been a question as to who killed them, as the suspect involved immediately confessed. However, whether it was a cold-blooded, premeditated murder, or a crime of passion, well, that would ultimately be up to a jury to decide. So what happened here? And even more importantly, why?

As the details started to unfold, it began to look like a true American nightmare. And to understand all of that, we have to start by talking about Ali. Ali Aboulaban was born on May 25, 1992, in Staten Island, New York. Ali is Middle Eastern, and he grew up as a first-generation Muslim American.

According to Ali, his childhood was very difficult. He had a strict father who really expected a lot from him, especially since he was the oldest child in his family and also coupling that with his family culture. And Ali said that in school, he struggled to even make friends because he had social anxiety.

but also because when he finally felt like he was starting to fit in, he was constantly reminded how different he was. For example, spending the night at a friend's house, it was just completely out of the question. His father wanted Ali and his siblings to be raised in a more traditional Muslim culture, so he would constantly remind Ali of this, even going as far as saying, you're Muslim, you're not Americans.

I will not raise you to be American. So Ali said that because of this, it was very confusing because he just didn't understand why he couldn't be like everyone else around him. And because of that, he ended up carrying a lot of shame. In fact, Ali described his entire childhood as emotionally, verbally, and even physically all at the hands of his father. Almost always, everything was an overreaction, uh, in my opinion. Um,

Nothing was ever just a simple talking to. I mean, everything was just explosion, anger. Most of the time, I wouldn't know why he's mad at me or what exactly he's... But he would just grab whatever's nearby, throw it at me, strike me, vacuum cables, shoes, things like that. I had wanted my mother to purchase something for me, something that I really wanted. It was Star Wars related. I'm big into Star Wars. But he didn't like the fact that it was kind of childish in his mind.

I think I was about 14, 15. His response to me pestering my mother to purchase this for me, I think it was a Darth Vader helmet that changes your voice, was to grab the vacuum cable and whip me repeatedly. And when I say whip, you could hear the, you can hear it. And that was the worst pain 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? You know, he would constantly say things like, oh, I'm not going to raise my kids American. We're Muslim. Like we would say in Arabic, we're Muslims, which means we're Muslim. We don't do these things. We don't do these things. And that was very troubling for me because I'm first generation American. I wanted to be American. I wanted to be, you know, how my friends were. Like the way he would call me would startle me. I mean, he wouldn't say, hey, Ali, can we talk? It's Ali.

So I'd jump every day. Every time he called me, I would jump. And I naturally just have this reaction to just jump. And it always feels like I'm in trouble. He felt constantly beat down, like he was never good enough and never going to be enough. So after high school, Ali was still living at home, and he said that the event was a success.

From his father, it was now getting worse. He needed to figure out how to get away from this situation and get away as soon as possible. So in 2014, he decided to join the U.S. Air Force. And he felt like this was going to be perfect for him because he could finally do something positive in his life, but also get out from underneath his father's thumb. It was really just the perfect situation. So after he joined, he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

And that is where he met Anna. Anna was born in the Philippines, but she was living in Okinawa while Ali was stationed there. Now when Ali first met Anna, he was just completely enamored with her. He wanted to be her boyfriend immediately. He was just smitten. Anna was this beautiful, kind woman. She had so many friends. She had this amazing glow to her. Anna and I grew up together in Okinawa.

She's from the Philippines and her dad was stationed in Okinawa. We were best friends and we had a very tight-knit friend group. And Anna was one of the more like caring, loving, happy individual. That's what drew me to her. I don't think my life would personally be the same if she was never my friend. And so I'm very thankful for the friendship that her and I had shared together.

And according to one of Anna's friends, Julia, Anna was also really drawn to Ali because he had this big, larger-than-life personality. Anna's friend Kayla said, So Ali and Anna immediately clicked, and because of this, they of course wanted to do what any new couple would do.

They wanted to spend as much time together as possible. And before they knew it, they were pretty much in a full-blown relationship. Now, Anna wasn't really the type of girl that wanted to just isolate herself and only spend time with Ali. She had a lot of friends, and many of her friends lived in Okinawa. They were people who she grew up with, who also grew up near the military base,

She just had these very close friendships and close relationships that were really important to her. So she really tried to make the best of both worlds combining the two. She would sometimes want to hang out with her friends and Ali in a group setting, which is totally normal. You often want to bring your boyfriend or girlfriend around your friends, right? Mold the group, kind of become one big melting pot of friends. So they would go out to clubs, they would dance, they would do things like that. The only problem in all of this was that Anna's friends didn't really know how they felt about her dating Ali.

I mean, of course they wanted to be supportive, but there were things that Ali did here and there at first that just rubbed them the wrong way. But then, later on, it became obvious that these little things that rubbed them the wrong way to begin with were major red flags within Ali. It wasn't too long until things ended up coming to a head and Ali ended up getting kicked out of the Air Force. This is after he allegedly assaulted one of Anna's friends. There would be times when we're at a bar or at a club and it's 3 or 4 in the morning and...

I would verbally say things like, you know, "Hey Anna, maybe, do you think maybe we can call tonight, you know, because I'd like to hang out with you before I have to go back to work, you know, I'd like to hang out one-on-one, you know, maybe talk in bed or something, you know, something like that, something intimate." They would get mad at me. "Oh, Leonard, you know, why are you such a party pooper?" It's like, it's three in the morning, you know? I have to go back to work at eight in the morning, you know, it's like... And in the way you're describing it right now,

You're using a voice that sounds kind of calm and easygoing, but when you look back, do you recall using like a level of voice or a tone of voice that was maybe a little bit more authoritative, commanding? Yes. To Anna, yes. I would be like, hey, because in the beginning I would suggest it, but then it got to the point where I was like, all right, Anna, come on, it's time to go. Were you getting frustrated? Yeah. Yeah.

we heard from several witnesses who described seeing physical control and violence from you to Anna in the military. There were some general conversations about, you know, seeing pushes and slaps and things like that, and there was a very specific incident that led to your discharge. Do you recall hearing testimony about that? So those are two different things, but yes, for the first thing about, like, them, me pushing her friend, so as far as the whole...

the friend saying I pushed him I don't recall these things slapping her friends? slapping Anna I would never do that in public I mean I never did that there were times later in your relationship where you put your I have yes but I never did that in public let me finish my question sorry there were times later in your relationship where you put your hands on Anna is that right? yes there were times that you punched her?

Yes. There were times that you pushed her? Yes. Yes. There were times that you maybe shoved her? Yes. According to her friend Julia, every time that somebody commented on Anna's looks or the fact of how lucky Ali was to have her, Ali would get really upset. Almost like, don't tell me how lucky I am. She's mine, I know. And just kind of almost possessive in a way. So now without the Air Force, Ali couldn't live in Japan any longer.

And after he was discharged, he ended up going back to Virginia where his family was living. But that's not the end of Ollie and Anna's relationship. Not by a long shot. Because Anna had a huge surprise. Anna was pregnant.

Ali and Anna knew that they wanted to get married, and Ali also applied for a visa so that Anna could move to the U.S. and they could all be together. However, that process is very, very long, and Anna actually had their baby, a little girl named Amira, while she was still waiting on her visa.

So in 2017, Anna moved to Virginia with their daughter Amira, and she and Ali married in a courthouse ceremony. Everything was great. They were finally all together. They were starting to make a life for themselves. It was finally like, okay, we can do this. We're all together in America. We're going to live the American dream. We have our great family. We're in love.

you know, amazing life ahead. Fast forward one year to 2018, and Ali started posting videos of himself doing these spot-on impressions of famous characters. Characters like Al Pacino's Tony Montana from Scarface, Keanu Reeves from John Wick, all these different characters. He even did Nicolas Cage, and honestly was a dead ringer, sounded just like him. Look, Dad, I know it sounds crazy, all right, but just hear me out. The map exists.

all i have to do look i'm not stealing it i'm borrowing it we take it we flip it over if there's no map we put it back there are no foul don't call the cops dad okay

- Tina, Tina, where the fuck is my daughter? - And impressions were one of the things that Ali did while he was growing up so that he could make people laugh. When he was in school, he wanted to fit in. He wanted to make people laugh and doing these impressions of other people is something that really achieved just that. So in high school, Ali described himself as somewhat of a class clown. And like I mentioned earlier, according to Ali, he had some social anxiety and did have some trouble fitting in at times. He also had felt like the abuse from his father made him insecure around other men.

Well, I had learned that there was a house party that I was not invited to. But one of the guys who told me, he's like, just come, dude. You work with us. Just come, you know. And I show up and I see one of my staff sergeants sitting down. You know, everybody's in normal civilian clothes. It's just a party. And a couple buddies of mine that I went to work with every day. And I sat with them. I had a beer in my hand. And it had been really troubling me as to like, why am I not fitting in? What's wrong with me?

So I said, "Hey, Staff Sergeant, can I ask you a question?" He goes, "Sure." I was like, "Why does it seem like nobody likes me?" And he goes, "You want the truth?" And I'm like, "F*ck, what did I get myself into?" I'm like, "Yeah, it's 'cause you're a terrorist. You're a terrorist, a bullet one." And then my buddies are just like, "F*cking party!" It felt like it was like a disc jockey. Like, the whole party just stopped. They all heard that sh*t. I was ice cold, man. I just, I didn't have any words. I just got up and walked out. It was humiliating.

Do you think, is that something that you'd experience in the military given that you were Arab? Yes. I was one of the only Arabs, Arab Americans in the military. So I guess in that culture, you know, the military culture, it's people from all over the country, some from the south, the north, west, whatever. I noticed that in order for them, for me to feel like I'm bonding with them, I had to allow them to make fun of my race. They had to call me Arab,

or bin Laden, you know, I had to allow those things in order to, you know,

So he knew that once he could make people laugh by doing this, they would start liking him. So now, as an adult, Ali thought that maybe he could take his comedic talents and turn it into a career. This internet celebrity or social media influencer, that kind of thing. So Ali started off on Instagram and YouTube, and he used the username "Jin Kid." He posted tons of funny impersonations, posted videos of himself just being goofy, and he started getting the same attention that he did when he was back in school, when he was younger.

People liked him. They thought that his content was funny. And he quickly started to build a following, which felt like he was immediately fitting in with the masses. But then entered TikTok. And this is where Ali really began to shine. You know why I pulled you over today, son? Go on, you're me. I know you're f***ing me, son. You're respect, okay? Hey, chill out, dude. I caught you speeding on the freeway. License and registration. The only thing you're gonna get from me is an ass kicking, okay? So get the f*** out of here!

Alright, fair enough. A lot of you have been asking me how to do the Tony Montana impression. I'm gonna try explaining it. So, um, it's really deep in the throat, so start with the sound. You know? It helps to do the face, too. Then you talk normally. One of the hard parts about Tony Montana is not only do you have to be able to do the voice, but you gotta know how he says certain words.

If you didn't grow up watching the movie like I did, it's gonna be pretty tricky. But for me, I just picked it up. So I could say anything. Go on, young man. My stomach is bubbling. I'm gonna go take a shit. It's gonna be the nicest shit you've ever seen in your life. So what's this about? You heard what happened in my home? I got no idea who you are. In my home? In my bedroom where my wife sleeps? Where my children come and play with their toys. Hey, who the fuck do you think you're talking to, huh?

Why'd you take a killer wife and two kids? Me, I want what's coming. Oh yeah, what's coming? The world, Chico. And everything in it. I know a few lawyers. Sometimes Anno would join in on these Gen Kid videos, helping Allegro was following on TikTok. Can you even smoke in here? I don't care. Who's gonna stop me? I like you. I want you to be the love of my life. How do you like that? But we just met yesterday. So what?

"What's the problem in there?" And as he gained more followers, he began sharing bits and pieces of his personal life too, just giving off the vibe that everything in their relationship and their life was perfect. They had internet celebrity, they were in love, she would join in on the videos, what more could anybody want?

By 2020, he had millions of views and he eventually ended up getting verified on Instagram, which is when you get that little blue checkmark thing. And Ali felt like that blue checkmark was a big deal for him as a creator. He felt like it would surely open doors to different brand collaborations, different auditions. He felt like he was going to be able to make a full-blown career out of his passion.

Now, at this point, though, as Ali's popularity grew, it was almost like this one taste of fame made Ali feel way too powerful, almost to the point where social media can be dangerous. I'm not trying to be the next Al Pacino. I probably could. College is bullshit. I'm a college dropout. And I make more money than half the people.

Ali would walk into a room sometimes and be like, don't you know who I am? I'm Jin Kid. I can do whatever I want. He was intoxicated with his own fame, and he felt like he was untouchable. So much so that he even started asking his friends and family to start referring to him as his handle, the Jin Kid handle, not his name Ali. It was like he was becoming this persona inside and out, and he was just consumed by it.

Meanwhile, Anna felt more and more isolated and lonely in Virginia. She was dedicating most of her time to raising their daughter Amira and also helping Ali with his TikToks. But then one weekend, she went to San Diego, California to spend some time with her friends, the same friends that she had while she lived back in Japan. After that trip and seeing everybody exploring everything in San Diego and everything that San Diego had to offer with the beaches, the sunshine, the boardwalks,

Anna decided she wanted to move there too. She wanted to be closer to the people that she grew up with. So she told Ali, I've been in Virginia for you, doing your TikToks, raising our daughter. I want to move to San Diego for me. And Ali agreed. He agreed to move.

Now, mainly he agreed to move because it meant that he could work with influencers in Los Angeles. He was convinced that this was going to be a huge career move for him. It wasn't like he was doing this move selflessly to make his wife happy. It was more that he was totally excited by this because it fed into his ego. He thought that it would bring him closer to his dream of becoming an actor.

So then, once they were in San Diego, on social media, Ali and Anna kept posting these videos of their relationship, of his "Gin Kid" skits, all of these things, and their life looked very glamorous. They were in love, they were this beautiful couple, they were doing videos together, they lived in this huge high-rise apartment in San Diego with beautiful views. Many people thought that they were the epitome of couple goals. But behind the scenes, things were falling apart.

Anna's friends said that the marriage was actually deteriorating. And deteriorating is putting it mildly. According to Anna's friend Julia, they only hung out with people that Ali wanted to hang out with. And if he didn't want Anna ever going out with her girlfriends or her close friends, he would just tell her she couldn't go. He also started controlling how she spent all of her time in San Diego.

Now around this same time, Anna started building her own social media following. And this kind of became a thorn in Ali's side, a sore spot in their relationship, because he was used to being the one receiving all of the attention. He loved having all of the fame. Now that people were interested in Anna, what she was doing, what she looked like, watching her videos of her going out, he was not liking that.

Again, more in line with possessive. To top it all off, alcohol and drugs started coming into the mix as well. Anna and Ali spent a lot of time partying. There were nights out drinking at all of the hottest spots around town. There was heavy drinking mixed with cocaine use, and that really became the norm for both of them. Now, if you ask Ali, he would say that it was Anna's friends that were the huge partiers, and that Anna was the one doing cocaine heavily before then he started partaking in it as well.

Now other people will say, "No, he was the driving force. He always had a bag of cocaine on him." But from all accounts and what we will get to later with the trial, it seemed like they both were using drugs recreationally, together and apart. Now regardless who the driving force was or what's 100% true or not, ultimately Ali began to heavily use cocaine.

All the time. It wasn't just when he was out partying or in social settings, he would literally just be ripping lines while he was home by himself. Now around this time, Ali's behavior also took a dark turn, which is to be expected when there's drug use at play. His jealousy and his possessiveness over Anna heightened.

and he started abusing Anna, both physically and emotionally. But what's crazy about this is his insane behavior started spilling over onto social media because he would record almost everything. He would record private conversations. He would secretly record things. He was recording him venting on social media, and he was just airing out all

of his dirty laundry to all of his followers so that he could really make Anna look bad. There were even times where he would be on Instagram Live or TikTok Live, and you could see that he was clearly using drugs, where he would still have powder residue on his nose. Now, in the Peacock documentary, it shows some pretty tough footage of their fights, which Ali recorded, most of them in secret. They also showed some voice memos, which he sent to her. And

these were very brutal to listen to and can be very triggering to listen to. So I just wanna give you a warning. He often would accuse her of cheating on him. He would constantly remind her that he was the reason that she was able to come to the US in the first place, just guilting her basically saying like, "If you didn't have me, you'd have nothing. I did all this for you." And it's very difficult to listen, but I wanna play a few of them for you just so that you can understand the context and the tone of these voice memos, recordings, and all of those things.

The door's right there.

There's no way

No woman is beautiful as you. You're going to go a month without sex. Thank you for baiting me to move you to San Diego. I drove across the whole country for you. This was your plan all along, Anna. You used me. You called the cops on me behind my back? How evil is that? Anna, how evil is that? What are you trying to show with that? How evil is that? Are you trying to believe? No, I just can't believe it because I want to watch this later. Look at me in the face and tell me you don't love me.

I don't love you. Look at me. I don't love you. I don't love you. Sorry.

So clearly a man who is beginning to come undone. His possessiveness is getting the best of him. He's realizing that he no longer has Anna in his grasp the way that he used to, and he's beginning to lose control. But guys, we are just skimming the tip of the iceberg here. There is so much more, and it gets so much worse, and we're going to get into all of that as soon as we take a quick break to hear from our sponsors in today's episode. ♪

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So Ali is becoming completely undone, unhinged, and Ali's nonstop degrading comments and vile insults to Anna continued. They didn't stop. It was like he wanted to record all of this to just like paint some sort of narrative for later on. But the joke's kind of on him in all of this because all of these recordings actually show him being the abusive shithead, nothing painting her as the villain in this. There's my wife. Seven years.

From Okinawa all the way to San Diego. She wants to leave me after seven years. She couldn't even wait for the visa to finish. I just mean, I don't need your visa. I'm going to keep following the cops. Yeah, because he just tried to make me laugh. That's what it is. He had a gun in his face. With my daughter sleeping on the couch. I had to do that just to get her to come home. When was the last time?

I don't know how I got that answer. I wish I could just hold you. What you- I wish I could just- That's an irony.

You're scared that he's going to get cheated on, but he's wanted. You abandoned your husband. You don't respect him. You put your friends over him. Of course you're going to lose him. Get out of my house, please. Get out of my house, please. After you punched me in the face, I still come back to you and this is how you were a baby? I said you don't love me anymore. Please leave. I said leave. You said you don't love me anymore. I said leave. No. I said leave. All right, then you got to leave. Stop trying, man. No, you're not. You're disrespecting me. You ain't trying. You ain't trying.

Things ended up getting so bad that Anna even called Ali's mom at one point. What's your mom? Why do I need your mom? I just need him to leave. Why do you want me to go back to him? Yeah, what do you want me to do? Put him in jail? I'm not trying to put him in jail. I'm trying to remove him from my house. If you feel like you're a license,

She's not in danger. What the f*** are you guys talking about me like I'm some monster? She's not even giving me a chance to f***ing get my f***ing marriage back. Who doesn't have a chance when he does cocaine every night still? He lied. Guess I'm gonna stop doing it. Go away.

I don't want to lose my wife. If another man touches her, I'm going to go crazy. But despite her efforts, nothing was seeming to work, and Ali kept getting more and more violent. So eventually, Anna started calling the police. However, Ali would immediately change his tune and act like nothing ever happened once the police got there. Bring her to this country. I don't want to be the Filipino man. Somebody has to be the Filipino person. What you don't want to happen is, he alleges that you paid her, we have to arrest you, and now you have a right...

Then, as soon as the police would leave, Ali would just go right back to treating Anna like

all over again. He was forceful, violent, scary. And the truth was, Anna was trapped. He practically was holding her hostage. Not to mention, they still had a young daughter together. Anna was trying to protect her. She was trying to shield her from this. She didn't feel like she could just escape. And I forget the exact statistic, but I believe it takes people usually eight tries to escape a domestic violence relationship.

Eight times. Eight times trying. So she was trying to use resources. She was trying to call his parents. She was trying to get away, distance herself. But things were just getting worse. So finally, without having many other options and not sure what to do, Anna ended up posting to her social media. She posted a selfie video with text over it saying something along the lines of, when you're in a toxic and abusive situation,

marriage for seven years and you find out that he cheats on you in your own home. Now, it was a good move for Anna, I will say, in the sense of reclaiming her voice. She was putting him on blast. She was telling the world what was going on. It was a clear outcry for help, but the

The problem with it was that his internet persona was everything to him. So now that this video was online for everybody to see, everybody who was following and invested in both of their relationship and their personal careers, it was a huge dent to him, to his ego, to his potential career move. He became infuriated.

And like I mentioned earlier, Anna appeared in many of Ali's videos on TikTok and Instagram, so he felt like he was the reason that she even had followers to begin with. Like nobody would actually like Anna on her own or anything like that. So to him, he saw this post as her trying to turn his quote fans against him. So he totally and completely flipped out on Anna, and he made her remove the post immediately. I didn't cheat on you. You f***ing betrayed me. Anna f***ed a girl in Miami too. Anna f***ed.

the girl in LA. I've been all day. It's you deprive me of sex. You paint me a bad guy. You disrespect me. I'm everybody. I am the best man you ever met. You're the dumbest I ever devoted my life to. I worked so hard to build my platform and it turns out the one closest to you is the one that tries to destroy it.

So the toxicity in their relationship continued. But then finally it reaches a head. And one day, Anna decided she has had enough. In October of 2021, she finally decided to leave Ali. Ali told Anna, "Okay, you can stay in the apartment. You can stay here with our daughter. I'll leave. I'll go stay in a hotel." So Anna stayed in this apartment with their little girl, Amira. Now during this time, even though Anna was leaving Ali, Ali saw things a little bit differently.

He didn't exactly think that this was a breakup, that this was the end, that they were going to divorce. He was still trying to win her back. He was thinking that they could repair their relationship, things could improve. According to Ali, Anna was the liar here. She was the one in the wrong, and he knew that she was cheating on him, but he just couldn't prove it. He says he couldn't prove it because she would constantly lie about it, she would hide it. But in reality, Anna was trying to escape Ali.

And he could not wrap his head around that fact. Not at all. He couldn't accept it. He couldn't understand it. And he just outright refused to believe it. So at this time, Ali was still trying to get Anna back. He said that he was trying to make things up to her and that one day he even ordered a bunch of groceries to then be delivered to the apartment so that it would make Anna and Amira's life a little bit easier. And in that grocery order, Ali also included some flowers for Anna, really trying to get back in her good graces. Oh, I was so...

When I had made the order for the groceries, I was really hoping that the roses would make an impact on her, a positive impact on her. I was really banking on it. I was really hopeful. I was waiting for the notification that the groceries were delivered. So I was just really, really anxious to hear what she would say about the roses. I got the notification that the groceries were delivered. So I'm like, okay, cool. She got it. She's probably bringing it in at now.

or bringing it into the house at this time she's going to text me any minute she doesn't text me i'm not getting anything so i thought that was strange so i texted her first i said hey is everything okay she immediately responded hey got food thanks and that really caught me off guard because it's very dismissive it's very short she did say thank you but she didn't acknowledge the whole like whatever she didn't acknowledge the roses and i thought that was so strange

So when Ali didn't get the response to this act of love or whatever you think it is, personally, I think it's an act of desperation. When he didn't get the response that he wanted from Anna, he went over to the apartment to check on her. You're waiting for an acknowledgement of what in your mind was a nice gesture and a romantic gesture. Correct.

Correct. No. I believe so. And I'm not sure she responded or answered.

After placing that phone call and her not answering and not acknowledging what in your mind was this romantic gesture, what was going through your mind? The cocaine has started to take effect. My anxieties, my worries, the same things that I'm worried about were starting to come back to me. This is not normal behavior from Anna. These are the thoughts that I was having. This is not normal behavior. She's being shady. Why didn't she say anything about the roses? I have to go talk to her.

Because keep in mind, I'm thinking I'm about to hit the road for four hours to go to L.A. So I wanted to just...

Well, first of all, my intention was just to do something nice with the roses. But now I'm having suspicions about her reaction, so now I just wanted to talk to her just before I go. Ali says that he never made a copy of the key to enter the apartment and that he always had one from day one. But according to the prosecution, that was not the case, and he did in fact secretly make a copy of the key. So he used the secret key that he made, he got over to the apartment complex, and once he got inside the apartment, he had a full-blown murder.

meltdown. He felt hurt and he felt like Anna must have done this on purpose to him, like she was toying with his emotions. And that hurt turned into a full-blown rage. Well, at first I was just observing. I mean, I was right at the front door. I immediately noticed all the groceries were on the counter, including the milk that she had not even taken the time to put it in the fridge. And the first thing I see is my roses or the roses that I sent on the counter and they're crushed and

by this like mini luggage makeup kit that she had, this makeup bag. That makeup bag doesn't usually leave her vanity. She does it in front of the vanity mirror. So for me to see my roses crushed like this and her makeup bag right on top of it still open, I'm trying to piece this information together. I'm thinking, okay, first of all, she didn't give a shit about the roses. Second, her makeup bag is here. It's open. So that tells me she's quickly putting her makeup on to go see somebody. That's how I interpret. At first,

I wanted to see where she was. Well, I asked her what she was doing. I had not let her know that I was in the apartment. She said, I'm at home, stupid. You obviously were at home and you knew that she was not home. Is that right? Right. This was the first time that she had blatantly lied to me with my knowledge. And that set me off. When you say it set you off, what do you mean? I knew in this moment she's a liar and she's lying to me.

and my suspicions are skyrocketing. Now I'm just like, at this point I knew I can't believe anything she's telling me. Do you remember calling her on the phone? I did. Was that before or after you made this recording in your room? I think it was before, and that's why I was trying to bring this up. So when you made this phone call, what were you saying to Anna? Where are you? You're not home. I'm home. You're at Dunkin' Donuts? She said she was at Dunkin' Donuts to get iced coffee. And then I remember asking...

Give me a pan of like the car. Let me see if there's anybody else in the car with you. No, I'm not doing that. Couldn't it have just been that she didn't want to tell you where she was? Why in your mind did you immediately jump to she's not telling me where she is. This means she's cheating. I mean, the cheating thing was going on. I mean, the suspicion that she's cheating on me has been going on for months. And I'm constantly one minute I'm thinking it's happening. It's prevalent. And then sometimes I just brush it under the rug. Maybe I'm just crazy.

And then again, I start to think. And then sometimes she'll tell me something and I believe her that she's not cheating on me. So the whole cheating thing, it's just been going on for so long. Like the whole me suspecting that she's cheating has been going on for so long. So that's of course going to be my first conclusion. I started rummaging the apartment. I started throwing some of her stuff away. I threw away her makeup. I smashed some of the groceries.

I threw the roses on the ground. I was having a huge tantrum. I mean... He wanted Anna to know that he was mad, but he also wanted to get proof that he wasn't crazy, that she was cheating on him, that she had been cheating on him. So in the midst of him trashing everything, throwing things around like a freaking tantrum toddler, he also decided to grab his daughter's iPad. And when he did that, he installed the app Discord on it.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with the Discord, basically it's a messaging app. Ali said that he had a Discord channel for his community of followers so they could talk, things like that, which I have one for mine. It is kind of like a group chat that you can have rather than needing to share your personal phone numbers. And it's just a way to have privacy, but always be connected.

But also, one of the things that you can do on Discord is you can create a voice channel. It's basically a phone call, but imagine that anybody can click in and join this call, similar to like a three-way phone call from back in the olden days. I'm dating myself, I know. But instead of three people, as many people can join as you want. So once you're in that voice call, anybody who joins can hear you, just like they would if you were on the phone with them unless you're muted.

So Ali set up a voice channel on his daughter's iPad, and he activated it. So now, Ali could join this voice channel from his phone, his computer, or whatever device wherever he is, and he would be able to hear anything that was going on inside that apartment.

Ali decided that the best place to put the iPad was underneath a piece of furniture. That way, if Anna was having sex with anyone or in close proximity with anyone, he would definitely know. So after a little time passes, Anna ended up coming back home, and she saw that her apartment was completely trashed.

She called her friend Julia to vent, to tell her everything that was going on. She knew that it was Ali who did it, and she said that she wanted to clean up the mess before her daughter Amira got home from school because she didn't want her daughter to come home to be confused, wonder what was going on. So she asked her friend Julia to go pick Amira up from school so that Anna could clean up this mess.

Anna also mentioned in this call that she was planning on finally getting a restraining order against Ali. So she asked Julia to pick up Amira from school so that she could deal with this mess, and then she decided to also call another friend named Rayburn. She called Rayburn so that he could come over and help her.

Now Ali had always been jealous of Rayburn because Rayburn had made a comment apparently a while back about Ali being so lucky to have a beautiful wife like Anna and that never sat right with Ali. Remember he didn't like when anybody paid compliments about his wife if anybody was showing interest so he never really liked Rayburn from the jump.

When we moved here, I used to cry to you. I didn't want you to be close to Ray. And what do you do? You party with him. Now, as a side note, in Ali's own words, he said that he actually had a crush on Anna when they first met. But at the time, Anna was already with another guy named Sean. Sean was also in the Air Force with Ali. Ali said that Anna's friends would always bring Sean up, and it seemed like they liked Sean more than they liked Ali.

But the truth was that Anna was actually married to Sean. Ali says that he didn't know that he was anything more than a boyfriend, and he was very surprised when he found out that she had actually been married. So now back to Anna and Rayburn. They were actually very close. Anna knew Ali was completely unhinged and would fly off the handle if he ever found out that she was seeing somebody else.

So the two of them would meet up frequently at hotels. They were just trying to lay low. They didn't want Ali knowing anything was going on because they didn't want him to just completely lose his mind. But later that day when Rayburn came over to the apartment, he had no idea, neither did Anna, that Ali was actually listening in on the whole thing on his daughter's iPad with that secret app downloaded.

And when he heard that Rayburn was there and that Anna was with another man, he completely lost it. This was the final straw for him. Something snapped and he went crazy. Now in the documentary, you can actually hear audio recordings from Ali's phone of him breaking into the apartment and then tragically shooting both Anna and Rayburn.

After the shooting, Ali runs out of the apartment and he calls his mom. And in this phone call, he says to her, I killed her. I killed Anna. I just tried to bury her. She didn't even move her hands. I just tried to bury her. She didn't move her hands. I just tried to bury her. I just tried to bury her. I just tried to bury her. I just tried to bury her.

Then he went over directly to pick up their daughter Amira from school, and he got there before Anna's friend Julia could get there to pick her up. Now luckily, he was soon pulled over on the freeway, and he was arrested. But he had a lot of live ammunition in the car with him, he had the gun still with him. I can't help but wonder if this would have turned into a situation where it was a murder story.

where he either tried to flee with his daughter or could have snapped even more and killed her and then himself. So I am just so thankful that he was pulled over swiftly, then he was arrested. Five hours later, he ended up confessing to the murders, and he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, along with a gun use allegation and a special circumstance allegation for committing multiple murders.

And this is where things become unhinged. Because Ali talks about what he did and why he did, but his responses will literally send a chill down your spine. So we are going to get into all of that in just a quick minute after we have our final break to hear from our last sponsor. It is sex.

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So Ali has now been arrested, and he has been charged with these murders. At one of the first hearings, Ali didn't seem to show any remorse whatsoever for killing Anna and Rayburn. And at one point, he even called Anna a bitch after he heard evidence that she had invited Rayburn over to her hotel. Anna invited Ray over to the hotel that she was staying at. Bitch.

i'm sorry this is news to me the judge tried to calm him down but ali flipped out completely he started yelling you think i wanted this for my five-year-old daughter who the for you i'm her my life is destroyed and that's something that you are going to see as we put more clips in and you listen

It was always about him. My life, my wife, my house, my couch, my daughter. It was never, never, never about Anna. And this just goes to show that any remorse that he did feel, any sorrow or regret that he felt was for himself, not for what he actually done.

So following this outburst, a local reporter ended up reaching out to Ali, and she arranged a jailhouse interview. In the interview, Ali claimed that he had caught Anna kissing Rayburn on the couch, but he said that the rest of it, it was just a complete blur. Then he said, "I wanted to be an actor. It was right there. I'm the loser here. I lost."

Again, all about what was within grasp for him, for his career, and how now he's lost all of that. Not realizing you just killed your wife. You just killed the mother of your daughter. Take a listen.

That's my family! Your family says that your social media fame changed you. They say that you were doing cocaine. They didn't really care about the consequences. Are they right? That's false. My family doesn't know anything because they never cared. Could anyone else have Anna? Absolutely.

He said his social media fame is what made him snap, and that the drugs and the social media fame all messed with his brain. He said that the attention that he got online, it's what made him violent and made him aggressive. Now, interestingly, during the interview, Ali talked a lot about losing his, quote, baby. Again, meaning his career. One of Anna's friends even pointed it out in the documentary, how it seemed like he was more upset about losing his business than losing his family.

Then after this interview, a video ended up being posted on YouTube on his behalf. In this video, Ali is on a phone call from jail. It's the recording of him from jail. And in it, he's telling his fans that he's doing okay for the most part, saying, "I'm so sorry I'm not able to give you the content you want. I'm so sorry I'm not able to make videos for you, but I'm doing okay. We'll get through this together."

Again, like a complete break from reality, in my opinion. That's what you want to put out as a public statement, an apology to your follower saying, I'm so sorry, I can't give you more content. Bro, your content wasn't even that good. I mean, okay, the impressions were pretty good, but like, you're not Tom Cruise. You're not Jon Hamm. I don't know why I said Jon Hamm. That's the first name that came to mind. But like, you're not this like elite person.

actor. You were doing TikTok videos. So then to feel like, what is the level of being a narcissist, I'm wondering, to make you feel like that needs to be your first public statement? An apology to your fans. Not to your daughter for taking away her mother. Not to your family. Not to Anna's friends or her family. To your followers. Like, get a grip. So when the trial began in May 2024, prosecutors aimed to prove that the murders were premeditated.

However, Ali's defense attorneys had a very different view on things. They argued that Ali had acted in the heat of the moment, basically saying, "This was a crime of passion, and Anna pushed Ali to the brink. That's why he broke."

In the defense's opening statement, Ali's attorney argued that Ali was psychologically vulnerable when he heard Anna and Rayburn on that app that he installed on his daughter's iPad. Then, because of that, he went over to the apartment and, quote, all judgment and reason flew out the window. Ali was in the passenger seat of his body, not in control, not in his right mind, but instead overcome with so much intense emotion, simply out of his mind. Anna knew Ali well.

Ali's testimony made a lot of people online feel very conflicted too, very conflicted about whether any of this was true or not, or if it borders on victim-blaming.

He admitted to punching and pushing Anna on various occasions, but he said that he never even acted like that before they moved to San Diego from Virginia. And that's going to be a theme here. Then they started doing drugs. They started partying. Remember, all because of Anna's friends.

He says they were the ones that fueled this lifestyle, which then left him susceptible to mental health struggles and really ultimately played a role in his mindset when the shooting happened. Before the murders, Ali said that his marriage had developed into a continuous series of arguments and accusations of infidelity on both sides. He said that all of this was exacerbated by cocaine, which he says was pretty much a full-blown addiction for him, and that cocaine made him violent.

When recounting one particular event, he said that one time Anna said that she slept with one of his friends. So because of this, Ali punched her three times in the face. But he also said that Anna was the one that punched him in the face three times before he was even awake. But there's no confusion about who did what on the day of the murder. "I woke up and I hear giggling. I hear a man laughing. And then I hear Anna's voice."

And I'm half asleep and I'm just absorbing all this. And then immediately I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. That's Anna. Oh, my God. Who's that man? Who's that man? Oh, my God. There's a man. I'm saying this out loud to myself, freaking out. I mean, I feel like I feel like I caught Bigfoot or something like, you know, you believe he's there, but you don't have the truth. But then now there's this evidence and it's just like I'm freaking out.

I quickly put my pants back on. I gathered my keys. I grabbed my Coke. I started to do a couple bumps because I knew, okay, there's a man in my house. I need to be focused because I want to be in the zone here. You know what I mean? Because I was still half asleep. So I was just slamming back to some Coke. How much Coke do you think you did in that moment? I want to say four or five bumps consecutively.

When you said that you got up and kind of were gathering your things and put on your pants, at this time, were you always carrying your gun on your holster, on your belt? I had been for the last few days. Is there any particular reason why you were doing that for the last few days?

Well, I'm a concealed carry permit holder in the state of Virginia. So, yes, I used to wear regularly concealed every day. But that doesn't apply here in California. However, when I had moved out or when I left that apartment on the 18th, all my expensive belongings were in my Jeep. My Jeep...

My iMac computers, my personal property, it's all there, laid out in the open. The windows are not tinted. So I wanted to carry Conceal in the event that I found a break-in or a robbery or something like that. I'm already freaking out, high out of my mind. I'm already amped up. I'm driving over 90 miles an hour in an attempt to hurry up and get there so I could hopefully catch it before it happens or die.

you know, stop it with my presence because I just didn't want it to happen. I was hearing, I heard that they were making fun of me. He was like, did Ali make this mess? I don't know who he was. He's like, did Ali make this mess? She says, yeah. And he bought me these cheap ass flowers. Let me just tell you, when you hear your wife talk shit about you to an undisclosed man, that's fucking painful. And this is while I'm driving 90 miles an hour already like freaking out. But then what happened was the voices stopped.

Suddenly there was silence and I'm like, "What? Why don't I hear anything? Why did they stop talking?" Next I start hearing R&B music playing. When you're on your way up in the elevator, what are you thinking? I'm thinking, "Oh my God, she's probably having sex right now. I wonder who it is. Hurry up, hurry up. We gotta get up there. We gotta get up there." They kept stopping on floor after floor after floor and I'm trying to stay calm and I don't want to startle anybody. I put a smile on my face.

I'm thinking that like this is happening right now. I need to like get there so I can at least hopefully try to prevent it from happening with my presence or get there before it happens. Because you knew that you put the iPad with the Discord channel on in the bedroom, as you're coming up and getting ready to go into the apartment, what are you expecting to find when you open that door?

I put it in the bedroom because I was trying to catch them having sex. So when I heard their voices loud and clear, my mind thinks they're in the bed doing whatever. So I thought that by entering my apartment, I would have that little leeway from the front door to walk to the bedroom. I thought I'd have that cooling off point to be like, okay, I don't know what I'm about to see. Just calm down. I thought from the front door, I'd be able to just kind of bring myself together a little bit.

I'm like prepped to hear moaning and just very disturbing things. When you got off the elevator, what happened next? As you can see, I was in a hurry to get in there. I didn't even wait for the door to open. I was running, running, running. I used my key card. The only thing I had in my hand was my key card. I opened the door. I barged in. I was immediately startled. I stopped right in my tracks like a deer in the headlights. They weren't in the bedroom. They weren't having sex.

They're right there, cuddling on the couch. Well, at first, I only... I saw Anna. I couldn't see who the man was because she was kind of leaning forward a little bit to see who's at the front door. So I see Anna, and then the man leans his head forward. He leans his head forward. His eyebrow is arched. I immediately identify him as Ray, and he goes like...

Like, what's up? - Now I'm not going to lie. Murder is murder and I can't really get around the idea of not being guilty because somebody pushed you to it. However, there were times when Ali was somewhat convincing in his testimony. However, all of that, anything where anybody was convinced kind of went all out the window during cross-examination because Ali's mask, it slipped.

And he showed the jury exactly who he really was. Right there, front and center, on the stand. On 9-26, you sent Anna a picture of a broken leg, right? Mm-hmm. You tried to pretend your leg was broken. I did. But it wasn't? It wasn't. Because you were hoping that she would come comfort you? No, actually, I was trying to get her to unblock me.

So that I could communicate with her while I was in Miami. So you're lying and sending a fake photo to try to get in touch with her, right? I've had to do many extremely weird things to just try to get Anna's attention, yes. Yeah, and you would often say that you wanted to hurt or kill yourself to get her attention, right? That actually was something I considered. But you would do that to get her attention, right? I would do that because I'm not getting a response and I felt like I wasn't being heard.

Right. Anna sent you multiple text messages at the end of September that she was done with you, right? She had done that a lot. Messes exchange with your cousin, Anthony Elias, where you said that, where you said, I'll kill him, right? Right. And you said, I'll beat, I'll beat his ass, right? I wasn't talking about anybody specifically. Right. But when you said, I'll kill him, you meant that, right? No. Because three weeks later you did that, right? Any man that Anna was with,

You wanted to kill, right? Jesus Christ. No. You asked Anna, does that mean I'm your man? And she said, and no, Ali, right? Okay. You know about all these text messages, right? I'm seeing them here, yes. But this is what Anna was telling you in October. What she told you was, you're Amir's dad, we grew up together, we have a connection that way, but I am not in love with you.

Right? Right, but... But that's what she told you, right? She said, she says things like that, yes. Just like I say, oh, she's a sh*tty wife or whatever. But we say things to get under each other's skin. But then our actions show up differently. You mentioned that you made a couple of notes in your phone about not hitting Anna, right? Like about not wanting to hit her and to respect her and love her, things like that, right?

Yes. Why would you need to make notes to remind yourself not to hit your wife? Because I was very impulsive in that timeframe. I was very not like myself and I was unpredictable and my thinking patterns would change on a daily basis, maybe even in an hour basis. You sent Anna a text message on October 15th telling her, hope you and Ray enjoy each other, right?

when did i say that i'm asking you i'm not showing you anything i'm asking you you sent her that text on october 15 2021. i don't recall that text it's not a surprise to you that she and ray would go out together right are you kidding me i had no idea about it this was a text message series that you sent to anna on october 15 2021 telling her by the way when i think she was on her period right

Yeah. So you were telling Anna that you did in fact have sex with Nikki. Again, this is me just trying to hurt her emotionally. And you were laughing at her. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Correct. Because I wanted her to feel somewhat of the pain that I was feeling about our situation, the situation of our relationship. You said that when Chris visited you, you looked up those escorts for fun, right? We were considering it. Okay. And so you were considering getting an escort for yourself?

At first it was me helping him to get one, but then I played with the idea. Okay. So that was okay for you to do, get an escort, but Anna couldn't do the same, right? Well, you're so convinced that we were separated, are you not? You cannot ask me a question.

What's wrong about that? Anna wasn't with me, right? But it's perfectly okay for you to sleep with another woman, but Anna could not do the same with another man, right? I have not slept with another woman. I massaged another woman. I'm talking about the escorts. It was okay for you to get an escort? We never hired anyone. You started searching for escorts on September 6, 2021, correct? I'm trying to remember what I was doing at that time. It's not about remembering. It's about looking at the exhibit. These are the web searches from your cell phone.

you were searching for escorts on september 6 of 2021 i don't recall doing that correct it's there but i don't recall doing that and chris fazan was not visiting you then right no so there were at least four different dates that you and your phone searched for escorts while you claim to be

in love with and married to Anna, correct? That's not even relevant. My love for Anna doesn't change the fact that I was lonely. I was very lonely. She was not in the house. She was gone. She was confusing me about the status of our relationship. I have needs. But yeah, I looked them up, but I never hired one. There's no evidence that I hired one ever. And then you talked to your friend Gene about getting a prostitute, right?

No, he told me about some massage parlor apparently in San Diego that they go the extra mile if you pay them extra. Again, this is all okay for you to do. You have to understand, I was confused about where the hell I was in my relationship. There's nothing wrong with searching this stuff up. I mean, I was lonely. I was freaking out. You've got to keep in mind, I'm thinking Anna's out with men.

The whole time, I'm thinking she's sleeping around and just not telling me about it. So I was just trying to cope. I'm just trying to... I was confused. And these months, all these months, it was like the most...

time of my life. I was on drugs 24-7. I wasn't thinking clearly. I'm confused. One minute I'm angry. One minute I'm crying. One minute I love you, Anna, and one minute I hate you, Anna. But it's not, none of that is consistent. I was not in the right frame of mind during this time period. So again, you're blaming Anna and your cocaine use on you searching for escorts, right? No, I'm blaming myself and the mindset that I was in and the situation of our relationship.

The whole thing was confusing. You read an article about husband turned into stalker and planted spy devices in ex-wife's bedroom, correct? So that article, I did not look it up specifically, but it was a related search result when I was looking for these devices. You clicked on that article. I clicked on it. Why? Correct. I'm sorry. I clicked on it, yes. Why? Because I just wanted to see...

What did he use? What method did he because I couldn't find a way to do it So I was just curious to see how he did you searched for chopped bodies, correct? I did and you searched for decapitated heads, correct? Right and The searches that you were doing were at 10:30 p.m after that dinner you had with Anna, correct and

Do you see where it says decapitated head cartel? I asked you a question. You did these searches right after that dinner you had with Anna where you punched her in the eye, correct? I may have, but it's not related to the dinner.

This is just me back when I'm at my home, coked out of my mind, reviewing things that I've been thinking throughout the whole month, like what happened with Chris, the text messages I'm getting. So I just happen to think about it. Like, let me see if I can find those damn pictures. And then right after that dinner, you looked up Chopped Bodies, right? Again, it's not related. Yeah.

Can I ask, what do I get from searching chop body, seeing pictures of chop body? What is that going to do, teach me how to chop a body? You are not allowed to ask me questions. I'm just trying to figure out your mindset, where you're going with this. It's weird, yes, that I would search that up. On October 18th, you were also researching teen videos, correct? What? What did you just say? That's what you were researching, correct? Say it again? Teen videos. You're out of your mind.

On October 19th, you were researching Sean Torres, correct? Show me the teens you just said. You want to paint me as some kind of f***ing tell me what you just said. I've never seen that in a discovery. I've been incarcerated three years. You never showed that to my team. Where did you get that? It's in your phone. Show it. You researched Sean Torres on October 19th. Show me what you just said. We're not going to breeze over that. You're not going to paint me as something I'm not.

I searched for trash cans, but I don't know. It says last visited. I don't know what it means by that. I don't know what it's in reference to. But if you're trying to imply that I searched for trash cans at 350 after the shooting, you're out of your mind.

Okay. Because after the shooting, I was on the road the whole time. But you understand that that's UTC time, so those times are seven hours later than the actual time you searched, correct? See, that's very manipulative because I did not know that that's UTC, and I'm sure people in here didn't because that says I looked at it at, what, 3.50. So had I not said anything just now, you probably wouldn't have pointed that out. You probably would have made it seem like I did that immediately after the shooting. I would not have done that.

I did look for trash cans, but it was not at 3.50 p.m. I'm not saying it was. I'm sure you would have if I had not said anything. You admitted multiple times during my questions of you that you have lied, correct? No, I didn't. Oh, well, I've lied to Anna. I've never lied on the stand. See how they have twist tags? That's crazy. You racked the gun again after you fired the first shot, correct? Correct.

I heard it. I don't remember doing that. But you did that, correct? That's what happened. You did not need to rack your gun because there was already a bullet in the chamber, correct? That's correct. You racked it to intimidate your victims, correct? If I'm trying to kill them, why am I trying to intimidate them? That doesn't make no damn sense.

What do you want to go? What do you want to say is happening here that I'm processing these thoughts and feelings? How did she betray me? Or did I just happen? It just happened. There is no intimidation. There is no I didn't even know that they were seeing each other. I didn't know that that was going to happen. It just I saw it. My guns in my hand. I racked it because there was no bullet in the chamber there. And then I racked it again after the first shot. Are you holding it to the side?

Or straight up? No, I'm not a gang member. I don't shoot that way. I shoot, I had it like this. You only shot Anna and Ray in their head and in that direction, correct? That is false. There's a shot. There's one of them that entered his trap, his neck area. I did not aim for these things. This is just where the bullets ended up. And there's a few bullets that hit the wall. So unless you're assuming I intended to hit the wall too. You killed Ray first so that Anna would watch that happening, correct? Oh, God.

Anna put her hands up in the air and screamed, right? For mercy? She was screaming because she was scared. And you made the choice to fire another shot, correct? No. Correct? That's what you did. That's what happened, but I didn't know. Why the fuck would I want to shoot Anna? You stood in front of Anna and racked your gun right in front of her head, correct? I don't remember. And then you shot her in the forehead, correct? Correct.

I don't even remember how that happened. I just remember heading to the door. You shot her in the forehead, correct? That's what happened. You put a bullet in her head and it went through the back, correct? Correct. You knew that shooting Anna in the head would kill her, correct? No. You didn't know that? I mean, I know that anybody getting shot in the head, that could be fatal, of course.

But there are people who have survived that. But this is not something that I've thought about in this moment. These are not thoughts that I'm thinking, well, you know what, if I shoot her in the head, she's more likely to die. Maybe I should shoot her in the... Nothing like that was happening. I wasn't even thinking. You did not shoot her in the leg or the arm or anywhere else, right? I did not have control of myself in this moment.

Before you racked your gun and shot Anna in the head, you said the word respect, correct? I did not. You heard that on the recording I just played, right? I did not. I'd like you to play it again if you don't mind. I'll play it again. You heard that word respect, correct? I didn't hear anything. Before you shot Anna in the head, you said respect to her. I did not say that.

And you shot her because she had disrespected you and was with Ray, correct? No. Right after you shot Anna in the head, you pushed her head down into Ray's lap, right? Oh, get the... I'm not going to tolerate this. That's what you did, right?

They scrubbed my hands. They scraped my nails for any DNA. No blood, no skin, no hair. Come on. And this wasn't the only time that he freaked out. He also lost his cool in court multiple times, either shaking his head, talking out loud, saying things weren't true, or just making other snide comments.

Ali's mom also took the stand, and Ali had called his mom right after the murders, as I mentioned. You can see this, actually, on a neighbor's Google Nest surveillance video. You can hear Ali confessing to what he had just done. He also sent her pictures of Anna and Rayburn after they were dead.

But here's what I will never understand and will never align with. While taking the stand, she blew him a kiss from the witness stand. Whether you forgive him or you think it was justified, fine. But like to do that in front of everybody just feels so gross to me and I will never understand.

In the end, after hearing the audio recordings and Ali's testimony, the jury found Ali guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. And when the verdict was read, you could hear cheering all throughout the courtroom, and Ali looked pissed. Almost so pissed that he was going to cry. You know when you get so angry that the tears start welling up? That's what it looked like. We, the jury, in the book entitled Caused by the defendant Ali Nasser Aboulaban, guilty of

I do want to mention that Anna's daughter Amira is currently in the custody of Ali's parents. I personally don't know how I feel about that, but I just hope that she is safe, that she is happy, and she is properly being cared for. Now for those of you who may never have listened to this podcast before, or listening to this episode specifically because you saw it in the browse section of your Apple podcast app,

If you want to hear more cases like this, we did just release a brand new episode about another Instagram influencer. Not TikTok this time, but Instagram. She's this Instagram influencer turned cult leader, human trafficker. It's a pretty horrific story. So if you just go into the feed of this podcast, it's one of the newer episodes and you can check it out.

And if you want to make sure that you don't miss any of these types of episodes, make sure that you're following the podcast for future drops. This was obviously one of the more heartbreaking and upsetting cases that we have talked about in a long time because we have seen so oftentimes that when there is a large degree of domestic violence, oftentimes it does result in death for one or both sometimes of the partners.

And I just want to remind everybody that if you're going through something like this, I know that these statistics say sometimes it takes, I believe, eight times until you're able to successfully leave. But please know that there are resources. One of the best parts in this documentary that I thought was so educational and so insightful was at the end when they say, all you have to do is remove yourself from the isolation. Meaning even if you can't remove yourself from the situation, that's okay. Just tell somebody what is going on so that you

aren't continue to just remain in isolation with your abuser. And I think that that's so important because

Had there been more outcry from Anna, perhaps, or maybe if people were having a little closer look, and this isn't to victim blame anybody, but maybe somebody could have intervened and maybe it wouldn't have gotten to this degree. I don't know. It's unfortunately one of those things where we always learn things in hindsight at somebody else's expense. And my heart just breaks for her daughter now, who is not only growing up without both parents, but growing up with Ali's family.

I don't know. There's something that just does not sit right with me about that. But let me know what you guys think about this case. I'm curious to know. And in the meantime, please always watch out for yourself, for your friends, for your family. Stay safe. And remember, there are resources out there that can help. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode of Serialistly. And I will be back on the mic with you very soon. Until then, please, please, please stay safe. Bye.