A TikTok star known for his Scarface impressions got extremely heated on the stand under cross-examination as he was asked about his alleged internet searches for “chopped bodies” and “teen porn” before the murders; crime scene photos were also seen.
Ali Abulaban, a TikTok star accused of killing his estranged wife and another man after secretly installing a listening device in their home, had a very confrontational time on the stand under cross-examination.
The social media creator — who amassed nearly 950K followers thanks to comedy skits and Scarface impressions — took the witness stand in his own defense this week, as he stands accused of murdering his wife Ana Abulaban and friend Rayburn Cardenas Barron on October 21, 2021.
He faces two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors have argued the murders were premeditated, while his defense team has claimed he was “simply out of his mind” and “all judgment and reason [flew] out the window” when he confronted the two over cheating suspicions. Both were shot and killed.
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While under cross-examination by prosecutors, Abulaban admitted his history of physical violence against Ana. Photos of her bruised face were shown, after he struck her in the days before her murder, as well as text messages from her saying, “I don’t love you.”
Per prosecutors, he was “harassing” Ana leading up to her death, with Ana telling him to leave her alone. She even threatened to get a restraining oder. Earlier this week, Abulaban said he was giving his wife “space” while he stayed at a nearby hotel the week of the murders; prosecutors have argued Ana actually kicked him out of their apartment after learning he slept with another woman.
As his internet searches on his phone were then addressed, his queries about finding an escort were shown to the court.
“Ana couldn’t do the same, right? It’s perfectly for okay for you to sleep with another woman, it was okay for you to go out and get an escort for sex, but Ana could not be with another man,” asked prosecutors, who wondered why he felt so slighted by her hanging out with Ray.
“My love for Ana doesn’t change the fact I was lonely. I was very lonely,” he said of the escort searches. “She was not in the house, she was gone. I have needs, I looked them up, but I never hired one. I was confused about where the hell I was in my relationship.”
“I’m thinking Ana’s out with men, the whole time, I’m think she’s sleeping around and not telling me about it,” he continued. “All these months, was like the most confusing time of my life. I was on drugs 24/7, I’m not thinking clearly. I was not in the right frame of mind in this time period.”
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Other internet searches showed him looking up information on audio monitoring devices and how to plant listening devices. Abulaban has admitted to going into Ana’s apartment the morning of her death, while she wasn’t home, and trashing the place — before activating a recording app on their daughter’s iPad and hiding it near Ana’s bed in an attempt to catch her having sex. After hearing her and a man talking together on it later in the day, he rushed to the apartment, entered the unit and killed them both.
On the stand, he still insisted the idea to activate the app the morning of the murders was a spur of the moment decision and not something he pre-planned.
On October 17, days before the murder and after he struck Ana in the face after getting dinner together, he was also seen using his phone to search for “chopped bodies” and “decapitated heads.”
“It’s not related to the dinner. This is just me when I’m back at home, coked out of my mind, reviewing things I’ve been thinking throughout the whole month,” he said, claiming he and a friend had been targeted by a phone scam involving drug cartels. “I just happened to think about it, let me see if I can find those damn pictures.”
“You realized she was not coming back to you?” asked prosecutors, who clearly weren’t buying his explanation. “Then looked up chopped bodies?”
“Again, it’s not related. What’s it going to do, teach me how to chop a body? It’s weird, yes, that I would search that up,” he said, admitting to looking at many photos of decapitated heads.
The prosecutor then asked him about alleged searches on October 18 for “teen porn,” though no record was shown of said search. “What?! What did you just say?! You’re out your mind. Show me the teen s–t you just said!” he exclaimed upon hearing that allegation.
“You want to paint me as some kind of f–king child molester, show me! What you just said, I’ve never seen that in discovery. You never showed that to my team. Where did you get that?” he shouted. “Show it! Show me what you just said, you’re not going to breeze over that. You’re not going to paint me as something I’m not.”
The prosecutor, however, moved on. That moment can be seen in the news package above.
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When it came time to address the shooting itself, the prosecutor revealed that on the day of the murders — after Abulaban trashed her apartment — Ana sent a text message reading, “I want you out of my life, once and for all.”
“And that made you mad, right?” asked the state, before Abulaban said, “I don’t even remember her saying that to me.” The prosecutor then asked whether he “wanted [Ray] dead” and that’s why he “did what you did, right?” Abulaban’s answer: “No, I just lost control.”
He also insisted he “did not intend to hit Ray in the head” and, when asked whether he knew “shooting Ana in the head would kill her,” he said, “No.”
“I know anybody getting shot in the head, that could be fatal. Some people could survive that. These are not thoughts that I’m thinking,” he continued. “I wasn’t even thinking. I did not have control of myself in this moment.”
She then brought up Ana putting her hands up and screaming “for mercy” after he shot Ray, before claiming Abulaban then shouted “Respect!” at Ana before shooting her. “You shot her because she had disrespected you and was with Ray, correct?” she asked. He vehemently denied saying that and demanded audio of the moment be played in court; Abulaban was recording himself when he walked into the apartment.
In the audio (cued up above), between gunshots, a male voice can be heard saying something. “I did not say that s–t!” he still insisted, claiming he couldn’t hear that exact word.
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The prosecutor also claimed Abulaban “pushed [Ana’s] head into Ray’s lap and placed bullets by her feet” after shooting her in the forehead. He denied doing that as well, while a photo from the scene was shown to the court (above).
“Get the f–k out of here. I’m not going to tolerate this,” he said, claiming DNA evidence showed he didn’t have any contact with the bodies.
Photos he snapped of the bodies after the shooting were also mentioned, though he said he couldn’t remember when he took them or why he did it.
The trial is ongoing.
