Ali Abulaban: Murders, Trial, and Life Sentence

Ali Abulaban is a former TikTok personality known online as “JinnKid” who was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the October 2021 shooting deaths of his estranged wife, Ana Abulaban, and her friend Rayburn Cardenas Barron inside a San Diego high-rise apartment. In September 2024, a San Diego Superior Court judge sentenced him to two consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years to life, saying Abulaban “will die in prison” and “will never be a free man.”¹

Who He Was Online

Abulaban built a following of roughly 940,000 on TikTok, along with audiences on Instagram and YouTube, posting comedy skits and impressions. His best-known bit was Tony Montana from the 1983 film Scarface, and his videos routinely drew millions of views.² Ana appeared often in his content, and the pair projected a happy marriage online. According to reporting and later testimony, Abulaban also live-streamed arguments and substance use, and friends said he treated Ana as “property.”³

The Marriage and the Abuse

Prosecutors described Abulaban as “jealous, controlling and violent” throughout the marriage. At trial, he admitted punching and pushing Ana on multiple occasions in the months before the killings. In one incident, while high on cocaine, he punched her three times in the face after accusing her of infidelity. Days later, during an argument about a party, he forced her head into a refrigerator. He also acknowledged discouraging her from calling police or seeking a restraining order.⁴

Ana wanted out. Prosecutors said she was on the verge of applying for a restraining order when she was killed.⁵ On October 18, 2021, she asked Ali to move out of their apartment at the Spire San Diego, a luxury high-rise in the East Village, and he relocated to a hotel.⁶ Hours before the shootings, Ana texted him: “I want you out of my life, once and for all.”⁴ She had also feared that divorce could jeopardize her immigration status, potentially leading to deportation to the Philippines and leaving their daughter, Amira, in Ali’s custody.⁷

What Happened on October 21, 2021

Earlier that day, while Ana was out, Abulaban used an unauthorized key card to enter the 35th-floor apartment. Prosecutors said he vandalized the unit and installed a listening application on the couple’s five-year-old daughter’s iPad.⁸⁶

Later, Abulaban activated the app and heard Ana talking and laughing with a man inside the apartment. That man was Rayburn Cardenas Barron, 29, a friend of Ana’s. Abulaban drove to the high-rise, went into the unit, and shot Ana, 28, and Barron while they sat on a couch.⁹ Forensic testimony later established that the gun was discharged within inches of one victim’s face.¹⁰ Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast told the court the crime was “willful, deliberate and premeditated,” saying: “If he could not have her, no one could. And she couldn’t live, and any man she was with could not live, either.”¹

Arrest and Confession

After the shootings, Abulaban left the apartment and picked up his daughter from school. Testimony at trial recounted that he told the child in the car that he had “hurt Mommy.”⁵ Police identified his vehicle as a black Jeep with Virginia plates. An officer followed the Jeep until Abulaban pulled over on his own near the split of Interstate 15 and Interstate 805, where officers conducted a high-risk stop. Body camera footage captured him asking whether an ambulance had reached his wife. Officers testified he was cooperative during the arrest.¹¹ He confessed about five hours later.³

The Trial and Verdict

Abulaban was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, with a special-circumstance allegation of multiple murders and allegations of using a handgun.¹² The trial ran from May 1 through May 29, 2024, in San Diego Superior Court.³

Defense attorney Jodi Green did not dispute that Abulaban killed Ana and Barron. Instead, she asked the jury for a voluntary manslaughter verdict, arguing he acted in the “heat of passion” after discovering Ana with another man. Green told jurors her client was in “the grips of mania,” suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder and a severe cocaine addiction, and felt “as though he was in the passenger seat of his body.” The defense also cited childhood trauma and argued that Ana had been emotionally abusive.¹²

Prosecutors pointed to the unauthorized key card, the surveillance app installed on the daughter’s iPad, and Abulaban’s documented pattern of controlling behavior as evidence of planning rather than impulse.¹ On May 29, 2024, the jury convicted him on both counts of first-degree murder and found the special-circumstance allegation true.¹³

The Sentence

Judge Jeffrey Fraser sentenced Abulaban on September 6, 2024. The defense asked the court to run the two life terms concurrently and to strike the firearm enhancements. Fraser denied both requests.¹⁴ The final sentence was two consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years to life for the gun enhancements.¹⁵

Six loved ones of Ana and Barron addressed the court. Ana’s father, Ron Miller, said he wanted Abulaban “to rot in prison.” Ana’s sister, Hermae Sartin, said the person “supposed to protect his wife and child” had killed her instead, and that she would have flown to San Diego to remove Ana and Amira from the home had she known the extent of the abuse. Barron’s mother, in a statement read by the prosecutor, called her son “full of light with a whole life ahead of him.” Barron’s sister Jordana said everything he had hoped for had been “robbed from him.”¹⁴¹

Abulaban read a prepared statement apologizing for the pain he had caused, while still calling the murders a crime of passion and the jury’s verdict “truly unfortunate.” He asked the judge for an opportunity at rehabilitation.¹⁴

Fraser called the verdict “the only verdict a reasonable person could come up with” and described Abulaban as “a very selfish person.” Referring to the impressions that made Abulaban famous, the judge said: “When I saw the Scarface videos, it’s as if when he committed these crimes he became that persona of Scarface. Just the cold-blooded killing without remorse.” He added, “Any tears he has cried in this courtroom have been for himself.”¹

Aftermath and Documentary

Amira, the couple’s daughter, was placed with Ali Abulaban’s parents after the killings.⁷ After his arrest, a video posted to his YouTube channel showed him apologizing to fans for not being able to produce more content, drawing widespread criticism for focusing on his career rather than his victims.³

A documentary titled TikTok Star Murders was released on Peacock on June 25, 2024. It includes audio recordings from Abulaban’s phone that captured the break-in and the shootings, along with a jailhouse interview in which he said his online fame “made him snap” and “messed with his brain.”³

1
NBC San Diego. TikToker Ali Abulaban Sentenced for Murder
2
New York Post. TikTok Scarface Star Sentenced to Life in Prison
3
Time. TikTok Star Murders True Story
4
NBC San Diego. TikToker’s Wife Texted Him Hours Before He Killed Her
5
Court TV. TikTok Star Accused in Double Murder Expected to Testify
6
New York Post. TikTok’s Ali Abulaban Bugged iPad Before Alleged Murders
7
Oxygen. TikTok Murders Ali Abulaban Verdict
8
CBS News. Ali Abulaban TikTok Star Pleads Not Guilty
9
Oxygen. TikTok Star Murders Ali Abulaban Sentence
10
Yahoo News. Gun Shown to Jury on Day 6
11
Fox 5 San Diego. Former TikTok Star’s 911 Call Played in Court
12
NBC San Diego. Defense Lawyer Says TikToker Admits Killing Wife, Friend
13
San Diego County District Attorney. Ali Abulaban Verdict Press Release
14
Times of San Diego. Former TikTok Personality JinnKid Sentenced to Life Without Parole
15
San Diego County District Attorney. 2024 DA Annual Report