TikToker Ali Abulaban given two life sentences for killing wife and man he suspected she was dating

California judge, Judge Jeffrey Fraser was met with applause when he told TikToker Ali Abulaban that “The bottom line here is you will die in prison.” He also said: “You will never be a free man.”The sentence hearing was live-streamed by Court TV. 

Judge Jeffrey Fraser sentenced Ali Abulaban to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, he will also have to spend another 50 years behind bars for gun enhancement charges. 

People magazine reported that “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.”

In May, Ali Abulaban was found guilty of the murders of Ana Abulaban and her friend Rayburn Barron after a two week trial, Ana was 28 years old at the time of her death and Raburn was 29. Ali Abulaban and his wife Anna first met in 2014, Ali was at the time a U.S Air Forceman. 

Ana returned to her home country of the Philippines shortly after the couple began a relationship and it was whilst she was back in the Philippines that she discovered she was pregnant with their child. Following this news, the couple applied for a marriage visa. Ana gave birth to their daughter Amira whilst they were still waiting for it. 

The couple later wed in a courthouse ceremony after moving with their daughter to Bristow, Virginia, United States, in 2017. Only a year later, Abulaban began posting videos both on Instagram and TikTok. He was best known for his ‘comedic sketches’ of TV and film characters such as Al Pacino’s Tony Montana from Scarface, he used the username JinnKidd. 

Ana did feature in some of Abulaban’s TikTok videos and sometimes filmed the videos for him. According to reports, Ana was keen to leave her husband, but was concerned that she could be deported back to the Philippines if she divorced him, which would mean leaving her daughter Amira with him. She was also concerned about divorcing him as divorce is not looked upon favourably in the Philippines. 

After an incident of domestic violence in 2021, Ana still stayed with him, but reportedly then left him after a neighbour told him she had slept with Abulaban. She was forced to take down a video she had posted about his betrayal on social media as it had angered Abulaban and he threatened further violence against her. 

At the sentencing, the judge not only called  Abulaban "a very selfish person," but had noted that the TikToker had not shown remorse and said: "It's chilling.”