The famous TikToker was convicted of brutally murdering his wife and the man he thought she was dating will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Ali Abulaban was convicted of double first-degree murder in May, and the sentence was handed down by a California judge on September 6.
“The bottom line here is you will die in prison,” Judge Jeffrey Fraser remarked to an outbreak of applause from the gallery during the sentencing session, which was live-streamed on Court TV Friday. “You will never be a free man.”
Emily Cox of the San Diego County Superior Court confirms to PEOPLE that the court sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 50 years in prison on gun enhancement charges.
Fraser called Abulaban “a very selfish person,” and added that the TikToker had exhibited no remorse: “It’s chilling,” he remarked.
According to Court TV, Abulaban stated throughout the hearing that 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 jury.
In October 2021, Ali was already estranged from his wife, Ana Marie Abulaban, when he overheard another man’s voice in the couple’s house while listening in on her private talks using a listening device he had covertly planted on their 5-year-old daughter’s iPad.
Bursting into their San Diego apartment, he shot the guy, Rayburn Barron, 29, three times before turning the gun on his wife and killing her in the head. Ana had texted Ali hours before, telling him unequivocally: “I want you out of my life,” according to NBC San Diego, which reported from the courtroom.
According to CBS 8, after murdering his wife, Ali immediately called his mother and confessed to the murder.
Abulaban confessed again on the stand.
“I’m shooting and I can’t stop,” he stated during the broadcast Court TV hearing. “I just snapped.”
“My gun was in my hand and next thing I’m shooting,” he told reporters. The TikTok celebrity, known for his humorous impersonations of characters such as Scarface and Skyrim, has previously been aggressive with his wife, according to Ali. (On the stand, he admitted to using drugs and hitting Ana.)
Ana filed a police report proving his abuse a month before the shooting, according to Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast, who spoke at a pretrial hearing covered by The Los Angeles Times.
The turbulent relationship was not a secret.
He meticulously documented the couple’s anguish in personal films, some of which he shared with his almost 1 million TikTok fans, many of whom recognized his gorgeous wife from cameo appearances in his work.
In one such livestream from Peacock’s original documentary TikTok Star Murders, Abulaban speaks into his phone camera while his wife sits silently on the couch.
“Don’t get married guys, I threw my whole life away for her,” he tells them.
Viewers expressed their support for Ali in comments, with one asking him to “be strong.” Another indicated that the cops might be on their way to his house: “When they get there, just keep your mouth shut.”
During a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing, Ana’s sister told Court TV that if she had understood 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 supposed to be returned to her parents after the murder inquiry so she could be buried in her homeland, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her family to cover the costs.
Ana Guajardo, a relative, described the shooting as a “senseless tragedy” and a “devastating loss,” writing 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 explained. “Losing a daughter, a sister, a mother in such a violent manner is unfathomable.”
Barron, Ana’s companion, was described in another GoFundMe established for his burial in Mexico by his relative Omar Barron as “the glue to his family, always reaching out to bring everyone closer.”
He said further: “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, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week in over 170 languages.