TikTok Star Pleads Not Guilty to Murder of Estranged Wife & Male Friend

TikTok star Ali Abulaban pleaded not guilty on Monday to fatally shooting his newly estranged wife and a man in a San Diego high-rise apartment. Police identified the victims as Ana Abulaban, 28, of San Diego and Rayburn Cadenas Barron, 29, of National City.

Ana Abulaban had asked her husband to move out of the family home on October 18. He checked into a hotel, according to Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast.

Prosecutors said Ali Abulaban had secretly installed a listening device on his 5-year-old daughter’s tablet. After he heard his wife and another man talking, he went to her apartment and shot them to death. Brast said Abulaban shot Barron three times before shooting his wife in her head. Abulaban then called his mother and confessed. Security camera video showed him running out of the elevator to the apartment.

After the shootings, Abulaban picked up his daughter from school while still armed claims Brast.

After he picked up his daughter, he called police while driving and they arrested him 45 minutes later. His daughter was inside the vehicle.

Brast said Ali Abulaban confessed to the shootings to detectives and accused his wife of cheating. The prosecutor said she believes Barron was only a friend.

Judge Kimberlee Lagotta ordered Abulaban to be jailed without bail. The judge also issued a protective order that requires Abulaban to stay away from his daughter, who is being cared for by family.

Brast said outside court that Abulaban, 29, is a TikTok star known as JinnKid, with more than 940,000 followers on the social media app. His account features comedy skits and impersonations of the character Tony Montana from the 1983 film “Scarface.”