Abulaban Loses Appeal Bid To Reverse Convictions In East Village Double Murder

SAN DIEGO, CA — A state appeals court panel Thursday rejected a bid to overturn the murder convictions for Ali Abulaban, the social media personality sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 50 years to life for killing his wife and another man at an East Village high-rise apartment.

Abulaban, 34, was found guilty by a San Diego jury of two counts of first-degree murder, plus special-circumstance allegations of committing multiple murders, for gunning down Ana Abulaban, 28, and Rayburn Cardenas Barron, 29, inside the Abulabans' 35th-floor unit at the Spire San Diego apartments on Oct. 21, 2021.

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At trial, Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast argued Abulaban -- who was known in online circles as a content creator dubbed "JinnKid" -- was possessive, jealous and abusive to his wife, prompting Ana to want to leave the marriage.

On the day of the killings, Abulaban concealed an iPad inside the apartment in order to catch his wife with another man. Later, while at a hotel, Abulaban overheard Ana and Barron's voices, sped over to the apartment, and gunned down both victims as they sat on a couch.

In seeking a voluntary manslaughter conviction, Abulaban's trial attorney, Jodi Green, told jurors that after months of suspecting his wife was cheating, Abulaban was overcome with emotion upon seeing her on the couch with another man and opened fire on the pair without any control over his faculties.

Abulaban, who testified in his defense, said he "snapped" upon seeing the victims and the next thing he knew, "I'm shooting and I can't stop."

On appeal, an attorney representing Abulaban argued before a three- justice panel of the Fourth District Court of Appeal that jurors were presented with extraneous, irrelevant character evidence about Abulaban that prevented them from viewing him objectively.

Attorney Laura Schaefer said a large portion of the trial testimony was dedicated to negative evidence about Abulaban's character that had nothing to do with the homicides.

Some of the evidence -- much of which Schaefer argued was hearsay -- dealt with racist and homophobic slurs Abulaban allegedly stated, his pornography viewing habits, and internet searches he made for pictures of decapitated heads and chopped-up bodies, the attorney argued.

Schaefer argued this evidence was improperly admitted and only served to portray Abulaban as a bad person, while having no relevance to what his state of mind was during the shooting.

A prosecutor countered that jurors were allowed to gain a complete picture of Abulaban's character through three full days of testimony he delivered on the stand.

The appellate panel rejected multiple contentions that his trial attorney was ineffective for not objecting to the negative character evidence presented by the prosecution. The panel also wrote that the inclusion of Abulaban's searches for dead body photos "was relevant as to his state of mind and intent in the days leading up to the murders."

Schaefer also argued jurors were not properly instructed on how intoxication may have played a role in Abulaban's mindset on the day of the killings, as testimony indicated he had been in the grips of a cocaine addiction and was under the influence of a large amount of cocaine on the day of the shooting.

The appellate court wrote in its opinion that despite the drug evidence, "the evidence of premeditation and deliberation was strong" as Abulaban had "engaged in significant planning activity before the murders" by keeping a copy of the apartment key after he'd been kicked out and planting the iPad.

The panel wrote, "The only evidence that cocaine had any effect on his mental state consisted of Abulaban's self-serving testimony."

— City News Service