SAN DIEGO — The former social media personality accused of a double homicide returned to the witness stand in a San Diego courthouse Wednesday and talked about how his marriage spiraled out of control in the weeks before the killings.
Abulaban is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting at the Spire apartment building that took the lives of Ana Abulaban, 28, and Rayburn Barron, 29. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of all counts and allegations.
Ali Abulaban's testimony paints a picture of a man obsessed with finding out if his wife was cheating on him. The two had been on again and off again in September 2021.
His defense attorney played a video message for the jury that Abulaban sent Ana. He's yelling at the camera, telling Ana he wants to know what's going on.
"You lie to me all the time! I try to be nice to you, you lie!" he screamed at the camera.
He told her, 'Just let me know if you're cheating so I can leave!'
Abulaban testified that he saw someone in that video hitting rock bottom, struggling. He said that in the moment he just wanted the truth.
Between September 2021 and October 2021, Abulaban said the couple sent each other an unbelievable amount of text messages. He admits some were really nasty, however, he said he never sent any messages to Ana threatening to kill her or anyone she was seeing.
He admits it was during this time he changed his wife's profile photo on his phone to a picture of a trash can.
However, despite all of this, he said he just wanted to save his marriage.
"It was tormenting me, honestly. It was very confusing. It's like, I just wanted things to go back to the way they were," he said.
The day of the shooting
Just before noon, Abulaban testified about the day he shot and killed his wife and Rayburn Barron back in October 2021. He had been listening to what was happening inside his apartment using his daughter's iPad.
He heard a man's voice, and raced over to the apartment, high on cocaine. He testified he was higher on cocaine than he had ever been. He had a gun with him.
He said he opened the door and found her on the couch cuddling with Barron.
"I didn’t expect that Ana would ever do that to me," he said tearfully. "Him of all people, she of all people, she knew how I felt about him, she knew how I felt. I was trying to believe her that she wasn’t cheating on me that she would let me fix this. I was sick, struggling from drugs, and mental illness and I f---d up, I f---d up a lot."
"When I saw that it was him I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take it, I couldn't take the f---ing betrayal, I couldn’t believe she could do that to me, to our daughter. Before I could stop myself, I just f---g snapped. My gun was in my hand, next thing I’m shooting and I can’t stop, I'm just shooting, I'm shooting. I'm even just startled, it’s like I’m watching it happen, it's like I’m in the passenger seat of my own body," he testified.
"I can’t stop it. I hear Ana screaming and crying. I don’t even remember shooting Anna. I just remember running back to the front door, and I grab the front door handle and then it hit me and I’m like 'Did that just happen?' I turn around I see Anna leaning forward, there’s blood. I’m like 'Ana! Ana! Ana! Ana! I couldn’t believe I did that," he told the jury sobbing.
Cross examination got under way Thursday afternoon. Things were testy between Deputy District Attorney Taren Brast and Abulaban. The judge interjected twice, reminding Abulaban, the prosecutor asks the question, you answer.
Closing arguments are expected Friday.
WATCH: Ali Abulaban testifies about weeks leading up to shooting (May 21)