Friends of slain wife take the stand in former TikTok star's trial

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- The trial continued Thursday for former TikTok star Ali Abulaban, who is accused of killing his wife, Ana Abulaban, and her friend, Rayburn Barron.

In the courtroom, several of Ana's friends took the witness stand, alleging an abusive marriage that escalated in the months before Ana was shot and killed. The prosecution has been painting the picture of Ali, who went by the username "Jinnkid" online, as abusive and controlling, while the defense is quick to allege drug use and extra-marital affairs.

In court, a TikTok video was shown as evidence. The video was a livestream of Ana and Ali fighting that he had posted to his nearly one million followers. In the video, you can hear Ana on the phone with police, as Ali was saying "I have a top secret clearance, trying to **** it up."

The video was taken in September 2021, about a month before Ana was killed. Ali could be heard saying that he brought Ana to San Diego, just for her to be with her friends, and had said Ana was with another man.

"Oh great, you're on the phone with police while I said that?” he added.

"You're not even an American citizen," he said. He then went on to say that if he was "petty," he would tell the police that she had "beat" him, too. "Say goodbye to your citizenship, Ms. Filipino," he added.

Ali appeared agitated in court as the prosecuting attorney played the video aloud to the 12 jurors.

“I told her we all agreed she should call the police, and repeatedly she said, "'no, I can't do that, I can't, I love him.' She was defending him the whole time. She's like, 'maybe it was me, maybe I said something wrong,'" Ana's friend Julia Stuntz recalled from the witness stand.

She went on to say that Ali was controlling, wouldn't let Ana wear certain outfits, had access to her social media accounts and would often keep track of her.

She testified that Ana would confide in her and show her bruises on her face from Ali punching her. She said Ali was very controlling of Ana, would call her ugly and would say no one would want her. A picture of Ana’s bruised face from Oct. 17, 2021 was shown in court.

Stuntz said Ali would say, “'that’s my wife, she needs to dress like this, she needs to pleasure me.'" "He just treated her like she was his property," Stuntz said.

Stuntz and two other friends took the stand Thursday morning and into the afternoon court session, testifying that they would see bruises on Ana after he allegedly beat her. Stuntz said Ana had called her multiple times to pick her and her daughter up because she was scared of Ali.

Stuntz recalled a time a few months before the shooting that she had picked Ana up from the apartment, and Ali followed them, swerving and brake-checking them and trying to run them off the road. Stuntz said she was scared and that Ana called 911 as Ali got out of the car and heard the police on the phone. She said Ana backtracked and told police that she was just calling to scare him; that it worked and that she didn't want to press charges.

According to Stuntz, Ana had told her friend that Ali slept with another woman, and that was the final straw. She said Ali had told Ana he would move out of the apartment and let Ana and their daughter live there while she found another place.

Stuntz said she had planned to move into the apartment to help pay the lease, but she told Ana she was concerned that Ali could copy a key; that he had a gun and had proven to be violent. She said Ana told her that Ali wouldn’t take it that far; that he had that gun for a long time and hadn’t used it. Stuntz never got to move in with Ana.

Stuntz said Ana had planned to file a restraining order on Oct. 21, 2021, after Ali had trashed their apartment, when the two realized Ali had a key. Ana told Stuntz over the phone that she was going to get off the phone, file a restraining order and give it to the building manager, so Ali could not be allowed into the apartment complex.

Ana's ex-husband Shawn Torres also took the stand briefly, testifying about the time he worked with Ali on base in Okinawa, Japan.

“I’ll be quite frank, everybody thought there was something a little bit off with him," Torres said.