JinnKid Got the Punishment He Deserved

By Editor |

Thursday, July 4, 2024

JinnKid Got the Punishment He Deserved

I became aware of the crimes of Ali Abulaban (“JinnKid”) around the time that he was convicted of first-degree murder.  Abulaban was a social media star with almost a million followers on various platforms.  He and his wife, Ana, appeared in home-made videos (as I guess that all social media stars do).  Abulaban would give his impressions of various famous actors in different roles, and do other things to entertain his viewers.  He had hopes of becoming a real actor in Hollywood.

Abulaban is/was a typical narcissistic man who thought that he owned the woman in his life.  Thousands of times every year, egotistical men kill their mates or former mates, and feel perfectly justified in doing so, and all because their mates won’t kowtow to the demands of the self-involved male deities they imagine themselves to be.  It is a common story.

Abulaban’s behavior was typical.  He didn’t want Ana to have friends; he was controlling of her behavior, even to the point of answering her phone for her so he would know who was calling her.  As time passed, he became increasingly abusive, which included physical abuse.  The police were called to their apartment many times.  He developed a cocaine habit, which magnified his bad behavior.  He also had an affair with another woman, yet he continued to be obsessively jealous where Ana was concerned.  Eventually, Ana decided to leave the marriage.  She asked him to move out, which he did (into a motel, I believe), and she initiated the process of getting a restraining order against him.

The two of them had had a daughter together, and after the separation, they shared custody.  On one occasion when Abulaban was at the apartment alone with the daughter, he installed a listening device so that he could hear what was going on in the apartment.  He also made a copy of the keycard which Ana used to access the apartment, something he should not have had.

On the day that he murdered Ana and a male friend, Abulaban was listening from his motel, and he heard Ana and her friend talking and laughing.  He also heard romantic music playing, which inflamed him even further.  He grabbed his gun and rushed over.  Using the keycard he had made, he let himself in.  He shot a total of four times, killing them both.  He didn’t find them in bed; rather, they were sitting on the living room sofa, talking.  At trial he said that she had betrayed him, but sitting on a sofa with someone is hardly a betrayal.

Astonishingly, Abulaban made an audio recording of the murder.  It revealed that it took all of two seconds for him to burst into the apartment and start shooting.  Neither of them had a chance to speak, although Ana did scream.  Abulaban didn’t give them even a moment to defend their friendship.  After the murders, Abulaban took a picture of their dead bodies.

Abulaban’s story was unusual in that he immediately admitted his crime.  He called his mother in Virginia, and then he called 911.  His testimony at trial, however, was an exercise in hubris.  He described his state of mind during the murders in the hope that the jury would sympathize and find him guilty of manslaughter (accidental killing) instead of second-degree murder (murder committed on impulse) or first-degree murder (premeditated murder).  But the fact that he had premeditated the murders was painfully obvious.

Ana’s male friend was named Rayburn Barron.  Barron had had a romantic interest in Ana, which Abulaban was aware of and which made him jealous.  But Abulaban had caused the estrangement between him and Ana by abusing her on multiple occasions.  The fact is, their marriage was already over, so Ana obviously felt free to pursue other relationships.  Despite having an affair himself, Abulaban told the jury that he was enraged by his wife’s “betrayal” of him.

Like so many egotistical males, Abulaban seems to think that his emotions justify whatever he does, and so he puts his emotions on display when discussing the murders.  In an early court proceeding, he cursed at the judge and screamed at a witness, and then sobbed (his sobbing sounded fake to me).  During a jailhouse interview with a local TV station, he again yelled and cursed.  It would seem that the purpose of these tactics was to somehow garner sympathy by revealing the depth of his emotions, but I doubt that anyone was impressed by it.

So, what is it that made this a premeditated murder?  Abulaban created the circumstances to make it all happen by planting the listening device, by making a keycard to the apartment, and by bringing his gun.  When he heard the two talking (via the surveillance device), he grabbed his gun and rushed over to his wife’s apartment.  Why would he have grabbed his gun if he didn’t mean to use it?  He said at trial that it wasn’t his intention to kill them, but that was hard to believe.  Indeed, having killed them both within seconds, he must have had his gun drawn as he entered the apartment.  If he had simply meant to yell at them or slap them around, he wouldn’t have needed a gun for that.

So his arguments to the jury failed on many levels.  What came out instead was his sense of entitlement, his presumed ownership of the life of his estranged wife.  Indeed, murdering someone you don’t want to let go of is the ultimate act of ownership.

The five-year-old daughter was not in the apartment at the time of the murder.  She was in school.  After calling his mother and 911, Abulaban went to her school and picked her up to “bring her to a safe place”.  He was taken into custody when his car was spotted by the police, and he was pulled over.

Now, I assume that Abulaban expected that he would be handled gently by the legal system, that he would be arrested and then released on bail or on his personal recognizance.  After all, he was a minor “star”.  Within hours of killing his wife and her friend, he was arrested by the police, was put in jail, and will never be released.  By the time he dies, he will have spent most of his life in jail.  He was 29 at the time of his arrest, and 32 when he was convicted.  His wife and her friend were 28 and 29 when they died.

Regarding Ana and Rayburn, I’ve been wondering if they didn’t act foolishly.  Ana knew that Abulaban had a gun.  Since Abulaban was sometimes in the apartment taking care of their daughter, Ana might have assumed that he would make a keycard—but then, perhaps she didn’t realize just how jealous he was.  As for Rayburn, he had to know that Abulaban was jealous, and I think he should have courted Ana anywhere but in Abulaban’s former home.  On the other hand, neither Ana nor Rayburn could have known that Abulaban planted a listening device in the apartment.  Both of them were young people without much life experience  and obviously didn't know how much danger they were in.  Even so, the least they could have done was to throw the latch or chain on the door, assuming that there was one.

When Abulaban was pronounced guilty of first-degree murder, people in the back of the court cheered.  Twice he looked around to see who was cheering.  He just didn't seem to understand that no one likes a self-righteous murderer.

I have come to see testosterone as the enemy of mankind.  It is the hormone that makes all of these murders possible (well, the gun-happy Republicans have something to do with it), and also makes the multiple dictators who kill so many people possible.  I believe that mankind’s future must include a way to reduce the levels of testosterone in the male population.