A Hawthorne man has been discovered responsible of first-degree homicide after confessing to stabbing his estranged spouse to dying and desecrating her stays, based on the Ventura County district lawyer.
In November 2022, 25-year-old social employee Rachel Castillo was watching her two younger sons at her Simi Valley residence when her husband, Zarbab Ali, picked them up, left them along with his dad and mom, and returned with a knife and the intent to kill, prosecutors stated.
After solely three hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Ali on the first-degree homicide cost Friday together with use of a lethal weapon and homicide by way of mendacity in wait, which suggests a sentence of life with out the potential for parole. His sentencing date is about for Jan. 12, 2026.
Zarbab Ali was convicted of murdering his estranged spouse in Ventura County Superior Courtroom on Friday.
(Ventura County D.A.)
Shortly after Simi Valley police found Castillo’s physique in a distant a part of the Antelope Valley, Ali, now 28, informed investigators that he had thought of killing her since their separation 9 months earlier. Castillo was within the strategy of divorcing Ali on the time of her homicide.
In a recorded confession reported by KTLA, Ali described to detectives how, after getting back from dropping off their 2- and 5-year-old sons, he left his trunk open and approached Castillo’s door, which he discovered unlocked.
“Every part in my physique was telling me to not do it,” he stated within the recording.
But, Ali continued inside and turned out the residence lights. He later confessed to ready in the dead of night for Castillo to depart her bed room.
“I assumed one thing in my life would change,” Ali informed detectives of his motivation based on the Ventura County Star. “I sort of blamed her for all my issues.”
His accounts of her homicide have differed, officers say. In early taped confessions, Ali stated that he stabbed Castillo thrice, a slaying that “lasted a minute.”
However in a courtroom this month, the Star reported, Ali revealed he had lied in regards to the fast dying to minimize the affect on her household.
“In actuality, she put up a battle,” Ali reportedly stated. “I used to be a brute. I pushed her down, and it was gory past perception.”
With Castillo’s useless physique wrapped in blankets in his trunk, Ali drove to Antelope Valley in a panic, prosecutors say. He buried her in a shallow grave, however the carnage didn’t finish there.
Ali confessed that, at 2 a.m. the subsequent day, he returned to Castillo’s desert grave to exhume and rape her corpse.
“Simply to verify that I’m a monster, I raped her,” he stated to officers. “If I didn’t decide to being a monster, then she would have died for no purpose.”
Castillo’s sister, who lived within the residence together with her, known as authorities after returning dwelling to search out blood and that Castillo was lacking. Ali was arrested days later.
Courtroom data present Ali initially pled not responsible to first diploma homicide within the case earlier than pleading responsible.
“He known as himself a monster on the stand, and that’s precisely what he’s,” Chris Castillo, Rebecca’s father, stated of Ali to the Star.
Castillo was a Simi Valley native who labored for an area nonprofit group serving to households who have been victims of home violence, Dist. Atty. Erik Nasarenko stated at a 2022 information convention.
She was finding out for a grasp’s diploma in scientific psychology with desires of turning into a wedding and household therapist.
