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 legal professional.
In November 2022, 25-year-old social employee Rachel Castillo was watching her two younger sons at her Simi Valley condominium when her husband, Zarbab Ali, picked them up, left them together with his mother and father, and returned with a knife and the intent to kill, prosecutors mentioned.
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 implies a sentence of life with out the opportunity of parole. His sentencing date is about for Jan. 12, 2026.
Zarbab Ali was convicted of murdering his estranged spouse in Ventura County Superior Court docket 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, advised investigators that he had thought of killing her since their separation 9 months earlier. Castillo was within the means 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.
“All the pieces in my physique was telling me to not do it,” he mentioned within the recording.
But, Ali continued inside and turned out the condominium lights. He later confessed to ready at midnight for Castillo to depart her bed room.
“I assumed one thing in my life would change,” Ali advised detectives of his motivation based on the Ventura County Star. “I form of blamed her for all my issues.”
His accounts of her homicide have differed, officers say. In early taped confessions, Ali mentioned 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 influence on her household.
“In actuality, she put up a battle,” Ali reportedly mentioned. “I used to be a brute. I pushed her down, and it was gory past perception.”
With Castillo’s lifeless 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 following day, he returned to Castillo’s desert grave to exhume and rape her corpse.
“Simply to substantiate that I’m a monster, I raped her,” he mentioned 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 condominium along with her, known as authorities after returning house to seek out blood and that Castillo was lacking. Ali was arrested days later.
Court docket information 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, mentioned of Ali to the Star.
Castillo was a Simi Valley native who labored for a neighborhood nonprofit group serving to households who had been victims of home violence, Dist. Atty. Erik Nasarenko mentioned at a 2022 information convention.
She was finding out for a grasp’s diploma in medical psychology with desires of turning into a wedding and household therapist.
