A 53-year-old man in a “drug-fueled” outburst shot his boyfriend in the head in Garden Grove, a prosecutor argued Tuesday while the defendant’s attorney made the case his client acted in self-defense out of fear of rape.
Ali Samoodi is charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon with a sentencing enhancement for discharge of a gun causing death.
Samoodi is accused of killing 57-year-old Dave Abbott of Garden Grove in May 2022. Abbott was shot in the head on May 7, 2022, but died five days later, Senior Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq said.
Samoodi’s attorney, Ed Welbourn, accused Garden Grove police of jumping to conclusions and failing to chase down leads to support the defendant’s claim he feared he would be raped by Abbott.
Welbourn argued that it was a mystery what happened between the two in the room they were sharing in the Garden Grove home.
“The bottom line is we don’t know what happened,” Welbourn said. “Ultimately the issue is has the government proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Ali murdered David Abbott or was he defending himself.”
Welbourn said another resident in the home heard the defendant shout in a panic-stricken voice “No, no stop raping me.”
Welbourn pointed to a snapshot from a body-worn camera from police showing Abbott nude with a sex toy on him.
“This photo is worth a thousand words because it shows what David Abbott was doing right before he was shot,” Welbourn argued. “David was raping Ali.”
One of the witnesses in the trial testified that Abbott told her he had a jar of GHB, a date rape drug, in his room, Welbourn said. He was seen filling a syringe from liquid from one of the jars in his room, the defense attorney argued.
Police never tested the jars of liquid found in the room, Welbourn argued.
“They just jumped to conclusions that it was a lovers quarrel and they did a lot of drugs,” Welbourn said.
No sex assault exam was done on the defendant, Welbourn argued.
“They knew about it from the beginning,” Welbourn said of the cries of rape. “But they jumped to conclusions that it was homicide. They also jumped to conclusions Ali was high on meth.”
The defense attorney asked jurors to “consider for a moment if Ali was a female and a witness in the house said she cried rape three times. You can be sure the Garden Grove police would investigate that… This case failed because none of that work was done. How can Ali get a fair trial when the investigation was unfair?”
Welbourn also questioned “Where’s the motive” for the killing, noting the defendant had pizza and a long talk about life with other residents of the house in the hours leading up to the shooting.
The defense attorney said that while he believes his client should be acquitted he said jurors could also consider voluntary manslaughter with a legal theory of “imperfect self-defense,” which means he acted with more force than was necessary or killed in the heat of passion after being provoked.
“The evidence was clear. Ali was unconscious and awoke to David raping him and he defended himself, which resulted in David’s death,” Welbourn said.
The defense attorney also argued that Samoodi was affected by a mixture of the GHB and methamphetamine that led him to act bizarrely after the killing.
The defense attorney downplayed evidence that Samoodi prompted his mother to call police about two weeks before the shooting. Samoodi’s mother refused to testify in the trial and was fined. Another witness, Teddie Yocum, refused to testify in the trial and Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer ordered her jailed for two days, according to court records.
Welbourn argued police did not believe the defendant’s mother and dropped any follow-up.
Siddiq argued that Samoodi was seen outside the victim’s home a week before the shooting angry and threatening to “send his boys over.”
The prosecutor said Samoodi “chose to continue doing drugs… He was normal at certain point but he continues to use drugs, knowing the effects it has on him.”
Samoodi also “chose to get his gun from his backpack” to kill the victim, Siddiq said. Welbourn argued there was no evidence to prove that.
Abbott was, “unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Siddiq said, adding the defendant was so drug-addled he could have killed anyone else in the house at 5311 Santa Barbara Ave.
The prosecutor implored jurors to “look at the totality of the circumstances” instead of parsing out each piece of evidence.
“Look at what happened before and after and that will tell you,” Siddiq said. “Eleven days before the murder the defendant held his mother, his 70-year-old mother at gunpoint.”
Welbourn “completely ignored (the defendant’s) delusions and hallucinations his own mother told police about,” Siddiq said.
Samoodi said his life was like the movie “The Game,” Siddiq said. He also said “everyone was whispering about him,” the prosecutor added.
As Siddiq argued that Samoodi was a “willing participant” in the sexual relationship with Abbott, the defendant shook his head.
“Part of the reason he was having a crisis was because his bisexuality was offending his mother,” Siddiq said.
The prosecutor argued that Samoodi did not tell police he feared he was going to be raped or that he felt drugged.
Samoodi was a “drug-fueled ticking time bomb with a gun and David Abbott was at the mercy of his paranoia,” Siddiq said.
Samoodi was staying over with Abbott at his residence in the three-bedroom home with roommates, Siddiq said.
The two were “doing drugs together,” Siddiq said, adding the two were “smoking and injecting” methamphetamine.
After the shooting, Samoodi is accused of pointing the gun at roommate Lynnea White, who was living at the home with her boyfriend at the time.
White testified he motioned for her to step aside with the gun in his hand after the shooting, Welbourn argued.
White said she was making her bed when she heard Samoodi shout “No, you’re not going to rape me,” before the shots rang out, Siddiq said.
A frightened White fled the home but returned to get her dog and encountered the defendant, Siddiq said.
When he pointed a gun at her “she begged the defendant not to shoot her,” Siddiq said in his opening statement of the trial.
Samoodi fled the home in a rented pickup truck and then later led police, who tracked down the rental, on a 26-mile chase, Siddiq said.
The defendant accused police of planting drugs on him and officers had to tie him down to do bio-swabs on him for DNA, Siddiq said.