Overview
- Ventura County jurors delivered a first-degree murder verdict on Nov. 21 and found lying-in-wait and knife-use special circumstances that mandate life without parole.
- Prosecutors played Ali’s interrogation video in which he described hiding in Rachel Castillo’s Simi Valley apartment, stabbing her, burying her, exhuming her body for a sexual assault, and reburying her.
- Ali previously pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting Castillo’s body after the killing, according to the district attorney’s office.
- Castillo, 25, a mother of two, was killed on Nov. 10, 2022; her remains were located on Nov. 13 in a remote Littlerock area of the Antelope Valley.
- Sentencing is set for Jan. 12, 2026, and prosecutors say the conviction ensures he will spend the rest of his life in prison.