‘Guns, drugs and paranoia’ led to killing in California home, prosecutor alleges

A delusional Anaheim man on a drug binge shot his sexual partner in the face in a Garden Grove home and later led police on a high-speed pursuit in a rented U-Haul pickup in Riverside County, a prosecutor told jurors on Monday, Dec. 2, at the outset of Ali Samoodi’s murder trial.

Samoodi, now 53, and Dave Abbott, 57, were in the midst of a multi-day methamphetamine and sex binge at a home in the 5300 block of Santa Barbara Avenue when, during the early morning hours of May 7, 2022, Samoodi shot the second man, Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq said during opening statements in an Orange County Superior courtroom.

“Guns, drugs and paranoia — it is a recipe for disaster, and in this case it was a recipe for murder,” the prosecutor said.

Samoodi’s attorney, Ed Welbourn, noted that just before the shooting another resident of the Garden Grove home — where Abbott was living and Samoodi had been staying for several days as a guest — heard Samoodi yell something to the effect of “No, no stop raping me!” or “You’re not going to rape me anymore!”

“There is evidence of self-defense,” the defense attorney told jurors. “Ali believed he was in imminent danger.”

According to the prosecution, Samoodi had been acting erratically for days, including repeatedly accusing his mother of trying to set him up to be killed and talking to — as well as pointing a gun at — imaginary people at his home in Anaheim. Samoodi’s mother had decided to cut off the financial assistance he had been relying on, the prosecutor said, and at one point had called Anaheim police on him, though officers had been unable to find him.

Samoodi spent several days binging on methamphetamine and having sex with Abbott in a room Abbott was renting at the Garden Grove home, the prosecutor said. In an encounter with one of Abbott’s roommate, Samoodi said he was upset that Abbott owed him money for drugs, the prosecutor added.

After hearing the gunshot, one of the roommates ran out of the house but realized she had left her dog behind. The roommate went back into the home, the prosecutor said, where Samoodi pointed a gun at her, then told her to get out of his way after she begged for her life.

Samoodi drove off in a U-Haul pickup he had rented. Officers quickly tracked it to Menifee, setting off a 26-mile high-speed chase on and off freeways in which Samoodi reached speeds of up to 80 mph as he drove through red lights and struck several other occupied cars before being arrested at gunpoint in the Bloomington area, authorities said.

Five days after the shooting, Abbott died.

Welbourn told jurors that leading up to the shooting, Samoodi had interacted with Abbott’s roommates and had not shown any indication of anger or delusion. Abbott raped Samoodi, the defense attorney alleged, and the shooting occurred after Abbott awoke to a sexual assault.

Besides the murder charge, Samoodi is charged with assault for the alleged encounter with the other roommate. The defense suggested to jurors that they may find Samoodi not guilty due to self-defense, or could consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.