A jury in Southern California has delivered a guilty verdict against a 28-year-old man for the brutal slaying of his estranged spouse. On November 21, Zarbab Ali from Hawthorne, California, was found guilty of the first-degree murder of 25-year-old Rachel Castillo, as announced by Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko in a press release.

The jury concluded that Ali had employed a knife and strategically “lied in wait,” indicating he deliberately positioned himself to ambush her with a planned and deadly assault.

Castillo, who was nearing the final stages of her divorce from Ali, was killed in 2022, according to additional information from Nasarenko’s office.

On November 10, 2022, Castillo’s sister contacted emergency services upon realizing that she was missing from their shared Simi Valley apartment, as reported by the District Attorney’s Office. Upon investigation, police discovered signs of a violent struggle, with Castillo’s phone, keys, and car left behind.

Authorities found Castillo’s remains three days later in the Antelope Valley desert. That same day, Ali was apprehended at his parents’ residence in Victorville, California.

While Ali had pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, he admitted to killing Castillo during his trial, claiming that he was jealous over alleged infidelity on Castillo’s part, according to local outlets the Ventura County Star and the Simi Valley Acorn.
 
Per their reports, prosecutors played Ali’s on-camera confession to Simi Valley police in November 2022 for the jury. In the video, Ali reportedly told detectives he entered Castillo’s apartment, turned the lights off, waited for her to come out of her bedroom, then stabbed her multiple times.
 
He then admitted that he took her body to the Antelope Valley to bury her, but returned to dig it back up and desecrate it early the next morning, according to the outlets.

Before the trial, Ali had already pleaded guilty to sexual contact with Castillo’s remains after her death, per the District Attorney’s office.
 
Ali’s sentencing is set for Jan. 12 at Ventura County Superior Court. He faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

As Chris Castillo, Rachel’s father, told the Ventura County Star following the verdict, “We are very happy that justice will be served in this case in this life and the next.”