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Anaheim man convicted of killing partner in Garden Grove following multi-day meth binge

December 19, 2024

An Anaheim man who shot his sexual partner in the face at a Garden Grove home and then led police on a high-speed pursuit in a rented U-Haul pickup in Riverside County was convicted Wednesday, Dec. 18, of second-degree murder.

An Orange County Superior Court jury deliberated for several hours before finding Ali Samoodi, 53, guilty of shooting 57-year-old Dave Abbott during the early morning hours of May 7, 2022, following a multi-day methamphetamine and sex binge in a room Abbott was renting at a home in the 5300 block of Santa Barbara Avenue.

Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq told jurors during the trial that a delusional Samoodi was driven by “guns, drugs and paranoia,” which the prosecutor referred to as a “recipe for disaster, and in this case it was a recipe for murder.”

Samoodi’s attorney, Ed Welbourn, alleged during the trial that Abbott had raped Samoodi prior to the shooting. The defense attorney accused investigators of jumping to conclusions and failing to look into the possible sexual assault.

The prosecutor at the outset of the trial told jurors that Samoodi had been acting erratically for days prior to the shooting, at one point forcing his mother to call 911 after he pointed a gun at imaginary people at his Anaheim home. But the mother refused to testify during the trial, leading to her being held in contempt and fined.

In an encounter with one of Abbott’s roommates, Samoodi said he was upset that Abbott owed him money for drugs, according to testimony. But that same roommate also testified that she had seen what Abbott told her was a water bottle with GHB — also known as the date rape drug — inside of it prior to the shooting.

Moments before the shooting, that roommate described hearing Samoodi yell something to the effect of “No, no stop raping me!” or “You’re not going to rape me anymore!”

After hearing the gunshot, the roommate said she and her boyfriend grabbed their dogs and ran outside the home. But when she ran back in to grab another roommate’s dog, the woman recalled encountering Samoodi leaving the residence with a gun in his hand.

The roommate said she begged for her life, while Samoodi told her to get out of the way. The roommate testified that she didn’t think Samoodi was exactly pointing a gun at her, but was instead motioning at her with it.

Samoodi drove off in a U-Haul pickup he had rented. Officers quickly tracked the vehicle to Menifee, kicking off a 26-mile high-speed chase on and off freeways in which Samoodi reached speeds of up to 80 mph before being taken into custody.

Five days after the shooting, Abbott died from his injuries.

While the jurors found Samoodi guilty of second-degree murder for the killing of Abbott, they acquitted him of an assault charged tied to his encounter immediately following the shooting with Abbott’s roommate.

Samoodi is scheduled to return to court for sentencing on Feb. 28.

Orange County Register

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Anaheim man convicted of killing partner in Garden Grove following multi-day meth binge

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