VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) — A California man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the 2022 murder of his estranged wife, the mother of his children.
On Jan. 12, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced in a statement that Zarbab Ali, 29, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder of Rachael Castillo, 25, on Nov. 10, 2022.
Senior Deputy District Attorney David Russell prosecuted the case, according to the statement. He said, “[Ali’s] actions place him among the very worst offenders this court will ever see. He deserved no leniency, and today’s sentence ensures he will never again be free to endanger another person or inflict further harm on society.”
On Nov. 21, 2025, Ali was convicted of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait. Before his trial, he pleaded guilty to having sexual contact with Castillo’s remains after her death.
On the day of the murder, Ali, who was separated from Castillo at the time and had recently filed for divorce, took their children to his parents’ house and went to the home that Castillo shared with her sister. He hid and waited, stabbing her 11 times when she returned, the district attorney said.
Ali then buried Castillo in a shallow grave in a remote desert area and returned at 2 a.m. after his family was sleeping. He then dug up and raped her corpse. He was arrested Nov. 13, 2022, as he was leaving his parents’ home in Victorville, California.
At the time of his sentencing, the Ventura County Star reported that Ali admitted to the murder during his interviews with authorities and that he raped the body to confirm to himself that he was a “monster.” He reportedly told interviewers, “If I didn’t commit to being a monster, then she would have died for no reason.”
At the sentencing, Castillo’s friends and loved ones made victim impact statements, the district attorney’s office said.
They remembered her as a soft-spoken, loving mother who was in a master’s program at Pepperdine University. Speaking of Castillo’s sons, one of her family members told the court, “She deserved to watch them grow.”
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