Crazy story, that I had never heard about until today.
The killing actually happened in 1999, but because of some strange circumstances a retrial had to take place.
This is the second time Ali has received the same sentence. His original first-degree murder conviction for the Feb. 15, 1999, killing was overturned in 2009. Prosecutors retried Ali, 37, and in March, jurors found him guilty of the same charge.
In his words to the court, Ali repeatedly apologized for killing Tracey Biletnikoff, the girlfriend he’d met while they were both in substance abuse recovery. He insisted it was an accident.
At retrial, defense attorney Peter Goldscheider said Ali strangled Biletnikoff to death during a heated argument about his slide back into drug use. He argued that it was an unintentional killing that amounted to voluntary manslaughter and warranted a maximum of 11 years behind bars.
Ali was granted a new trial after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe had tossed at least one black member of the jury pool for racial reasons. He denies any wrongdoing.
During the retrial, Wagstaffe painted for jurors the image of Ali as a deliberate and scheming killer. He noted the effort Ali made to sneak Biletnikoff’s body out of the Project 90 substance abuse treatment center and into a van. He then dumped her body on a hillside on the Cañada College campus in Redwood City.
While testifying, Ali said he’d pulled off Biletnikoff’s pants to make the killing look like a sexual crime and throw investigators off his trail. After ditching Biletnikoff’s body, he fled to Mexico but then decided to come back to the United States. He was arrested at the border in Biletnikoff’s car.
Mallach, the judge, rejected a defense call to reduce Ali’s sentence. Because Ali has a prior conviction for kidnapping and beating a previous girlfriend, his sentence was doubled under the state’s Three Strikes Law. Ali was on probation for the kidnapping when he killed Biletnikoff, she noted.
Very sad that they had to go through this a second time.
Thoughts and prayers go out to the Biletnikoff’s family and friends.