Giovanni Abujalil pleads guilty after stabbing his 75-year-old father to death in Porterville this January
Giovanni Abujalil
32 years old
PORTERVILLE – On Monday June 6 the South County Justice Center in Porterville sentenced Giovanni Abujalil, 32, to life in prison. Abujalil pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and felony elder abuse of his father on Monday, May 16. He is eligible for parole in 56 years.
According to the district attorney’s office, on Sunday Jan. 27 of this year deputies from Tulare County Sheriff’s Office were called to Porterville to investigate a suspicious man in the area of Avenue 124 and Road 268. When they arrived deputies found Abujalil seated in his car where he refused to step out of the vehicle. In their attempts to deescalate the situation deputies noticed a body laid across the rear passenger seats with clear signs of trauma: unresponsive and covered in blood. They were able to secure Abujalil and get him into custody without incident.
The victim was identified later that Sunday as 75-year-old Julio Abujalil. He had four stab wounds to his neck, one to his eye and defensive wounds on both hands. When deputies removed his body from the vehicle, they found a bloody pocket knife. Abugalil admitted to using a knife at the scene of the crime.
District Attorney’s Office Public Information Officer Stuart Anderson said Abujalil described several motives. He attributed the murder to numerous issues between him and his father, including alleged abuse and an argument over inheritance. Abujalil also claimed that the effects of his own longtime drug use made him paranoid, leading him to believe that his father and others were out to kill him. He told officers that his father pulled out a knife and stabbed him during the incident, but officers found no injuries on Abujalil. Abujalil later testified that he lied to officers about his claim.
Not a first time offender, Abujalil has 11 additional felony convictions, including two for felony elder abuse and a prior strike conviction from 2010 for first-degree burglary in Los Angeles County. According to the DA’s office He was released from prison on parole a week before murdering his father.
