By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
A woman convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for masterminding the killing of her husband —a prominent hairdresser — at the home they shared with their two daughters in Woodland Hills was sentenced on Monday, June 23, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Monica Sementilli, 53, was convicted for the Jan. 23, 2017, stabbing death of her 49-year-old husband, Fabio, in the family’s backyard, shortly before the couple was set to celebrate its 20th wedding anniversary.
The 10-man, two-woman jury — which deliberated about eight hours and 45 minutes over three days — found her guilty on April 11.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen rejected a defense bid to have her sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Sementilli’s lover, Robert Baker, now 63, pleaded no contest in July 2023 to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He is also serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
Baker, a convicted sex offender and former adult movie actor who was called to the stand during the defense’s portion of Sementilli’s trial, maintained that the mother of two had nothing to do with the plan to kill her husband. He said he formed his own plan to murder Fabio Sementilli, saying, “I wanted her to be around me and with me more — like all the time.”
A third defendant, Christopher Austin, who was working as a parole and probation officer dealing with at-risk youth in Oregon at the time of his arrest last year, pleaded no contest in January to second-degree murder and was sentenced in May to 16 years to life in state prison as a result of a plea deal reached with prosecutors.
Austin, now 39, testified that his longtime friend, Baker, told him that Sementilli wanted her husband dead, but Austin acknowledged that he did not personally speak to her about the crime.
After his arrest, Austin told a jailhouse operative that “she was supposed to get a lot of money if we did it,” saying Baker — who he considered “family” — told him that she was “loaded” and “wants him gone.”
Austin testified that Baker paid for his airline flight to Los Angeles and drove him the same night to a shopping center after getting a text message that Sementilli was going to send her husband out that night. He said he couldn’t go forward with the attack, but said the two men went the next day to the Sementilli family home to commit the killing after Baker received a text message.
“He said the front door should be open, meaning unlocked. He told me, he said, ‘She’s gonna leave the door open,” Austin told jurors.
“Did he tell you who she was?” the prosecutor asked.
“The defendant,” Austin responded, saying that the door was “indeed unlocked.”
He said Baker told him the victim should be on the back patio and that the victim didn’t see him until Baker got close to him and tried to yell then.
“Baker covered his mouth and started stabbing him,” he said. “I covered his eyes and stabbed him once.”
During the prosecution’s closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told jurors “it’s very obvious that the defendant, along with her lover, murdered Fabio Sementilli along with assistance from Christopher Austin,” and that the murder was “committed for financial gain as well as for other motivations — in other words, for their future together.”
Sementilli’s attorney countered that his client was “guilty of a lot of things — stupidity, duplicity, lying, adultery” — but not murder.
“She was having an affair with someone who murdered her husband,” Levine told jurors. “But she did not commit or orchestrate or conspire to commit the murder of her husband.”
Sementilli has remained behind bars since her arrest in June 2017, when she and Baker were charged with murdering her husband.
Jurors heard a series of courthouse lockup recordings of conversations between Sementilli and Baker, including one in Van Nuys shortly after they were taken into custody. Baker can be heard repeatedly expressing his love for Sementilli and telling her that he’s “all in” and that he thinks they should get married.
“Just because we fell in love does not make us criminals,” Sementilli can be heard telling Baker at one point.
Austin has also remained behind bars since his arrest.
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