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Celebrity Hairstylist Murdered in His Own Backyard · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So imagine a picture-perfect suburban life. You know, you're in
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Woodland Hills, which is nestled right there in the San
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Fernando Valley.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, right. It's beautiful out there.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: It really is. You've got the rugged beauty of the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Santa Monica Mountains on one side. Yeah. And then, you know,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the sprawling, chaotic city of Los Angeles on the other.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But Woodland Hills itself is, it feels entirely insulated
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: from all that.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah. It's wealthy. It is manicured. And above all,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, it projects safety. It is the kind of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: place where the ultimate expectation is that when you close
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: your front door at night, the chaos of the outside
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: world just stays outside.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Right. It's designed to be this modern day fortress, really.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: The environment, the architecture, the gated driveways, they're all physical
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: manifestations of security. I mean, you buy into a neighborhood
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: like that specifically to buy peace of mind.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: But.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: In today's deep dive, we are unpacking a staggering transcript
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: from the Law and Crime Network that just completely dismantles
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that illusion.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: We are looking at a true crime story that peels
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: back so many layers of deception, and, like, intricate digital forensics,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and this shocking double life that it will, honestly, it's
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: going to fundamentally challenge everything you think you know about
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the safety of your own home.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because this isn't just a story about a crime.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It's a story about the absolute shattering of a sanctuary.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this. We need to start with the victim,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Fabio Sematilli. Because, you know, to understand the gravity of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: what was destroyed, you really have to understand the life
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: he built.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Right, and the life he built was... By all accounts,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: just extraordinary. I mean, Fabio wasn't just a successful guy.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: He was an absolute icon in his industry.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he was a high-level executive with Wella.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly, which is a massive, globally recognized brand under the
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Procter & Gamble umbrella. But, you know, beyond the corporate boardroom,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: he was a true artist.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: He really was.
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  Speaker 2: He was an influencer in the hairstyling world, like decades
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: before that term was ever even thrown around casually on
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: social media.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: We are talking about a celebrity hairstylist. For absolute A-listers.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, people like Jennifer Lopez, Jackie Chan. Oh, wow. Yeah.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: And you don't get into those extremely guarded circles with
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: just immense talent, right?
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: You need a specific kind of charisma. You have to
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: be someone that highly scrutinized people trust implicitly.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: That's a really crucial point. And that charisma, it translated
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: directly into how he lived his personal life, too.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, for sure.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: When you read through the transcripts and you look at
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: the testimonies of the people around him, his clients, his friends,
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  Speaker 2: his colleagues, they universally painted this picture of a man
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: who was just deeply devoted to his family.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he had a son, Luigi, from a previous marriage,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and two daughters, Jessica and Isabella. With his wife, Monica.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Right. And the relationship between Fabio and Monica, that is
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: really the bedrock of this entire narrative.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: They met in Toronto, right?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they met in Toronto. She was actually one of
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: his clients and she worked as a makeup stylist herself.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: They got married back in 1997.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: And she supported his massive ambitions. She moved with him
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to the United States to tackle the highly competitive Hollywood scene.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Right. And from the outside looking in, it was the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: quintessential perfect love story. I mean, people testified about seeing
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: them literally dancing around in their kitchen.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's sweet.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And when he came home from work, he would
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: always call her his queen.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Wow. You know, the word dream comes up repeatedly when
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: you review the accounts of their friends. They thought Fabio
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: was incredibly lucky to have Monica and that Monica was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: incredibly lucky to have Fabio. Exactly.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: And they were like weeks away from celebrating their 20th
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: wedding anniversary.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Think about that milestone. Two decades together, a beautiful family,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: massive professional success, living in this stunning, secure home in
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Woodland Hills.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: It's the peak of the mountain. You know you've made it.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: You really have. But then we hit the afternoon of
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: January 23rd, 2017, and we are forced to move from
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: this idyllic, you know, kitchen dancing setup directly into the raw,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: unimaginable reality of a crime scene.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: It's a brutal shift.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: It is. We have to talk about the 9-1-1. One call.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Because this is the exact moment that Suburban Sanctuary shatters.
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  Speaker 2: Right. And it is arguably one of the most heartbreaking
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: pieces of audio a jury could ever encounter.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: It really is.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: It is their 16-year-old daughter, Isabella, who goes by Bella.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: She's just coming home from school. I mean, it is
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: a completely normal, mundane teenage afternoon.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: She parks. She walks through her house, steps out onto
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: the back patio, and she finds her father. Oh, man.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: The transcript of this call, it's just visceral. If you
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: put yourself in her shoes, you can hear the sheer
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: unadulterated panic that only a child discovering a parent in
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: peril can produce.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: She tells the 911 operator, she says, my dad is
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: outside and he's bleeding and everything. He won't wake up.
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  Speaker 2: And the operator, who is strictly following emergency protocol, is
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: trying to triage the situation over the phone.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Right. They need to know what they're dealing with.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They need to know if the victim is viable.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: So they ask if she can wake him up. And
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Bella says, no, I can't touch him. He's bleeding and
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: he's really scaring me. And there's blood everywhere.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: You have to consider the psychological trauma happening in that
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: exact fraction of a second. I mean, the brain is
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: trying to process a reality that entirely contradicts the environment
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: she's in.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, your brain just can't make sense of it.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: And the operator, again, following strict life-saving protocol, asks Bella
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: to try and roll her father onto his back to
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: attempt CPR.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: The operator asks, is he on his back? And Bella says, no,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: he's leaning over a chair. And the operator is trying
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: to guide this terrified 16-year-old saying, we got to get
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: him on his back. You're doing a good job. Keep going.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: And then comes the line that just breaks you. Bella
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: realizes she physically cannot move him. I mean, a grown
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: man who is unconscious or deceased is literal dead weight.
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  Speaker 2: The biomechanics of a teenage girl trying to lift him,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: they just don't work.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: No, they don't.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: And she says, I can't. Dad, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Dad.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: She is apologizing to her father.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Right. She is apologizing to her dying or already deceased
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: father because she feels like she is failing him.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Because she doesn't have the physical strength to save him.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: The shock of the unexpected, you know, walking into what
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: is supposed to be the safest place on earth and
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: finding absolute carnage. It completely rewires your understanding of reality.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: It really does. And when emergency personnel and police arrive,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: specifically Detective Ryan Vera, who becomes the lead investigator and
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: a really key figure in unraveling this case, the grim
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: reality of the scene truly sets in.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: So what do they see when they get there?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the fire department and uniformed officers have already established
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: a perimeter. The house is completely locked down. Monica and
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: the two daughters are escorted across the street to a
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: neighbor's house, you know, just to get them away from
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: the trauma.
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  Speaker 1: Right, get them out of the scene.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the scene on that patio is highly complex
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: and really gruesome. There is a massive amount of blood.
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  Speaker 2: The coroner later determines this is a homicide due to
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: sharp force injuries.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And these weren't just random chaotic slashes, right?
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: No, not at all.
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  Speaker 1: The prosecution's forensic experts pointed out that the precision of
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the attack was chilling. Fabio was stabbed multiple times. but
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  Speaker 1: specifically in highly lethal anatomical areas like the neck, the heart,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: and the femoral artery in the leg.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, whoever did this wasn't flailing wildly in the dark.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: They were targeting the fastest, most efficient ways to end
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: a human life.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: And that leads to a critical piece of forensic analysis
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: at the scene. When homicide investigators and the medical examiner
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: evaluate Fabio's body, they are meticulously searching for one very
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: specific thing, right?
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They are looking for defensive wounds.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's pause and explain that for a second. How
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: do defensive wounds actually work, forensically speaking?
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Well, so when a human being is attacked with an
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: edged weapon, a knife, a machete, anything with a bleed
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: biology kicks in way before conscious thought.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Right, it's instinct.
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  Speaker 2: It is an automatic, hardwired human instinct to put your
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: hands and arms up to protect your vital organs, specifically
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: your face and your chest.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: So forensically, in a typical knife attack, Investigators expect to
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: see deep lacerations on the palms of the hands, cuts
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: across the forearms, and sometimes severed tendons in the fingers
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  Speaker 2: where the victim actually tried to grab the blade itself.
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  Speaker 1: Because you're fighting for your life. I mean, you don't
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: care about your hands getting cut if it means saving
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: your neck.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The presence, or in this case the absence of
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: those wounds, tells a massive story about the dynamics of
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: the attack.
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  Speaker 1: And on Fabio?
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  Speaker 2: Nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing at all?
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  Speaker 2: There were absolutely no defensive wounds. And forensically, this dictates
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: the entire direction of the early investigation. Wow. It means
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Fabio was completely, 100% caught off guard. This was a
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: highly targeted surprise attack.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: So he didn't even see it coming?
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: He likely didn't even see the weapon, or the attack
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: happened with such overwhelming speed and violence that his brain
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: literally didn't have the milliseconds required to signal his arms
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  Speaker 2: to rise.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: That is terrifying.
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  Speaker 2: It immediately rules out a confrontational robbery, where a burglar
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: is surprised by the homeowner and a struggle ensues. It
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: speaks to a sudden, overwhelming execution.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You know, it makes you think about how our homes
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: function psychologically. You lock the door, you walk out to
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: sit on your patio in the afternoon sun, and you
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: are entirely relaxed. Like, your guard is at absolute zero.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: An attack like this, where you are executed in your
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: own backyard, it destroys the very concept of sanctuary. It
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: violates the one place in the universe where you are
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: supposed to be untouchable.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: The psychological violation of the physical space is just as
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: profound as the physical violence itself. But, you know, as
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: investigators are carefully clearing the scene, stepping around the blood
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: evidence on the patio, they walk inside the house and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: encounter an immediate glaring contradiction. Right. The house appears to
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: have been heavily burgled.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: OK, so we have a targeted rapid assassination in the backyard.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: But inside the house, it looks like a chaotic robbery.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's confusing.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: This brings us to the anatomy of a staged crime scene.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: The bedrooms and living areas are ransacked. Drawers are pulled out.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Belongings are tossed. Right. And when police cross the street
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: to interview Monica, who is being comforted at the neighbor's house,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: she tells them she thinks some jewelry is missing and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: specifically about eleven thousand dollars in cash that they kept
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: in the house.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: So immediately detectives have to wrestle with two conflicting narratives.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, Is this a random brazen daylight home invasion
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: that just went horribly wrong when they encountered Fabio?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: But the lack of defensive wounds and the anatomical precision
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: of the knife strikes keep whispering targeted assassination.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Right, because robbers who panic usually slash wildly. They don't
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: cleanly hit the femoral artery in the heart.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that requires focus.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: So investigators start looking much closer at the so-called robbery,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: and they find a very telling piece of missing evidence
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: that changes everything.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: The security system. I mean, we are in Woodland Hills.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Everyone has cameras, especially on a sprawling, wealthy property. The
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: investigators notice wires hanging down from a wall high up
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: on a tall cabinet located near the entry door that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: leads from the garage into the house. The actual DVR box,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the digital brain that records and stores all the camera footage,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: has been physically ripped out of the wall and taken.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Now, when detectives gently ask Monica about this, her response
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: is very specific. and highly defensive.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: What does she say?
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: She claims she knows absolutely nothing about the security system.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: She insists that Fabio was the only one who knew
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: how to access it, how it worked, where the box was,
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: or how to operate the app.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: So she's playing completely naive.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. She paints herself as completely technologically illiterate regarding the
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: security of her own home.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Wait, let me stop you there. Because the killers taking
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the DVR proves two things. One, they knew there were cameras.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And two, they knew exactly where the recording device was
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: hidden inside a massive house.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's not a coincidence.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: That shows intense preparation. It wasn't a crime of opportunity.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: So the police realize they have no footage from the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: Semitilli house. What do they do? They pivot. They canvass
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood. They start knocking on doors and pulling CCTV
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: footage from all the surrounding homes.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: And this is standard but highly vital police work. And
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: this is where the timeline of the crime starts to
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: take a terrifying shape.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: What do they find?
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Well, a neighbor's security camera catches two figures. They are
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: seen moving down the street toward the Cementilli residence just
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: prior to the 911 call. But it's how they are
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: dressed that is highly suspicious.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: They are wearing oversized, heavy hooded sweatshirts. And keep in mind,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: this is Los Angeles in the afternoon.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: That's probably warm.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But the hoods are cinched incredibly tight around their
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: faces with the drawstrings. You can only see a tiny
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: portion of their noses and eyes. They are purposefully, deliberately
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: concealing their identities from the neighborhood cameras.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: And the police note their body language.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: They aren't just jogging or walking casually. They are, as
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Detective Vera described it, running with intent.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Running with intent. Yeah.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: They lean forward. They were on a mission. And then
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: another camera catches the getaway. We see a person wearing
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: a very distinct green hooded sweatshirt driving away from the scene.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: And they are driving Fabio's black Porsche 911.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: What's really fascinating here is the juxtaposition of extreme, almost
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: military precision coupled with glaring sloppy arrogance.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, totally.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: By syncing up the time codes on the neighbor's cameras,
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: and investigators have to calibrate these carefully because neighbor cameras
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: are often a few minutes off from real time, they
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: realized the killers were in and out of the Cementilli
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: property in just seconds. Seven minutes.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Seven minutes.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: Seven minutes.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: That is insane.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Think about what they accomplished in that window. They approach
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: the house, locate Fabio, surprise and execute him with lethal efficiency,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: navigate the interior of a house they supposedly don't know
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: to ransack it, locate a hidden DVR box on top
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: of a tall cabinet, disconnect it, find the car keys
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: to a specific vehicle, and escape.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: It's a lot to do.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: It requires an intimate knowledge of the layout. It suggests
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: a highly coordinated hit, rehearsed and planned.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Okay. Here's where I have to push back on the
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: logic of these supposed masterminds.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Go for it.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: If they are smart enough and disciplined enough to execute
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a flawless hit in seven minutes and smart enough to
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: rip out the DVR to ensure their faces aren't recorded,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: why on earth would they steal the victim's Porsche 911?
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it seems crazy.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, a black Porsche speeding away from a murder
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: scene is basically a neon sign for law enforcement. It
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: is highly conspicuous. If this was a planned hit, why
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: not have a nondescript getaway car parked a block away?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: It's a brilliant question, and it highlights a very common
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: flaw in criminal staging that prosecutors love to point out.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: The seven-minute execution shows tactical precision, yes, but taking the
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Porsche shows an arrogant, almost impulsive flaw driven by adrenaline.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: So they panicked.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Well, it could be that stealing a luxury sports car
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: was meant to further sell the robbery-gone-wrong narrative to the police.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: The logic being, if a detective looks at it, they
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: might think, well, they came for the cash, the jewelry,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: and the high-end sports car, and Fabio just got in
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: the way.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Right, trying to muddy the waters.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: But operationally, as you pointed out, it is a massive risk.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: A stolen Porsche is going to be reported instantly, its
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: license plate broadcasted, and it stands out to every patrol
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: cop on the street.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: And as we'll see, that stolen Porsche becomes the very
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: thread that unravels the entire mystery. It takes us from
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: the physical crime scene, which, remember, had been scrubbed of
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: its DVR brain, into a bizarre, highly public social setting.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is where things get really weird.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: We move to the memorial service.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Right. So while the police forensics team is painstakingly processing
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: the blood evidence found in the house, and we need
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: to note that they found cast-off blood droplets in the kitchen,
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: which strongly suggests the killer injured themselves during the violent
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: stabbing and was bleeding as they fled through the house.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So while that's happening, the family is holding a
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: massive memorial service for Fabio. It is filled with grieving
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: family members, close friends, and his high-profile celebrity clients. The
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: atmosphere is incredibly heavy and mournful.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: And into this deeply intimate, sorrowful environment walks a complete stranger. Yeah.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: A man who nobody from Fabio's side of the family
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and none of his close professional circle recognizes. He's mingling,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: but specifically interacting He's spending a lot of time hovering
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: around Monica, the grieving widow.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: And people notice.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: They do. It's odd enough, the body language is strange enough,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: that one of Monica and Fabio's close friends actually starts
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: taking photos of this guy on their phone on the sly. Yeah.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: And later sends them to the police.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: And when investigators look at those photos, they notice a
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: very specific, glaring detail.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: What was it?
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: The mystery man has a fresh bandage wrapped around his finger.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Remember those cast-off blood droplets in the kitchen?
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: The ones that indicated the killer slipped on the knife
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: and cut himself.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The police theorized the killer had hand laceration. Now,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: at the victim's memorial, there is an unknown man intimately
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: comforting the widow, sporting a freshly bandaged finger.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: So brazen. When the friend who took the photos subtly
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: asks Monica who this guy is, he's introduced as Robert Baker.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: He is supposedly Monica's racquetball instructor.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Now, at the exact same time this memorial is happening,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: patrol officers get a massive break.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: They find the car, right?
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Yes. They find the stolen Porsche. It had been dumped
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: just a few miles away from the crime scene, left
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: sitting innocuously on a quiet residential street until a neighborhood
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: resident called it in as a suspicious vehicle.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: And when forensic investigators process the interior of that car,
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: they find exactly what they were hoping for. Blood evidence
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: smeared on the interior driver's side door panel.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So they swab it? They send it to the lab
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: to extract the DNA profile, and boom, it is a
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: direct hit.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: The blood in the stolen getaway Porsche belongs to Robert Baker,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: the racquetball instructor from the memorial.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: What's really fascinating here is the concept of a biological tripwire.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Our past actions often dictate our future vulnerabilities in ways
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: we just can't anticipate.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Explain how they got that hit so fast. I mean,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: usually DNA takes time, and you need a suspect to
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: compare it to, right?
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Well, think of CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System, like
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: a forensic fingerprint left on the doorknob of the criminal
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: justice system. Once you touch it, your print is there forever.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: The reason the DNA came back so quickly is because
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Robert Baker was already deeply embedded in CODIS. He wasn't
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: a ghost. He was firmly in the system because of
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: a dark and extensive criminal history. Baker's past crimes essentially
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: preloaded a homing beacon into his own bloodstream.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that history. Because it paints a very specific,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: chilling picture of the man who was comforting the widow
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: at the memorial.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: During the trial, his background came to light. In his
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: late teens and early 20s, Baker was a military police officer.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: But he was dishonorably discharged.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Because he had an affair with his then-wife's underage daughter.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: It's awful.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: He actually did jail time for that offense and became
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: a registered sex offender.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: Psychologically, that shows a profound, deeply ingrained boundary violation from
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: a very young age. It shows a willingness to exploit
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: trust within a family unit.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Definitely.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: After his time in the military and prison, he transitioned
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: into the adult film industry. And shockingly, the prosecution noted
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: that that same stepdaughter he had previously assaulted became one
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: of the actresses he later worked with.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: That is just sickening.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: His past is entirely characterized by exploitation, manipulation... and a
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: complete sociopathic disregard for social, moral, or legal norms.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: And now his blood is inside the victim's stolen Porsche.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: As Detective Vera pointed out, regardless of what elaborate story
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: anyone tells about what happened inside the house, Robert Baker's
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: blood in that car firmly places him at the center
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: of the crime.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: There's no way around it.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: There is no innocent, logical explanation for a racquetball instructor
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: bleeding inside inside a murdered man's stolen getaway vehicle just
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: minutes after a homicide.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The biological evidence firmly connects the stranger at the
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: memorial to the getaway car. It is an irrefutable link. But,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: you know, to prove a conspiracy, to prove murder for hire,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: investigators need to connect the stranger to the widow.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: They need to link Baker to Monica.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Right. They need to understand the true nature of their relationship.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: This is where the investigation fundamentally pivots from physical DNA
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: evidence to digital breadcrumbs.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: So law enforcement puts covert physical surveillance on Baker and Monica.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: And what they observe completely shatters the illusion of the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: grieving widow.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, completely.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: They discover a steamy, highly elaborate affair that had been
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: going on for over a year before Fabio was murdered.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Monica Semantilli was leading a staggering double life.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: The psychological contrast presented by the prosecution is just jarring.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: Investigators and friends noted that in her normal life, Monica
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: portrayed herself as somewhat prubish, traditional.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Right, the perfect suburban mom.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: She was a mother, a corporate executive's wife, living in
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Woodland Hills. But when she was with Robert Baker, an
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: entirely different persona emerged.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Like what?
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: She would purposefully go to thrift stores to buy provocative,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: revealing clothing specifically to wear around him. They would hang
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: out at dive bars, completely removed from her normal social circles. Wow.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: The police surveillance teams watched her dressing up for a
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: night on the town with him, showing intense public affection,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: even flirting with bouncers at clubs. And the timing is
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: what makes it so incredibly macabre. To the public, she
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: is playing the devastated, shattered widow. She is posting almost
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: daily on Instagram about how much she misses her husband,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: how her heart is broken, posting pictures of Fabio.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: And behind the scenes.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: The digital forensics show that mere minutes... After making those
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: performative public grief posts, she is sending nude photos of
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: herself directly to Robert Baker.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: During the trial, the prosecution argued that maintaining these two
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: realities required a staggering level of compartmentalization. I mean, it
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: paints a picture of someone operating without basic human empathy.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's chilling.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: But it wasn't just photos. The cell phone data, which
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: they obtained via warrants, reveals the sheer depth of the obsession.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: In the months before the murder... They were communicating constantly,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: thousands and thousands of messages a month.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: And they were using Viber, right, which is an encrypted
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: messaging app. They were intentionally taking steps to hide their
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: communications from Fabio and anyone else. But here is the
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: massive red flag that investigators found. On the exact night
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: of the murder, they abandoned Viber entirely. They drop it
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: and switch their communications over to WhatsApp.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a classic hallmark of premeditation and operational security.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: or OPSCC.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Really? How so?
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: From a digital forensic standpoint, why do criminals do this?
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: If you are planning an illicit event and you know
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: there might be law enforcement scrutiny, you change your communication channels,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: mistakenly believing that jumping platforms breaks the digital trail.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Ah, I see.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: The sudden shifting behavior on the specific day of the
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: crime is a massive digital footprint of conspiracy. It shows
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: they knew that day was different.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: So we have the affair, the encrypted apps, the bizarre behavior. Yeah.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: But let's look at the day of the crime itself.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Let's look at Monica's alibi.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: When she was initially interviewed by detectives, she told police
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: that during the exact time Fabio was killed, she was
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: out shopping at a local Target.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: It's a very mundane, easily verifiable alibi, right?
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Right. Go to a big box store, get caught on
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: their CCTV cameras, keep your receipt.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: It's the perfect modern alibi. But when detectives pulled a
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: surveillance video from that specific Target parking lot, They find
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: something entirely different that just blows her story out of
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: the water.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: What do they see?
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, Monica was physically at Target. But before she goes
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: inside to push a cart around, she is seen on
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: camera meeting with Robert Baker in the parking lot.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: She meets with the man whose blood is later found
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: in the getaway car mere minutes before the murder happens
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: at her house.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, here's where it gets really interesting. After meeting Baker
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: in the parking lot, she parks her car, goes into
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the store, and does her shopping. But the surveillance footage
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: catches her as she is leaving the store.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: She is walking out with her shopping cart, and she
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: is staring so intensely at her phone screen that she
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: almost crashes her cart into an obstacle. She is totally,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: completely engrossed in whatever is on that screen.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: And you asked earlier how they prove these things. When
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: investigators see the phone, they aren't just looking at text
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: messages or photos.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: They use advanced forensic extraction tools like Celebrate to pull
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: background application logs.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Oh, I've heard of that.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, these logs record down to the millisecond when a
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: specific app is brought to the foreground of the screen,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: like when it's actively being viewed. By syncing that millisecond
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: timestamp with the Target Store CCTV camera timestamp, they knew
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: exactly what she was doing.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: And what was she doing?
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: At the exact moment she is almost hitting things with
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: her cart, At the exact moment her husband is being
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: slaughtered in their backyard, Monica is actively logged into the
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: remote viewing app for her home security cameras.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Are you serious?
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: I'm serious.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: The same security system she swore to police she knew
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: absolutely nothing about. The one she said only Fabio knew
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: how to operate?
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: It's like a bank robber checking the security feeds of
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: the heist right from the checkout line of a grocery store.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: She is literally monitoring the murder of her husband live
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: while buying household goods.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: It entirely obliterates her statement to the police. Furthermore, digital
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: forensics divers found emails proving she was the one who
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: had contacted the security company when the cameras were first installed.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: She explicitly asked for instructions on how to set up
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: remote access on her phone. And she had provided Robert
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Baker with the usernames and passwords.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So she lied about everything.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: She wasn't technologically illiterate. She was the system administrator. And
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: it was noted by the prosecution that she hadn't accessed
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: those cameras in months. The one single day she decides
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: to log in just happens to be the seven-minute window
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: of her husband's murder.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: The digital evidence proves she is watching the crime, but
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: her behavior immediately afterward proves her ultimate motive and, frankly,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: just the cold calculation of it all. Let's talk about
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the window of extreme risk, because this is the part
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that truly chills me as a parent.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: It's awful. While Monica is at Target after meeting with
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Baker and right around the time the killers are descending
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: on her home, She makes a phone call to her
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: 16-year-old daughter, Bella. She tells Bella that her prescription glasses
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: are ready to be picked up at the optometrist, and
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: she asks Bella to run that errand before coming home
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: from school.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: She purposefully creates a delay. She knows armed men are
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: going into her house to butcher her husband, and she
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: sends her teenage daughter on a detour that barely buys
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: any time.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Barely any time at all.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Think about the margins here. Bella arrived home and found
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: her father just one minute after the killers fled. One
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: single minute.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: It's terrifying.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: If Bella had skipped the errand, if she had hit
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: one less red light, she would have walked through that
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: door and found Robert Baker and an accomplice actively murdering
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: her father.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: The callousness of that calculation is horrifying. The prosecution hammered
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: this point. She risked her daughter's life to provide herself
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: with a slightly better alibi window and to ensure the
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: house was clear for the hit. Yeah. It demonstrates that
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: her lust for Baker and her greed completely eclipsed any
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: maternal instinct or concern for her children's safety.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: And the greed becomes glaringly obvious in the days following
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the murder. When detectives first interviewed Monica, they asked a
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: very standard procedural question. Did Fabio have life insurance? Right.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Monica played dumb. She said she had no idea that
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Fabio handled all the finances. She was just the wife.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: But behind the scenes... The police, who are wiretapping her phone,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: have audio recordings of her aggressively making calls to the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: insurance company.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: The recordings show a woman desperate for a payout. She's
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: calling the insurance agency and saying, Hi, I'm calling on
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: behalf of my late husband. My lawyer can't get a
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: hold of anybody. I need to know, am I the beneficiary? Otherwise,
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: we have to go to court.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: She is laser focused on the money while supposedly grieving.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: And that money was substantial. The life insurance payout she
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: was trying to secure would have been well over $ 2 million.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: So let's look at the board here. Law enforcement has
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the motive, $ 2 million and the freedom to be with Baker.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: They have the means and the opportunity. They have a
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: mountain of circumstantial digital evidence, the apps, the security logins,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: and they have the physical DNA in the stolen Porsche.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: They have everything they need.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: It is time to spring the trap. On June 14th, 2017,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the Robbery Homicide Division sets up a highly orchestrated arrest operation.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: And they don't just pick them up and throw them
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: in separate sterile interrogation rooms.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: No, they get creative.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: They use psychological theater. They arrest Monica and Baker simultaneously
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: and place them together in the back of a police cruiser.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: But this isn't just any cruiser. It is fully rigged
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: with hidden, high-definition audio and video recording devices.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's brilliant.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: And then the police execute a brilliant psychological ploy. They
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: play a fictitious, pre-recorded radio broadcast over the police radio
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: in the front seat.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Wait, like a fake news report?
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It's an official sounding announcement stating there is an
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: active warrant for the arrest of Monica Sementilli for the
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: first degree murder of Fabio.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: They want to see what happens when the pressure is
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: dialed to absolute maximum in an enclosed space where the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: suspects think they are alone.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And the reaction is incredibly telling. I mean, when a normal,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: innocent person hears they are being arrested for the brutal
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: murder of their spouse... The reaction is usually outrage, confusion,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: absolute denial. They scream, I didn't do this. This is
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: a mistake. This is crazy.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: But Monica and Baker, they don't do that. They panic.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: And the specific phrase they use to each other is,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: someone talked.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: From an investigative standpoint, someone talked is the language of
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: a conspiracy.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it implies there was something to talk about.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: It implicitly acknowledges that there is a secret to be spilled.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: They don't proclaim their innocence to each other. They try
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: to figure out where the leak in their operation is.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: They immediately start whispering, get a lawyer immediately, don't say
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: nothing to nobody. It is immediate, frantic damage control, not
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: a defense of innocence.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: And the bizarre, revealing behavior continues when they are transported
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to the county jail. Investigators put them in small, adjacent
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: cells that are, of course, heavily bugged.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Naturally.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: And listening to these jailhouse tapes is like peering into
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: a dark, entirely distorted reality.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: First, you hear them actively coordinating their alibis. They know
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: the police have Baker's DNA from the car, and they
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: suspect police might have found DNA in the house.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Okay, so they need a story.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Right. So, whispering through the walls, Monica concocts a narrative
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: to explain Baker's blood being at her home. She decides
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: to claim that they were playing racquetball. She accidentally hit
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: him in the hand with the racquet. He bled on
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: a towel, and she brought the bloody towel home to
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: wash it.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: That is so convoluted.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: She even says she's going to tell police she showed
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: the bloody towel to Fabio. It's a desperate, highly convoluted,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: pre-planned lie. And Baker agrees to stick with the program
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: and promises through the wall to take the fall and
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: lie for her if he has to.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: But then it devolves into this grotesque display of delusion.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: They're sitting in jail facing charges for a brutal assassination.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: And they are engaging in mutual sexual stimulation through the
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: jail walls.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: It's absurd.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: They're declaring their undying love and planning a fantasy wedding.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: They're completely, utterly detached from the reality of the horror
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: they've just inflicted on Fabio's family.
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: And the physical evidence of their bizarre, obsessive dynamic keeps
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: surfacing even while incarcerated.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: What has happened?
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: At one point during a preliminary court appearance, a toothpaste
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: tube is left behind in a holding cell by Baker.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: The sheriff's department recovers it, examines it. and discovers it
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: is filled with Baker's semen, presumably intended to be secretly
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: passed to Monica during transport.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: It's just unbelievable. And Monica's behavior with her own grieving
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: family is just as unhinged.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: During a jailhouse visit with her daughter, Monica proudly pulls
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: up her hair to show off a new tattoo on
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: the back of her neck. It says, Ride or Die.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: She tells her daughter, she's just joking, that it's just
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: drawn on with pen. But she is essentially bragging about
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: her unwavering loyalty to her husband's killer. right to her
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: traumatized daughter's face.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, as presented
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: in court, you see two individuals who are entirely consumed
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: by their own pathological desires. The immaturity, the grandiosity, the
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: complete lack of empathy.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Monica's relationship with Robert Baker had become the singular driving
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: focus of her existence, completely overriding her identity as a mother,
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: a wife, and a functioning member of society.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: So they are both in custody. The evidence is overwhelming.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: the DNA, the digital subprint, the wiretaps, it seems like
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: a closed case heading straight to a swift trial.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: You would think so.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: But then the legal system grinds to a halt. Due
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: to endless pretrial defense maneuvers, changes in counsel, and the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: massive unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial is
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: delayed for six long years.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: Six years.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: And after six years of denying everything, Robert Baker makes
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: a shocking legal maneuver.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in July 2023, right on the eve of jury selection,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: Robert Baker abruptly pleads guilty open to the court.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: OK, what does that actually mean, legally speaking? Explain the
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: mechanics of that for the listener, because it sounds like
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: you just gave up. But it's a strategic move, right?
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It is highly strategic. Usually a guilty plea in
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: a major felony case is the result of a negotiated
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: deal with the prosecution. You plead guilty to save the
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: state the time and expense of a trial. And in exchange,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: you get a lighter sentence or a lesser charge, like
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: second-degree murder instead of first. Pleading open to the court
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: in California means you are pleading guilty to all original
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: charges without any deal or protection in place. You are
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: throwing yourself entirely on the mercy of the judge, accepting
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: maximum exposure, which in this case is life without parole.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: It's a massive gamble. Why would he do it? Because
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: it dramatically changes the dynamic of Monica's trial. For six years,
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the prosecution was planning to try Baker and Monica together,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: sitting at the same defense table. If they are tried together,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: the jury sees them as a unit. Now, by pleading out,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Baker forces a severance. He is removed from the equation.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Monica is sitting at that defense table all alone, looking
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: like a suburban mom. And the prosecution's case against Monica
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: is entirely circumstantial. They have the digital trail. They have
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: the motive. They have the affair. But they don't have
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a smoking gun like a text message saying kill him.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: And they certainly don't have evidence showing she physically held
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: a weapon.
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: And Baker knows this. His open plea was a calculated,
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: strategic move designed entirely to help Monica beat the charges.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: Shortly after his plea is accepted, he writes a sworn
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: letter to Monica's defense attorneys.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: What does it say?
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: In it, he claims full responsibility for the murder and
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: states unequivocally that Monica knew absolutely nothing about his plans.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: His story in this letter is just absurd. He claims
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: he went to the Cementelli House in Woodland Hills that
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: afternoon to leave a romantic love letter for Monica tucked
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: under the windshield wiper of her car.
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: A love letter.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. He says while he was doing this, he was
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: suddenly confronted by Fabio, who was angry. A physical fight
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: broke out, and Baker claims he had to stab Fabio
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: multiple times in self-defense to save his own life.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: It is a complete fabrication carefully designed to provide Monica
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: with reasonable doubt. If the jury believes Baker acted alone
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: in a spontaneous rage, Monica walks free.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: But it completely falls apart when you look at the
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: established facts of the crime scene.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Let's break down why this is ridiculous.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I mean, you don't bring an accomplice to drop off
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a love letter. You don't wear oversized heavy hoodies cinched
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: tight around your face to drop off a love letter. Right.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: You don't bring a lethal combat knife, execute a man
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: who has zero defensive wounds, somehow know exactly where to
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: find and rip the security DVR out of the wall.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: and then flee in the victim's Porsche if you were
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: acting in sudden, panicked self-defense. The logistics of the crime
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: scene destroy the love letter narrative.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: The physical and digital evidence completely contradicts his narrative. But legally,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: his letter forced the prosecution to widen their net. They
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: couldn't just rely on the circumstantial case against Monica anymore.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: They needed direct testimony. They needed to find the second
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: man seen in the surveillance video, The Accomplice, to prove
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: it was a coordinated hit, not a spontaneous fight.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: And through massive investigative effort, they do. By following a
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: complex trail of money transfers and analyzing flight data from
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Alaska to California, investigators identify the second figure running toward
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the house, Christopher Austin.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Now, Austin was a much younger man who deeply looked
• 37:46
  Speaker 2: up to Robert Baker. Baker was friends with Austin's father
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: and essentially acted as a big uncle or mentor figure
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: to him.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: Baker manipulated Austin over time, initially feeding him a story
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: that Monica was in a physically abusive relationship with Fabio
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: and desperately needed their help to escape.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, playing the hero.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: But ultimately, Baker revealed the true motive. Money. Baker told
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Austin she's loaded, she wants him gone, she's going to
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: get paid. He promised Austin a cut of the $ 2
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: million insurance money to help him execute the hit.
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: When police finally track down and interrogate Austin, he breaks.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: He admits to being part of a horrible thing. And
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the details he provides about the planning stages are absolutely
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: damning for Monica.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: What did he say?
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Austin reveals that weeks prior to the murder, Monica had
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: actually hosted him and Baker at the Cementilli home. She
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: ordered pizza, sat with them, and then gave them a
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: detailed tour of so they would be intimately familiar with
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: the layout of the house.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: Unbelievable.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: She was physically guiding her husband's hitmen through the kill zone.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: And on the actual day of the murder, Austin testified
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: that Baker received a text message confirming Fabio was home
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: alone and that she, Monica, would purposely leave the front
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: door unlocked for them.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: When Baker and Austin arrived, they checked the door and
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: it was indeed unlocked. Baker's command to Austin at the
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: door was chilling in its simplicity and preparation. He said, one, two, three, go.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: They rushed the house, headed straight for the backyard. Austin
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: admitted to stabbing Fabio once. Baker inflicted the rest of
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: the fatal targeted wounds.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: So, with Austin's confession secured, the trial of Monica Cementilli
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: finally commences. The prosecution paints a vivid, terrifying picture of
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Monica as the undisputed mastermind of the operation.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: They argue she wanted the millions in insurance money and
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: she wanted total freedom to be with Baker. But she
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: was far too cowardly to get her own hands bloody.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: The defense strategy, on the other hand, is fascinating from
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: a legal standpoint. It relies heavily on separating morality from legality.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: How do they do that?
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: In their opening statements, they concede that Monica made a fatal,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: highly immoral mistake by having an affair with Baker. They
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: admit to the jury that she is a liar, an adulteress,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: and a terrible wife.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, bold move.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: But they argue forcefully that being a bad person or
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: a bad wife does not legally make you a murderer.
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: They lean entirely on Baker's letter, claiming he acted alone
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: out of obsessive, uncontrollable jealousy.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Wait, let me challenge that. Baker is an ex-military guy,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: a convicted felon... a guy who has been in the
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: criminal system for decades. Isn't it highly likely, as the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: defense argued, that he manipulated this suburban housewife into this?
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: Why is the prosecution, and ultimately the judge, so sure
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: she was the prime mover?
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Well, it comes down to control and access.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Baker didn't have access to the alarm codes. Baker didn't
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: have the ability to ensure the front door was unlocked.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Baker didn't have the authority to send the teenage daughter
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: on a wild goose chase to clear the house. And crucially,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Baker didn't stand to inherit $ 2 million from Wella Life Insurance.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, that makes perfect sense.
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: Monica controlled the environment, she controlled the access, and she
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: controlled the ultimate payout. She provided the blueprint. Baker was
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: merely the weapon.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: That makes perfect sense. And the defense actually takes a
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: massive risk to prove their point. They call Robert Baker
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: to the stand as a defense witness.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a huge risk.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: And unbelievable. On direct examination by Monica's lawyers, he is calm, collected.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: He testifies exactly to his letter that he planned and
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: executed the murder entirely alone, that Monica had absolutely nothing
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: to do with it. But when the prosecution gets him
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: on cross-examination, it is an absolute bloodbath.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. The prosecution methodically, surgically dismantles him on the stand.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: They point out, line by line, how many times he
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: has changed his story over the years to fit the
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: shifting physical evidence.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: He visibly struggles to keep his own lies straight. He
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: is entirely discredited in front of the jury. But the
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: final nail in the coffin is when the prosecution plays
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: the secret jailhouse tapes.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, the tapes.
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: The jury hears Baker's own voice whispering through the wall,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: promising Monica he will lie for her and take the fall.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: It exposes his live testimony as a desperate, coordinated act
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: of perjury.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: After two grueling months of testimony, the case goes to
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the jury.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: And they have to weigh the word of two confessed killers.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Christopher Austin testifying for the prosecution that it was a hit,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: or Robert Baker testifying for the defense that it was
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: a solo act of rage.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: It doesn't take them long to deliberate. They return a verdict.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: Monica Sementillas found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: commit murder.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: And at sentencing, the judge hands down a sentence of
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Wow. In his
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: closing remarks from the bench, the judge leaves absolutely no
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: ambiguity about He officially names Monica as the mastermind. He
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: notes that Robert Baker, based on his history, his demeanor
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: on the stand, and his blundering execution, simply did not
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: possess the intelligence or the sophistication to plan such a well-thought-out,
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: digitally-coordinated slaughter.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Monica was the prime mover.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: The trial concludes. The legal system has officially spoken, but
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: the emotional devastation of this crime ripples outward in ways
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: that Verdict just can't fix. The victim impact statements at
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: the sentencing hearing are just incredibly raw.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: They are heartbreaking.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Fabio's sisters, Loretta and Mella, unleash years of pent-up agony.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: They address Monica directly in court, calling her a whore
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: and a murderer. They call her a demon.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: They systematically strip her of her social identity. They tell
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: her in open court that she has lost the right
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: to bear the sementilli name. telling her she should call
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: herself Mrs. Baker from now on.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Wow, that is powerful.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: They blast her for trying to live off blood money,
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: for dressing provocatively for her lover in dive bars, while
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: simultaneously playing the grieving widow on social media. It is
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: a total, righteous, public repudiation of the facade she tried
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: so hard to maintain.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: But then you hear from the daughters, and this is
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: where the tragedy becomes almost incomprehensible. Isabella... The daughter who
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: walked onto that patio and found her father's body delivers
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: a statement that is deeply, painfully conflicted.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was tough to read.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: She talks about watching old home videos just to hear
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: her dad's laugh, mourning the fact that he won't be
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: there to walk her down the aisle at her wedding.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: But in the same breath, she calls her mom her rock.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: She says she will keep fighting for her mom, stating
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: that just because she stands by her mother doesn't mean
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: she doesn't miss her father.
• 44:22
  Speaker 2: It really highlights the agonizing duality these children are forced
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: to live with for the rest of their lives. They
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: are the offspring of both the beloved murdered victim and
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: the convicted architect of his destruction.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: They are clinging to the memory of their parents dancing
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: happily in the kitchen. You know, a core childhood memory
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: that has been forever contaminated by unimaginable betrayal and violence.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? We started this deep
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: dive by talking about the assumed safety of a beautiful
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: home in a place like Woodland Hills. We think of fortresses.
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: But true safety isn't just about gated driveways, locked doors,
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: and high-tech security cameras, especially when those cameras can be
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: monitored remotely by the very person plotting your death from
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: a target checkout line. Think about the concept of a
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: shared family reality. How do children process the truth when
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: the parent they love engineered the violent destruction of their
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: other parent? How does a family ever reconstruct a sense
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: of truth, a sense of grounded reality, when the very
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: foundation of their home was built on such profound, deadly deception?
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: The judge's gavel comes down, the prison cell door locks,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: but the psychological scars of a shattered sanctuary. Those outlast
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: the trial forever.