Latest / Murder Files Unsealed / LA Wife Sentenced After Lover Kills Her Hairdresser Husband in "Brutal" Conspiracy

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LA Wife Sentenced After Lover Kills Her Hairdresser Husband in "Brutal" Conspiracy · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. This shortcut to being truly
0:04
well informed. We take that huge stack of evidence, research, analysis,
0:08
all that stuff. Yeah, all that stuff, and we boil
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it down, delivered the essential nuggets of knowledge straight to you.
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Speaker 2: Get you up to speed fast exactly.
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Speaker 1: And today we're kind of swapping worlds. We're leaving the
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high glamour scene of celebrity hairstyling for something much darker,
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the deeply shadowed valleys of betrayal.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're heading into Woodland Hills, California. You picture it, right,
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manicured lawns, these amazing luxury homes looking out over La.
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The perfect setting, almost almost, but it became the backdrop
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for well, what prosecutors actually called a tale of love,
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greed and cold blooded murder.
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Speaker 1: Wow, straight up, it's kind of that classic La paradox,
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isn't it. You've got this incredible professional success right.
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Speaker 2: Next to just complete emotional decay. The facade here didn't
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just like crack, No, it was violently ripped away and
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what was underneath a meticulous, the engineered plot.
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Speaker 1: We are unpacking the just devastating case centered on Fabio
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Sementilli and Fabio he wasn't just a stylist, No, not
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all the sources consistently call him a titan in the
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beauty industry. Forty nine years old, celebrity hairstylist. His hands
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literally shaped the looks of Hollywood royalty.
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Speaker 2: He was. They called him an inescapable phenomenon that level
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and that stature.
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Speaker 1: That's really key, isn't it to understanding just how big
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this betrayal was.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely this guy was at the absolute peak of his game. Yeah,
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and then January twenty three, twenty seventeen, his life has
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just violently ended.
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Speaker 1: Found stabbed to death, h on his own backyard patio.
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Speaker 2: And discovered this part is just awful, discovered by a
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sixteen year old daughter.
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Speaker 1: Now I can't even imagine, And.
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Speaker 2: The sources are very clear. The brutality was shocking. Multiple
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knife wounds, neck, face, chest, just horrific.
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Speaker 1: That detail alone, the daughter finding him, just agonizing. And
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you know what started looking like, okay, maybe a ran
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home invasion or robbery gone rang. The initial narrative that
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started to fall apart really fast under police scrutiny because
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the scene, the evidence, it just didn't make sense for
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a simple break in exactly.
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Speaker 2: It didn't add up. So the investigation pivoted quickly, and
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the twist the real core of what we're diving into today. Yeah,
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this wasn't random, It wasn't a stranger. It was a
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conspiracy orchestrated by the person closest to him, his wife,
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Monica Semontille and her lover.
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Speaker 1: Robert Louis Baker or her lover.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so the affair, the lust, that's part of it.
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But the underlying engine, according to the prosecution.
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Speaker 2: Pure financial strategy, cold hard cash.
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Speaker 1: We're talking about securing a massive life insurance payout, right,
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like one point six million dollars.
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Speaker 2: A huge amount, and also avoiding what would have been
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a really messy, potentially financially ruinous divorce for her high
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net worth couple California.
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Speaker 1: It would have been complicated very so this.
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Speaker 2: Was seen as well the cleaner richer option God.
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Speaker 1: Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hoschman, he didn't pull any punches,
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did he.
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Speaker 2: Not at all. He called this, and this is a
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direct quote, one of the most premeditated, calculating, devious, murder
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conspiracies he'd seen in his entire career decades.
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Speaker 1: That's that says a lot. That's the level of chilling detail.
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We need to dissect here it really is. Okay, So
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our mission today, follow the money, follow the method, follow
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the investigation. We're going to explore Fabio's rise, Monica's what
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the scent, the nuts and bolts of the plot, and
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then the trial, the dramatic trial that finally brought it
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all out into the open.
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Speaker 2: Sounds like a plan.
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Speaker 1: Let's start with Fabio. We need to establish just how
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high he'd climbed, because it makes the fall and the
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betrayal just so much harder to wrap your head around.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so let's really untack this professional life. The sources,
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like you said, they use these huge words for Fabio
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sim until his career, titan inescapable phenomenon. What was it
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about him what made him that influential in the beauty world.
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Speaker 1: Well, it wasn't just the celebrity climes cions, though he
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definitely had those later on. It was really his technical skill,
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his vision.
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Speaker 2: He really cut his teeth, you know, honed his craft
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in the salon scene in Toronto. This is back in
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the eighties and nineties, super competitive environment, and he quickly
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got noticed because he could do these amazing like architectural precision, cuts,
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the kind that looked good days later.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the ones that hold their shape exactly.
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Speaker 2: But he blended that with really avant garde boundary pushing
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coloring techniques. He wasn't following trends, he was setting them.
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Speaker 1: Ah Okay, that's a crucial difference, isn't it, being the
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trendsetter not the follower.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, and that explains why his career just took off
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like a rocket. Moving the family to LA in two
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thousand and five. That wasn't just changing zip codes. That
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was a major leap into the like the corporate stratosphere
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of the beauty industry.
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Speaker 1: Right because he took that, well a job vice President
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of Education.
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Speaker 2: That's right, wella which you know is a key part
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of Procter and Gamble Salon Professional Division P.
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Speaker 1: ANDGA, huge massive company.
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Speaker 2: So this wasn't some local gig. This was global. He
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was managing these multimillion dollar education programs flying all over
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the world, training thousands of stylists, launching product lines. Wow.
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Basically being the face and the brains of the brand internationally.
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Speaker 1: The pressure and the sheer commitment for a P and
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G global VP role like that, I mean, it's immense.
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It basically defines your entire life.
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Speaker 2: Totally constant travel, different time zones, always being on and that.
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Speaker 1: Role naturally put him in contact with the highest levels
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of celebrities exactly.
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Speaker 2: The A list client lists kind of followed from that
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visibility and reputation. The sources specifically mentioned Jennifer Aniston during her.
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Speaker 1: Big Friends Money era.
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Speaker 2: Yeah right, And you know you've made it when magazines
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like Salon Friday are crediting you specifically with popularizing a
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whole look.
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Speaker 1: What was his look?
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Speaker 2: The effortless beachwave.
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Speaker 1: Ah okay, ubiquitous.
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Speaker 2: Now totally he was seen is the guy who really
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brought that into the mainstream. So he wasn't just a
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stylist anymore. He was like an arbiter of style.
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Speaker 1: And that kind of success, that level of income, it
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funded the life they presented, right, the Seminilly family life,
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the perfect American dream facade.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. They got married back in ninety seven, had the
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two daughters, the big house in Woodland Hills, you know,
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backyard oasis, family trips to Italy. It looked perfect from
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the outside, lawless, totally flawless on the surface. And Fabio
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himself he had this reputation for being really generous mentoring
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young stylists, helping people out.
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Speaker 1: There's always a butt, isn't.
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Speaker 2: There always that external shine. It always comes at a cost,
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especially inside a marriage.
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Speaker 1: And this is where those cracks start showing up in
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that perfect venear. The reality of that global VP job,
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the crazy demanding schedule, the constant international flights, the late
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nights dealing with global teams. It meant he was just
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gone a lot physically, apps even when he was technically home.
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Speaker 2: And the sources, they really give his monica side of that.
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By twenty sixteen, she's forty five, she's managing the house,
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the kids, dabbling a bit in real estate, but fundamentally
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she felt isolated. There's this key phrase the sources use
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that just jumps out opulent but empty home.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that says it all right.
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Speaker 2: She had all the material stuff, the luxury, the financial security,
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but none of the actual emotional connection.
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Speaker 1: That's got to be incredibly tough, where the very thing
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providing the lifestyle is also the thing creating the emotional distance,
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like a.
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Speaker 2: Trap, a really isolating cycle. And the sources hint that
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people in their circle noticed there were whispers about her
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growing resentment over him always being away.
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Speaker 1: So it wasn't a secret necessarily, probably not entirely.
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Speaker 2: What's so fascinating or maybe tragic here is that the
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marriage wasn't undermined by failure. It was undermined by Fabio's
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massive success.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's yeah, the relationship.
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Speaker 2: Just frayed under these unspoken tensons. Monica's sitting there in
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this financial paradise, but it feels like an emotional desert, that.
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Speaker 1: Kind of vacuum. Well, it's the perfect place for someone.
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Speaker 2: Else to step in exactly, someone offering not just you know,
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companionship or attention, but.
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Speaker 1: Maybe an escape, an exit strategy.
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Speaker 2: Precisely, and escape from that resentment, that isolation.
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Speaker 1: It feels like that emotional emptiness just set the stage
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for something much, much worse to take root. Okay, so
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we've got Monica feeling resentful, isolated, kind of rattling around
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in this beautiful but empty house. Fabio's success has basically
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carved out this void in her life.
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Speaker 2: Right, that's the emotional landscape, And into that landscape walks
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Robert Louis.
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Speaker 1: Baker, and Baker is well, he's the complete opposite of
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Fabio's polished corporate image.
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Speaker 2: Isn't total He's fifty five, described as kind of ruggedly charming,
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works as a rackupball coach at a local gym. But his past,
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his past immediately injects this element of let's say, calculated risk,
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maybe danger.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the sources are explicit about that checkered history, is
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putting it mildly. He was a former adult film actor,
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and this is critical. A convicted sex offender, right.
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Speaker 2: Which you know, objectively should have been a gigantic red
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flag like stop signed danger zone. I'd think you would think.
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But sometimes when someone feels trapped and is desperate for
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an escape, sometimes danger looks like excitement or maybe attention
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she wasn't getting elsewhere.
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Speaker 1: So the affair starts just casually.
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Speaker 2: Pretty much. It started during a racketball lesson late twenty fifteen,
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but it escalated quickly from casual into this really torrid,
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all consuming romance. Baker was offering that immediate attention, that
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focus that Fabia, with his schedule just couldn't or maybe
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wouldn't provide.
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Speaker 1: And this wasn't just like a secret lunch date here
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and there.
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Speaker 2: Oh, No, much more intense. We're talking clandestine meetings at motels,
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stolen weekends away whenever Fabia was out of the country
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on business. They relied on his travel schedule for cover
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sneaking around deeply and the intensity. We know about it
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because investigators later pulled their text messages.
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Speaker 1: Ah, the digital trail always.
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Speaker 2: And those messages. This wasn't just physical, It was a
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deepening obsession. Monica was calling Baker her soulmate.
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Speaker 1: Soul mate, wow, yeah.
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Speaker 2: And he's making these grand promises, vowing to make her
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happy forever. They weren't just having an affair. They were
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actively planning a permanent future together.
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Speaker 1: Okay, but futures, especially the kind lived in multimillion dollar
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woodland hills homes. They cost money, exactly.
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Speaker 2: So as the relationship got more serious, the conversation maybe
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inevitably shifted from just romantic talk to cold, hard finance.
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Speaker 1: And this is where it gets really dark. This is
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the pivot point, right.
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Speaker 2: This is absolutely the pivot point the source material forces
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us to look at. Monica wasn't just venting about being
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unhappy in her marriage. She was expressing very specific, acute
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fears about what a divorce would mean for her financially.
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Speaker 1: Right, because in California, with community property.
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Speaker 2: Laws, precisely a high net worth couple like them. A
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divorce would mean splitting Fabio's considerable assets right down the middle.
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That would have seriously impacted her lifestyle or financial security.
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Would have been a huge downgrade potentially.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So suddenly that one point six million dollar life
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insurance payout it's not just a tragic what if.
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Speaker 2: No, it becomes a potential solution, a mechanism to bypass
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all the difficulty, the public messiness, the legal fees, and
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the potential financial hit of a divorce settlement while.
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Speaker 1: Also getting to be with her new soulmate.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, it wraps it all up. It transformed the motive
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from maybe just simple greed or lust into something more
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strategic financial preservation combined with immediate relationship gratification.
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Speaker 1: So the conversations turned to the policy itself.
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Speaker 2: It did that one point six million dollar policy became
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a frequent topic between them, not as a safety net
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for the family, but as a target, an.
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Speaker 1: Objective, and Baker he's the one who takes it there,
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who suggests elimination.
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Speaker 2: According to the devestigation a later testimony, Yes, Baker eager
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to kind of prove his devotion, maybe secure this lavish
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future he saw with Monica.
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Speaker 1: Hm.
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Speaker 2: Hm, He allegedly floated the idea elimination instead of divorce.
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Speaker 1: And Monica she didn't shut it down.
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Speaker 2: That's the terrifying part. She didn't recoil, she didn't report him.
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The sources indicate she leaned in. She started laying the
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groundwork almost immediately after he suggested it. Wow, that simmering
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resentment over feeling isolated, combined with the very real fear
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of losing her financial standing, it just metastasized. It became
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a willingness to actually do this, to enter into this deadly.
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Speaker 1: Packed So the agreement was made. It wasn't just talk anymore.
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Speaker 2: It seems, so it turned lust and greed into, like
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you said, a pact, a high stakes, deadly joint venture.
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Speaker 1: The speed of that, going from feeling alone in a
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big house to actively plotting murder, it's just chillin', okay.
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So the pact has made, the decision has been taken.
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Monica then shifts into what operational.
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Speaker 2: Mode pretty much, she becomes a mastermind, really leveraging everything
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she knows intimately about Fabio, about the house, about their routines.
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This wasn't going to be sloppy. It was planned to
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look like a random act, but it was going to
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be executed with inside.
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Speaker 1: Precision because she had all the key info, She.
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Speaker 2: Had all the critical operational details. As the sources put it,
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she fed Baker everything he needed, Fabio's exact daily schedule,
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the specific layout of their house, you know where things
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were entry points.
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Speaker 1: So maybe the most chilling detail.
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Speaker 2: The combination to the family safe, right.
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Speaker 1: Where spare keys were kept. That wasn't just about getting
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in the house, was it.
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Speaker 2: No, that detail is crucial. It shows the depth of
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the betrayal, but also the planning. Getting into the safe
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wasn't just about unlocking a door. It was about accessing
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the keys to Fabio's Porsche.
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Speaker 1: To stage the kar theF part of the robbery, exactly.
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Speaker 2: Proving that the robbery wasn't the real motive, It was
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the cover story and they needed the keys to make
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that convincing.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so they have the plan, the inside info, but
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they decide they need help.
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Speaker 2: Apparently to solidify the plan, maybe handle unforeseen issues. They
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brought in a third person, a guy named Christopher Austen
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who was he Austin was thirty six. He was actually
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a former probation officer from Oregon and a longtime friend
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of Baker's a.
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Speaker 1: Former probation officer involved in a murder plot.
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Speaker 2: Wow, Yeah, the irony is thick there, and Baker was
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explicit with him. Austin later testified that Baker told him
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straight up Monica wanted her husband gone.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So that's direct confirmation from a third party about
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Monica's intent, No ambiguity there. Baker wasn't just acting alone
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out of jealousy.
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Speaker 2: Not, according to Austin. He said, Baker made it clear
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he was carrying out Monica's wishes, and they didn't just
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chat about it casually. They met secretly used encrypted communication.
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Speaker 1: Method really like burner phones or apps.
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Speaker 2: The sources mentioned encrypted communication, Yeah, which just underscores how
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premeditated this whole thing was. They were trying to cover
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their tracks from the beginning.
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Speaker 1: And Monica's role on the actual night, what was her job?
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Speaker 2: Her job was crucial the alibi and access. She planned
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to pretend she was just running a quick errand you know,
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picking up dinner, classic move, right, But critically, while she
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was out, she had to make sure the front door
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was left unlocked or maybe slightly a jar, give Baker
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easy silent entry.
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Speaker 1: But the plan had a snag, right, Austin got nervous.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, big snag. Just hours before they were supposed to
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do it, Austin was apparently doing some last minute reconnaissance
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near the house with Baker, and he just he got
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cold feet.
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Speaker 1: He backed out, so Baker was left to do it alone.
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Speaker 2: He had to proceed alone. Yeah, which might have made
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him more desperate, maybe more prone to mistakes later.
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Speaker 1: And the weapon that adds another layer of just awful intimacy.
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Speaker 2: It really does. Baker didn't bring some untraceable weapon. He
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armed himself with a kitchen knife from their kitchen, a
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knife he had apparently stolen from the Seminilly home during
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a previous visit when Fabia wasn't there.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, So he used one of their own
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nimes against Fabio. That just feels violated, like desecrating the
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home itself completely.
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Speaker 2: It makes the whole act feel intensely personal, violating that
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domestic sanctuary.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's walk through the timeline. January twenty third, twenty seventeen.
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The night itself Fabia's home.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's around seven thirty pm. Fabia is just unwinding.
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He's out in the backyard patio, maybe having a glass
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of wine. Just finished a day at the Wella offices,
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completely unaware, relaxing in his own safe space.
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Speaker 1: Well, Monica, she's out on her fake dinner run.
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Speaker 2: She's out, yes, but she wasn't just driving around aimlessly.
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This is maybe the most chilling piece of evidence that
16:30
came out later.
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Speaker 1: What's up?
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Speaker 2: She was actively monitoring the situation on her phone? How
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she was watching a live feed from their home security camera.
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Speaker 1: No, she was watching him approach.
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Speaker 2: She was watching the feed confirming Baker's approaching the house,
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confirming he was getting into position before she continued with
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her alibi, making sure the coast was clear for him.
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Speaker 1: Essentially sitting in her car watching her lover go into
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her house to murder her husband on a live feed.
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I don't even have words for that is the definition
17:01
of cold blooded.
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Speaker 2: It truly is.
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Speaker 3: So.
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Speaker 2: Baker gets in silently thanks to the unlocked door. He
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finds Fabio on the patio, comes up from behind an ambush,
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total ambush. The attack was immediate, frenzied, brutal. The medical
17:15
examiner later confirmed, like we said, over twenty stab wounds
17:18
aimed to kill absolutely severed major arteries, punctured his lungs.
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This wasn't a struggle gone wrong. This was an execution
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designed to make sure Fabio had absolutely no chance to
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fight back or survive.
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Speaker 1: And then the staging Baker goes inside right.
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Speaker 2: Briefly rifles through a few things make it look like
17:34
a robbery, but his main goal inside, besides the superficial mess,
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was getting to that safe.
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Speaker 1: Using the combination Monica gave.
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Speaker 2: It exactly, gets the Porsha keys from the safe, goes
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to the garage, takes.
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Speaker 1: The car, and then just dumps it somewhere.
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Speaker 2: Abandons the luxury car miles away, all part of the
17:50
plan to support the car deft robbery story.
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Speaker 1: But you said earlier the staging was flawed.
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Speaker 2: Critically flawed. As soon as experienced detect has arrived on
17:58
seeing those flaws, just screamed staged. The focused excessive brutality
18:04
on Fabio himself, the clean entry, no four doors.
18:08
Speaker 1: Or windows, and leaving valuables behind.
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Speaker 2: Right, Fabio's Wallet's still in his pocket, electronics likely untouched.
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It just didn't fit the pattern of the typical home
18:16
invasion robbery where thieves grab easy, valuable stuff and run
18:20
it pointed towards something personal, something targeted.
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Speaker 1: And then the final awful piece. The daughter comes home.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. The sixteen year old daughter returns from a friend's house,
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walks into that scene, finds her father's that the sources
18:35
use the word mangled body. Oh, that poor girl, unimaginable trauma.
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She calls for help, calls her.
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Speaker 1: Mom, and Monica rushes back playing. The grieving widow.
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Speaker 2: Rushes back, Yeah, collapses, the performance begins. Dateline sources described
18:48
it as looking like rehearsed grief. She's telling the police,
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you know, she just wanted to be the best possible.
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Speaker 1: Comfort, well, knowing exactly what happened.
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Speaker 2: Exactly, well, internally, maybe she and Baker already thinking about
19:01
their new freedom.
19:02
Speaker 1: Okay, So the police arrive, they see the scene. What
19:05
were those immediate red flags, the things that made them think,
19:07
hang on, this isn't just a robbery.
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Speaker 2: Well, the first big one, as we mentioned, was the entry,
19:12
no force doors, no broken windows, and it secured home
19:16
in Woodland Hills. Weird. It suggests the person either had
19:20
a key or the door was left open for.
19:21
Speaker 1: Them inside job indicator right.
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Speaker 2: Second, the nature of the robbery itself, taking a high profile,
19:27
easily trackable luxury car like a Porsche, makes some sense
19:30
for joy riding maybe, but then leaving behind cash, wallets, maybe,
19:34
jewelry or electronics that were likely.
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Speaker 1: Visible doesn't fit. Thieve usually grab quick portable value exactly.
19:42
Speaker 2: Fabia's wallet still being on him was a huge inconsistency
19:46
and the sheer level of violence directed only at Fabio
19:49
while the house was only superficially disturbed. It all screamed staging.
19:53
It pointed towards the victim knowing the attacker, or the
19:56
attacker having very specific inside information.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so suspicion is there early. Meanwhile, Monica is playing
20:02
the part the grieving widow.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, full performance. She organizes this huge, lavish funeral
20:10
attended by all these big names from the beauty industry.
20:13
She gives this tearful eulogy for Fabio.
20:15
Speaker 1: But behind the scenes, what was she actually doing.
20:18
Speaker 2: She was moving fast on the money. That was one
20:20
of her biggest mistakes. Really, yeah, the sources say, almost immediately,
20:23
like way too soon, suspiciously soon, Yeah, suspiciously soon. She
20:27
starts the application process for that one point six million
20:30
dollar life insurance payout.
20:31
Speaker 1: Wow, doesn't even wait for the police investigation to conclude.
20:34
Speaker 2: Apparently, not that eagerness, that immediate focus on the cash
20:37
reward when she should theoretically be consumed by grief. That
20:41
definitely raised eyebrows.
20:42
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, she and Baker are still communicating.
20:45
Speaker 2: They are trying to be careful using coded messages, but
20:49
investigators later found communications where they were basically celebrating their freedom,
20:53
talking about their future together. More nails in the coffin.
20:57
Speaker 1: It's always the communication trail. So the police are so
21:00
suspicious Monica's acting weird about the money. But what was
21:03
the actual breakthrough? What connected the dots definitively to Robert Baker.
21:09
Speaker 2: That took a little time. It came about five months later,
21:11
June twenty seventeen, and it came from a tip someone
21:15
they knew, Yeah, an acquaintance from the racquetball club where
21:17
Baker worked. This person new Baker had apparently seen him
21:20
with Monica, maybe picked up on the intensity of their relationship.
21:24
Speaker 1: And put two and two together. After the murder, seems.
21:27
Speaker 2: Like it, they reached out to detectives and that one
21:30
single tip that was enough. It gave investigators the probable
21:34
cause they needed to really focus in, get search warrants
21:37
for Baker, for Monica, for their phones, their homes.
21:40
Speaker 1: Okay, Let's talk about the evidence they found, because this
21:43
is where modern forensics really blows these cases wide open. Right.
21:47
You think you've deleted something, but it's never really gone.
21:51
Speaker 2: Not to the experts. The evidence they seized was absolutely damning,
21:55
and it came from multiple angles like what. Okay, first,
21:58
the old fashioned stuff, physical love letters found documenting the
22:03
affair pretty clearly.
22:04
Speaker 1: Okay, it proves the affair, proves the.
22:05
Speaker 2: Affair establishes a relationship. But the real gold mine was digital.
22:10
They recovered deleted text messages, the.
22:13
Speaker 3: Ones where they called each other's soulmates, those and others
22:16
messages that explicitly detailed the affair, the obsession, and critically,
22:21
messages that indicated the planning stages of the murder plot.
22:25
Speaker 2: Conversations about Fabio being in the way.
22:27
Speaker 1: That's huge. That links the affair directly to the idea
22:30
of getting rid of him.
22:31
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and the police didn't stop there. They got even
22:34
more direct evidence from Monica herself. How they ran a
22:37
police sting operation while she was in jail, likely after
22:40
being arrested. Based on the other evidence, Okay, they recorded
22:43
her conversations and in one of those tape jail house calls,
22:47
discussing the plot, she referred to Baker specifically as my
22:50
confidant in the whole.
22:52
Speaker 1: Thing, my confidante in the plot.
22:54
Speaker 2: BINGO. That single phrase, captured on tape, basically sealed the
22:59
conspiracy charge. It completely destroyed any defense argument that Baker
23:04
acted alone out of jealousy or that she was just
23:06
some passive participant or victim. She admitted he was her
23:09
partner in it.
23:10
Speaker 1: Okay, so you've got the suspicious scene, the motive, the
23:13
digital evidence, her own words on tape. What else?
23:17
Speaker 2: The final piece of the puzzle the third conspirator, Christopher Austen,
23:22
the friend of Baker's who got cold feet. Yeah, he flipped.
23:25
He made a deal with the prosecution.
23:27
Speaker 1: What kind of deal.
23:27
Speaker 2: He pleaded guilty to second degree murder, accepted a sentence
23:31
of sixteen years to life, but in exchange he had
23:34
to testify. He agreed to testify truthfully against both Monica
23:38
and Robert Baker.
23:39
Speaker 3: Wow.
23:39
Speaker 1: So now you have an inside witness confirming the entire plot,
23:42
confirming Monica's role as the instigator.
23:44
Speaker 2: Exactly with Austin's testimony added to the physical evidence, the
23:48
financial records proving motive, the recovered texts and Monica's own
23:52
recorded admission. The case went from just strong to absolute airtight.
23:56
Speaker 1: They had him okay, So the evidence is overwhelming, but
23:59
the legal process it dragged on for a while, didn't it. Appeals,
24:03
COVID delays.
24:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, it took years to finally get to trial, especially
24:07
for Monica. Baker's case was resolved a bit sooner in
24:10
twenty twenty three.
24:11
Speaker 1: What happened with Baker? Did he go to trial?
24:14
Speaker 2: No, he cut a deal too, but not for testimony.
24:17
He pleaded no contest in July twenty twenty three.
24:20
Speaker 1: No contest. Let's clarify that for people listening, what does
24:22
no contest actually mean? Is it different from pleading guilty?
24:26
Speaker 2: It is slightly different Legally, no contest or the Latin
24:30
term nolo contendere basically means the defendant isn't fighting the
24:34
charges anymore. They accept the punishment as if they were guilty.
24:37
Speaker 1: But they don't actually admit guilt on.
24:39
Speaker 2: The record exactly. They don't formally admit wrongdoing in that
24:42
criminal court setting. Sometimes defendants do this in high profile
24:46
cases to try and limit their liability and potential civil
24:48
lawsuits later on.
24:50
Speaker 1: Like a wrongful death suit from the family right.
24:53
Speaker 2: By not admitting guilt in the criminal case, it can
24:56
sometimes make the civil case slightly harder for the plaintiffs. Oh,
25:00
it usually doesn't stop it entirely. But for Baker's criminal case,
25:04
the outcome was the same as a guilty plea, which
25:06
was first degree murder conspiracy plus those special circumstances murder
25:11
for financial gain, murder by lying in wait. The sentence
25:14
was automatic life in prison without the possibility of parole.
25:20
Done deal.
25:20
Speaker 1: Okay, so Baker's locked away for life. But then he
25:24
shows up at Monica's trial and.
25:27
Speaker 2: Testifies he does. It was pretty shocking. He gets on
25:30
the stand during her trial, even though his own fate
25:32
was already sealed, and says what he completely changes his tune.
25:35
He claims sole responsibility, stands up there and basically says,
25:38
I did it. I murdered him because I wanted her.
25:41
Speaker 1: It was all me whoa trying to save at the
25:43
last minute, taking the fall entirely.
25:45
Speaker 2: It looked like a desperate, maybe possessive, last ditch effort
25:48
to shield his soulmate, right, claiming it was all just
25:52
his jealous rage, his desire for her that drove him,
25:55
trying to make it sell like she had nothing to
25:56
do with the planning.
25:57
Speaker 1: But the prosecution wasn't buying it for a second at all.
26:00
Speaker 2: They immediately labeled it perjury lying under oath.
26:03
Speaker 1: Why were they so sure he was lying? I mean,
26:05
maybe he did act mostly alone out of obsession.
26:08
Speaker 2: Because they had evidence proving he was lying. Even then,
26:12
they presented more jailhouse calls communications between Baker and Monica
26:16
after their arrests, sharing what showing them still actively coordinating,
26:21
plotting alibis together, trying to get their stories straight, even
26:24
from behind bars. So his dramatic courtroom confession, the jury
26:29
saw right through it. It looked exactly like what it
26:32
probably was, a continuation of the conspiracy, a final failed
26:37
attempt to protect the mastermind.
26:39
Speaker 1: Okay, so Baker's testimony bombs Monica's trial itself.
26:42
Speaker 2: It lasted a while, Yeah, it was a long ten
26:44
weeks started in January twenty twenty five. The prosecutor, Deputy
26:48
da Beth Silverman. She had a mountain of evidence to present, and.
26:51
Speaker 1: She really hammered home the motive relentlessly.
26:54
Speaker 2: She painted this picture of Monica as cold, calculating, manipulative.
26:59
Silverman emphasized again and again that this wasn't just a
27:02
crime of passion skilling over. It was explicitly planned for
27:06
financial gain as well as for their future together.
27:09
Speaker 1: And the evidence she used what was the most powerful
27:12
stuff in court.
27:13
Speaker 2: The visual evidence was incredibly impactful. Showing the jury that
27:17
video footage.
27:18
Speaker 1: From the security camera.
27:19
Speaker 2: Feed, Yes, the footage of Monica sitting in her car
27:22
monitoring that live feed on her phone as Baker approached
27:25
the house. That piece of physical evidence was just devastating.
27:30
It proved her direct, active participation in the operational part
27:33
of the murder. She wasn't just wishing him gone, she
27:36
was facilitating and watching it happen.
27:37
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. What about her defense? What could they even argue?
27:40
Speaker 2: They tried? Her attorney, Leonard Levine, argued the narrative that
27:44
Baker was the obsessed one, that he acted alone in
27:46
a jealous rage, and that Monica was essentially his duped
27:50
victim used by him.
27:51
Speaker 1: But how did they counter all the financial evidence, the
27:54
insurance stuff that.
27:55
Speaker 2: Was the problem for the defense. The prosecution had meticulously
27:59
docus men at her financial research. They showed the jury
28:02
her web search history, looking up details about Fabio's life
28:06
insurance policies, pay out timelines how it all worked before
28:09
the murder, Long before the murder, proving she was focused
28:12
on the money, on the mechanics of accessing it well
28:14
in advance, just completely undercut the duped victim narrative. The
28:19
digital financial trail was just too strong.
28:21
Speaker 1: So the jury goes out to deliberate three days.
28:23
Speaker 2: They deliberated for three days, ten men, two women on
28:26
the jury, and they came.
28:28
Speaker 1: Back with a verdict guilty.
28:29
Speaker 2: Guilty April eleventh, twenty twenty five. Convicted of first free murder,
28:34
convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, and crucially, the jury
28:38
found both special circumstances to be true, murder for financial
28:42
gain and murder by.
28:44
Speaker 1: Lying in wait, which meant the sentence.
28:46
Speaker 2: Was mandatory life without pearl. Sam's bigger. The sentencing hearing
28:50
happened a couple months later in June twenty twenty five,
28:53
and Judge Ronald S. Cohen formally imposed that maximum sentence.
28:57
Speaker 1: And the judge had some pretty harsh words for her,
28:59
didn't he He didn't just rote stamp the sentence.
29:01
Speaker 2: No, he was incredibly scathing. He made it crystal clear.
29:05
He saw through the defense's attempts to minimize her role.
29:09
He explicitly rejected any idea that she was just an
29:12
accessory or somehow less culpable than Baker.
29:14
Speaker 1: What did he call her?
29:16
Speaker 2: He branded Monica the mastermind in this conspiracy to commit
29:19
murder and the prime mover in this execution of a
29:23
human being. Strong words from a bench. He laid the
29:27
responsibility squarely at her feet, saying that while Baker might
29:30
have wielded the.
29:31
Speaker 1: Knife, she was the engine behind it all exactly.
29:34
Speaker 2: The intelligence, the planning, the financial motive that all came
29:37
from her.
29:38
Speaker 1: In the judge's view, he even used Baker's own testimony
29:41
against her. Didn't he the part where Baker tried to
29:43
take all the blame.
29:44
Speaker 2: Yes, it was quite a judicial move. Judge Cohen directly
29:48
referenced Baker's attempt to shield Monica and basically said it
29:51
proved the opposite. He stated flatly that Baker did not
29:54
have the intelligence to plan such a brutal, well thought
29:56
out slaughter.
29:57
Speaker 1: Wow, So he used Baker's supposed li lack of intelligence
30:01
to reinforce Monica's role as the planner.
30:03
Speaker 2: Precisely, he dismissed Baker's courtroom confession as not credible and
30:08
argued that the complexity, the access, the financial motive all
30:13
pointed to Monica Simonelli being the architect of the entire plot.
30:16
Speaker 1: And then came the victim impact statements. Fabia's family finally
30:19
getting to speak.
30:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, those must have been just gut wrenching moments in
30:23
the courtroom. His sister, Lorettapiccolo, spoke directly to Monica, didn't
30:28
hold back.
30:29
Speaker 1: What did she say?
30:30
Speaker 2: She called Monica a demon, said she had betrayed all
30:34
of us, and she highlighted the specific cruelty of how
30:37
the murder was carried out, implying Monica orchestrated it so
30:40
her own children might be the ones to find their fathers.
30:44
The term used was lifeless body, just brutal honesty about
30:47
the pain caused.
30:48
Speaker 1: And the daughters they spoke to they were young adults
30:50
by then, they did.
30:51
Speaker 2: Both daughters addressed the court tearfully. The sources mentioned the
30:56
elder daughter speaking about her lost innocence, the trauma, the
30:59
younger daughter talking about how her mother become a monster
31:01
in her eye.
31:01
Speaker 1: Oh, that's just the ultimate cost, isn't it. Not just
31:04
the prison sense, but destroying her own family or relationship
31:06
with her children completely.
31:08
Speaker 2: She threw literally everything away, her husband, the opulent lifestyle
31:12
she was supposedly trying to protect, and most tragically, any
31:15
future relationship with their daughters, all for what one point
31:19
six million dollars and a future with a convicted sex
31:22
offender who was also going to prison for life.
31:24
Speaker 1: The sentence absolutely reflected the depth of that betrayal, the calculation,
31:29
the greed.
31:31
Speaker 2: So the sentencing finally brought an end to this incredibly long,
31:34
painful legal process. For Fabio's family, especially his sisters like
31:38
Marella Rota, there must have been some sense of relief, closure,
31:44
a degree of closure, definitely. They spoke to the media afterwards.
31:47
Marel Roda called the sentencing day the most beautiful day
31:50
for our family, saying it finally allowed their brother Fabio
31:53
to truly rest in peace just as finally served.
31:56
Speaker 1: But closure doesn't erase the damage, does it, especially for
31:59
the daughters.
32:00
Speaker 2: No, the impact is permanent. Reports indicate the daughters have
32:03
actually relocated moved away from LA. They're rebuilding their lives,
32:07
leaning on extended family and understandably undergoing extensive therapy trying
32:12
to process the absolute trauma of losing their father to
32:15
a brutal murder and their mother to the prison system
32:18
as the architect of it all.
32:19
Speaker 1: It's just devastating on every level, and the conspirators all.
32:22
Speaker 2: Serving their time. Monica Sementelli life without parole, Robert Baker
32:27
life without parole, Christopher Austen serving his sentence of sixteen
32:30
years to life for his role based on his.
32:32
Speaker 1: Plea deal, and Deputy da Silverman's final word on it
32:36
really sums it up, doesn't it.
32:37
Speaker 2: It does. She reiterated that this was plain and simple,
32:41
a senseless murder driven solely by greed and lust. The
32:45
emotional vacuum that existed in that marriage wasn't filled with
32:48
communication or counseling. It was filled with malice and ultimately
32:52
funded by an insurance policy.
32:54
Speaker 1: It's such a stark case because it takes that glittering
32:56
world of Hollywood glamour, celebrity success, the peak of that
33:00
la dream, and slams it right into the grim, cold
33:04
reality of calculated spousal betrayal. We followed the plot, the money,
33:10
the evidence, but the sources they keep kind of circling
33:13
back to that core issue, don't they trust? Or the
33:16
complete lack of it simmering beneath the surface of that
33:20
beautiful woodland Hills life.
33:21
Speaker 2: Exactly how long was that resentment building? How does a
33:25
marriage get to a point where murder seems like a viable,
33:28
even preferable financial strategy compared to divorce.
33:31
Speaker 1: It makes you wonder about the warning signs. Could anything
33:34
have been done differently earlier?
33:36
Speaker 2: And that leads us right into our final provocative thought
33:39
for you, the listener to maybe molover. The sources really
33:42
emphasize Monica's isolation, her resentment fueled by Fabia's demanding career,
33:45
his constant travel for wella those late nights. Okay, so
33:49
we know the job kept him physically absent a lot,
33:52
But beyond just the hours logged, what else might have
33:55
been going on?
33:55
Speaker 1: You mean, like deeper issues?
33:57
Speaker 2: Yeah? What specific? Maybe non material things, unspoken tensions, perhaps
34:04
a fundamental misalignment in what they valued, or maybe a
34:07
persistent failure by Fabio caught up in his success to
34:11
really acknowledge Monica's contribution, her own needs, her emotional life
34:15
beyond just managing the household. Could those factors have been
34:18
the crucial early warning signs.
34:20
Speaker 1: Signs that the emotional distance was becoming critical?
34:23
Speaker 2: Exactly could better communication, maybe seeking professional help, have bridged
34:27
that gap? Before the resentment became so toxic, so entrenched,
34:32
that it literally created the opening for this deadly financially
34:35
motivated pact with Baker to seem like an actual option.
34:39
Speaker 1: It really highlights that fragility of trust, doesn't it, And
34:42
how quickly an unaddressed emotional void can become fertile ground
34:45
for truly destructive intentions.
34:47
Speaker 2: A deeply sobering thought for sure, especially about that potential
34:50
dark side of intense professional success and the intimacy it
34:54
can sometimes neglect.
34:55
Speaker 1: Indeed, thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
34:57
We'll see you next time.