After more than eight years of being stabbed to death on the terrace of his Woodland Hills Home, one of the two killers told a jury this week that the stylist's legacy “wanted him to die.”
Christopher Austin, convicted of second-degree murder and second-degree murder in the killing of Fabio Semetelli, told jurors that he and Robert Louis Baker died after stabbing the hairstylist in his wife Monica Semetelli, and he left the couple’s door.
Austin, who testified as a star witness to the prosecution during his wife’s murder trial, said he never heard the defendant directly, but her lover Baker told him she wanted her husband to “leave.”
“Everything he did after receiving the text message told me he was talking to her via text message,” Austin testified. “I didn't hear him talking to her on the phone…but it all happened.”
Monica Sementelli's face barely showed up when Austin spoke, but she did stare at him.
Austin revealed that Baker called Monica Sementelli his “girl” and said she was in a “abuse” relationship, “wanting him [Fabio Sementilli] Leaving. “But after the stabbing on January 23, 2017, Baker told Austin that the killing was for “insurance.”
Undated shots by Monica Sementilli and Robert Baker.
(LAPD)
Prosecutors claim that Monica Sementelli was the “master” of the plot that killed her husband, the husband of Canadian hairstylist and executive Giant Wella. He said her goal is to make money for $1.6 million in life insurance and avoid complications of divorce. Baker, 62, a convicted sex offender and former porn star, met Monica Sementelli at West Hills La Fitness and became her lover.
Austin's testimony is by far the most annoying testimony involved in his wife. Baker and Monica Sementelli admit that they are lovers. But since Baker pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder case in January 2017 and received a lifetime term without parole, he insisted that Monica Sementelli was not part of the plot.
Baker admitted last year that he killed a celebrity hairdresser and left him on the back terrace in a robbery originally believed to be a family invasion. Until last October, authorities arrested Oregon probation officer Austin, the second accomplice who fled Baker with him was unknown.
Prior to the arrest, Baker's position on his own action made Monica Senetel's prosecution very difficult.
In court, Austin made the first record of the murder, saying they walked up a tree-lined street in Woodland Hills to the couple's doorstep. “He told me… she was leaving the door,” Austin said.
Before entering, Baker said to Austin, “By three counts, you’re going to turn him out.” Then, they walked through the kitchen and found the hairstylist sitting on the back terrace, his wife told Baker that he often called business calls.
Austin testified that when Baker opened the terrace door, the deceased had never seen them come. “He opened the door and held his mouth so that he would not scream.” Austin cried. “He started stabbing him.” Then the men fled to Porsche, and Baker knew it was the garage.
One minute after the man drove away, his daughter Isabella Fabio discovered her father's bloody body and called 911, where an operator guided her to desperately but failed to try to save him.
Her mother cried while playing the recording of the 911 phone in court.
Austin said they knew the layout of the house because he went a few months ago. He met Monica Sementilli at La Fitness in Woodland Hills, where she invited Baker and Austin to her home, where she served the pizza and showed them the back patio.
Prosecutors say the killing is not their first attempt to kill a hairstylist. The day before, Monica Sementilli allegedly told Baker that she was sending her husband to the store and they were trying to target the goal.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Leonard Levine repeatedly explained that he had never heard of the murder directly from Monica Sementelli. He also asked Austin to explain how he changed his story when he was initially detained and told police that they were only going to cover up the hairstylist with roughness.
Levin also repeatedly asked Austin if he had obtained a deal, and Austin replied. Austin faces 16 years in prison next month for second-degree murder and personal use of a knife.
In the opening remarks, co-defense attorney Blair Berk had “absolutely no reason to not want her husband Fabio to die.” Burke said there was no evidence of her client’s plot. “No statements, no words, no recorded phone calls, no records,” she said.
Burke said the evidence showed that the widow had an affair with Robert Baker, and it turned out that Robert Baker decided to kill her husband.” Burke said her client “deceived Robert Baker” not to do so.
Initially, when LAPD responded to the house and found Sementilli stabbed to death, investigators believed it was the work of the so-called door-knocking snowflake thieves that plagued parts of the San Fernando Valley. Sementilli had seven sharp wounds on her face, chin, neck, chest and thighs, and two small wounds on her left arm.
LAPD investigators testified that the tycoon's $8,000 Rolex watch remained on his wrist while the home's master bedroom was looted, catching the interest of detectives. Video surveillance captured two men in masked hoodies jogging home before killing. Afterwards, the men drove to Porsche in Sementilli and were recorded on another surveillance camera when the vehicle was 5 miles away.
About a month after the crime, LAPD detective Ryan Verna testified that Baker's DNA was tied to blood evidence related to the crime. Baker's DNA was convicted in 1993 for the conviction and lustful acts of minors and forced to register as a sex offender, and had been previously arrested.
Investigators also noticed that the killer deleted the house's video recording system, which was not easy to find. When investigators tied widows to former porn stars, a forensic technologist testified that he collected instructions from Baker on how to access home security DVR.
Prosecutor Beth Silverman presented evidence that she argued that Monica Sementelli watched the area’s live feed shortly before the killing to ensure Baker had a clear path to her husband.
lapd det. Mitzi Roberts testified that his wife was so distracted that she almost missed the exit of her target, showing jurors a security video on the Grand Court screen. She said Monica Sementilli and Baker exchanged 95 messages through encrypted app Viber and 180 messages on the day of the killing.
After the two were arrested in June 2017, Monica Sementilli told Baker in Van Nuys Lapd jail that she was “feared” that they would find Vib on their phone.
Roberts eventually linked Austin to crime after posting a Facebook message three days after seeing the killing. She tied the two together via phone and bank records. Baker gave Austin money, a ticket to fly from Anchorage to Los Angeles before the killing, and a roll of gold coins after the killing.
For weeks, LAPD robbery homicide investigators have spied on widows and bakers when they became suspects, and watched them together in cars, bars, comedy clubs and on a luxury trip to Las Vegas.
Investigators testified that about 200 sexual graphic photos and videos of Monica Sementilli and Monica Sementilli and Baker were found in various electronic media outlets belonging to the pair. Investigators tell jurors
Detectives pulled the two over Monica Sementell's Black Mustang, Baker was on the steering wheel and the police placed them in the back of the police car. The video recording system allegedly captured Monica telling Baker, “Don’t talk.”
During that arrest, a prepaid phone from T-Mobile was found in her wallet. An investigator told jurors that it was one of two people Baker bought a few days after the killing.
Even in the years after prison, they still communicate with letters. The sheriff's prison supervisor testified that Baker also tried to leave coded kites in the court stairwell used by the widow, a secret communication method for prisoners using handwritten binary codes. The juror saw a video that said Baker left behind some videos hidden in the stair rails.
