A woman convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for masterminding the killing of her husband -- a prominent hairdresser -- at the home they shared with their two daughters in Woodland Hills was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"In listening to the evidence in this matter, I do find that defendant was the mastermind in this conspiracy to commit murder," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coen said in rejecting a defense bid seeking to have Monica Sementilli sentenced to the lesser term of 25 years to life in prison on the conspiracy charge rather than the murder charge on which she was also convicted April 11. "Defendant was the prime mover in this execution of a human being and consequently I am utilizing my discretion to impose the more serious of the sentences."
The judge said Sementilli's lover, Robert Baker, "did not have the intelligence to plan such a brutal, well-thought out slaughter."
Baker, now 63, pleaded no contest in July 2023 to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and admitted the two special circumstance allegations. He is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole for the Jan. 23, 2017, stabbing death of 49-year-old Fabio Sementilli in the family's backyard, shortly before he and his wife were set to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.
Baker, a convicted sex offender and former adult movie actor who was called to the stand during the defense's portion of Sementilli's trial, maintained that the mother of two had nothing to do with the plan to kill her husband. He said he formed his own plan to murder Fabio Sementilli, saying, "I wanted her to be around me and with me more -- like all the time."
A third defendant, Christopher Austin, who was working as a parole and probation officer dealing with at-risk youth in Oregon at the time of his arrest last year, pleaded no contest in January to second-degree murder and was sentenced in May to 16 years to life in state prison as a result of a plea deal reached with prosecutors.
Austin, now 39, testified that his longtime friend, Baker, told him that Sementilli wanted her husband dead, but Austin acknowledged that he did not personally speak to her about the crime.
The 10-man, two-woman jury deliberated about eight hours and 45 minutes over a three-day period before finding Sementilli, 53, guilty of murder and conspiracy, and also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait.
Urging the judge to reject the defense's proposal of the lesser prison term for Sementilli, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman called the killing a "completely senseless murder driven by the defendant's greed and her lust."
"... Without her and her plotting, her planning the murder of her husband, he would be alive today," she said. "She and her lover showed Fabio Sementilli no mercy. She's not deserving of any mercy of this court."
One of Sementilli's attorneys, Leonard Levine, countered, "As far as I'm concerned, this case does not happen, this terrible murder does not occur without Mr. Baker coming into her life." He said his client has suffered the consequences and will continue to suffer the consequences for the choice she made to engage in an extramarital affair with Baker.
In a statement released after the sentencing, the defense lawyer said she "continues to maintain that she did not commit this crime and is innocent."
In a statement released shortly after the sentencing, the defendant's family said they want to express their "unwavering love, support and belief in her innocence" and said they "know in our hearts that Monica did not commit this crime."
"We remain steadfast in our commitment to proving her innocence and bringing the truth to light. This is not the end of her story. We will exhaust every legal avenue available to ensure that justice is truly served," her family said in the statement.
Meanwhile, two of Fabio Sementilli's sisters were among those who spoke in court on his behalf and urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence.
Loretta Picillo called what happened "an unimaginable betrayal," saying "we treated her like family and she betrayed all of us."
"... That day she told Fabio she was going out to get dinner and left the front door unlocked so that her lover and accomplice could enter the home," she said. "Only a demon could orchestrate the murder of a loving husband and savagely time it so her own daughter would come home to find her father's lifeless body lying in a pool of blood."
Mirella Sementilli called her brother a beacon of love, light and loyalty and said his wife is a "demon" who wouldn't even look at her in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
"She traded lust for love, family for filth, decency for destruction. She masterminded this egregious murder on my brother. She resorted to murder to make room for Baker," Mirella Sementilli said, demanding in court that the defendant "surrender" her married name.
Luigi Sementilli, the victim's son from his first marriage, said outside court the sentence was "exactly what we'd hoped for" and called it "the just outcome."
The couple's two daughters were also among those who spoke in court, with both expressing their sadness over his death while maintaining that they believe in their mother's innocence.
"I want to keep his memory alive. ... He was the best dad anyone could ask for," the pair's oldest daughter, Gessica, said in an emotional statement in which she vowed to "keep fighting for justice, for the truth and my mom."
"We hope that an appeal will be granted and that true justice will prevail," Gessica Sementilli said.
The couple's youngest daughter, Isabella, who discovered her father's body in their backyard, called her father's death the biggest loss of her life and said she is now grieving the loss of two parents. She said she will continue her father's legacy in the hair industry while maintaining the hope that "justice will prevail over time."
During the prosecution's closing argument, Silverman told jurors "it's very obvious that the defendant, along with her lover, murdered Fabio Sementilli along with assistance from Christopher Austin," and that the murder was "committed for financial gain as well as for other motivations -- in other words, for their future together."
She also urged jurors to find true the lying-in-wait special circumstance allegation, saying the woman's husband was "ambushed based on a secret plan or design that the defendant and her lover put into place," and that Austin backed out of an effort to kill the victim a night earlier as he was picking up a take-out order at a restaurant.
"She's the one who destroyed so many lives and their entire family," said Silverman, who called the murder plot the ultimate act of "betrayal."
Sementilli's attorney countered that his client was "guilty of a lot of things -- stupidity, duplicity, lying, adultery" -- but not murder.
"She was having an affair with someone who murdered her husband," Levine told jurors. "But she did not commit or orchestrate or conspire to commit the murder of her husband."
"... She has suffered for her choices -- and they were horrible," the defense attorney said. "But she's not guilty of first-degree murder, of destroying a family, putting her daughter in danger of being murdered when she could have controlled the whole thing."
Levine described Baker as a "Svengali," saying that Sementilli made the "biggest mistake of her life" in becoming involved in an extramarital affair with him.
"Nothing good came from Mr. Baker, but he's gone for life," Levine said of Baker's plea and subsequent life prison sentence. "Now they want to complete the circle and send her away."
Sementilli has remained behind bars since her arrest in June 2017, when she and Baker were charged with murdering her husband. A conspiracy charge was subsequently added against the pair. The two were indicted just over two months later on the same charges.
Jurors heard a series of courthouse lockup recordings of conversations between Sementilli and Baker, including one in Van Nuys shortly after they were taken into custody. Baker can be heard repeatedly expressing his love for Sementilli and telling her that he's "all in" and that he thinks they should get married.
"Just because we fell in love does not make us criminals," Sementilli can be heard telling Baker at one point.
During his time on the stand in Sementilli's trial, Baker said, "I murdered him (Fabio Sementilli) because I wanted her."
"Well, you kind of had her already, but not the way you wanted or what?" Levine asked.
"Absolutely," Baker responded. "I didn't have her the way I wanted her."
Baker said he and his lover had talked about whether she was going to leave her husband and that "it didn't seem like it was really going to happen."
When asked if Sementilli had "anything to do with the planning or the execution of the plan to kill Fabio Sementilli," he responded, "No."
"You're sure?" Levine asked.
"I'm positive," he said.
Austin has also remained behind bars since his arrest.
After he was taken into custody late last year, Austin told a jailhouse operative that "she was supposed to get a lot of money if we did it," saying Baker -- whom he considered "family" -- told him that she was "loaded" and "wants him gone." He said he mentioned insurance money because Baker had told him about it.
Austin testified that Baker paid for his airline flight to Los Angeles and drove him the same night to a shopping center after getting a text message that Sementilli was going to send her husband out that night. He said he couldn't go forward with the attack, but said the two men went the next day to the Sementilli family home to commit the killing after Baker received a text message.
"He said the front door should be open, meaning unlocked. He told me, he said, She's gonna leave the door open," Austin told jurors.
"... Did he tell you who she was?" the prosecutor asked.
"The defendant," Austin responded, saying that the door was "indeed unlocked."
He said Baker told him the victim should be on the back patio and that the victim didn't see him until Baker got close to him and tried to yell then.
"Baker covered his mouth and started stabbing him," he said. "I covered his eyes and stabbed him once."
Under cross-examination, the prosecution witness acknowledged that he didn't see any text messages from Sementilli to Baker.
When asked why he didn't say no to Baker about being involved in the crime, he said, "He was like family and he said that his girlfriend didn't want him (the victim) around any more."
Sementilli is expected to appeal her conviction.
