Wife of L.A. hair mogul convicted in husband's murder
Monica Sementelli was convicted Friday of sending her lover to kill her husband, celebrity hairstylist Fabio Sementelli, in a brutal stabbing at the couple's luxury Woodland Hills home eight years ago.
Sementelli, 51, gasped and broke down in tears, clutching her hands over her mouth as the verdict was read. She will face life in prison without the possibility of parole at sentencing after being convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Fabio Sementelli was found dead at the couple's home in January 2017 and police initially thought he was killed in a botched home invasion, pointing to a spate of so-called 'knock knock burglars' that had been ransacking expensive homes in the San Fernando Valley at the time. The hair moguel suffered multiple wounds to his face, jawline, neck, chest, and thigh. But detectives were puzzled as to why an $8,000 Rolex was left on Sementelli's wrist at the crime scene.
Blood found at the scene was soon linked to Robert Baker, a convicted sex offender and former porn star later who began an affair with Monica Sementelli after serving as her racquetball coach at a West Hills fitness club. While prosecutors have painted Sementelli as the 'mastermind' behind the slaying as she stood to gain $1.6 million in life insurance payouts, Baker took the stand during the two-and-a-half month trial and insisted he killed the hair mogul for love.
'I murdered him because I wanted her,' Baker testified last month. 'She had nothing to do with it.'
Baker was previously convicted of Fabio's murder and sentenced to life without parole.
Video evidence presented by Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman, however, showed Monica Sementilli watching a live feed of the area shortly before the murder to ensure Baker had a clear path to her husband. Veteran LAPD homicide detective Mitzi Roberts also testified Monica Sementilli and Baker exchanged 95 messages through an encrypted messaging app called Viber on the day of the killing and 180 messages the day before.
While Monica Sementelli has denied all wrongdoing and publicly grieved her husband, an executive at the hair-care company Wella, she was involved in a torrid affair with Baker. The pair sexted during her husband's funeral, according to Silverman, who said the newly-widowed Monica even sent nudes to Baker during the service in Toronto.
Baker's accomplice, Christopher Austin, also testified for the prosecution last month and insisted Baker told him Monica directed the murder. Austin, a former Oregon probation officer, said he never spoke to Monica directly but Baker made clear his lover wanted her husband 'gone.'
'Everything he did he did after he got a text message, which told me he was talking to her via text message.' Austin testified. 'I did not hear him talk to her on the phone ... but everything happened in sequence.'
Defense attorney Leonard Levine has argued that prosecutors are focusing too much on the sordid details of his client's affair, which is not itself evidence she plotted a killing.
'Adultery is not murder. ... Everything she did was to protect the affair, not to cover up the murder,' he said.
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