Case of Woodland Hills wife charged with hairdresser husband's murder moves to jury
The case against a Woodland Hills woman who is charged with masterminding the murder of her famed hairdresser husband was handed to a jury on Wednesday.
Monica Sementilli and her lover were arrested five months after her husband, Fabio Sementilli, was beaten and stabbed to death on Jan. 23, 2017, in the couple's upscale home.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge turned the case over to the jury following about four days of closing arguments in the trial of the 53-year-old woman charged with murder and conspiracy.
Sementilli's murder charge includes the special circumstances of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait.
Her lover, Robert Baker,62, pleaded no contest in July 2023 to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and admitted the two special circumstance allegations.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which is the same sentence Sementilli could face if she is convicted as charged.
Baker testified that his lover and wife of the victim had nothing to do with the planning or the murder of Fabio Sementilli.
Fabio Sementilli was an established hairdresser who served as vice president of education for Wella, the salon professional division of Procter and Gamble, according to Salon Friday magazine.
The prosecution alleged that the two conspired to kill him, with plans to obtain the husband's life insurance proceeds, around $1.6 million.
A third defendant, Christopher Austin, pleaded no contest in January to second-degree murder and is facing 16 years to life in state prison in connection with 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 said that he did not personally speak to her about the crime.
In closing arguments of Sementilli's murder trial, defense lawyer Leonard Levine told the downtown Los Angeles jury Tuesday that his client was guilty of "stupidity, duplicity, lying, adultery" -- but not murder. "She was having an affair with someone who murdered her husband," Levine said. "But she did not commit or orchestrate or conspire to commit the murder of her husband."
Wrapping up her closing argument Monday morning, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman told jurors that "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."
Fabio Sementilli was 49 years old when he died. He and Monica Sementilli had two daughters together.