The ju judge convicted her on Friday at the trial of a woman who accused her husband of being the mastermind at a home she shared with her two daughters in Woodland Hills.
Ten and two female ju apprentices deliberated for just over eight hours on Wednesday and Thursday after being handed over a lawsuit against Monica Semenrili. The 53-year-old woman is charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with her husband Fabio, January 23, 2017, and stabs her death in the family’s backyard just before the couple celebrates their 20th wedding anniversary.
The murder charges include financial benefits on standby and special circumstances of murder for murder.
Her lover, Robert Baker, now 62, contested first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in July 2023, and granted two special circumstances allegations. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole – the same sentence Sementilli faces if she is convicted of being charged.
Baker, who was called to the stands during the defense of the incident, insisted that the two’s mothers had nothing to do with the plot to kill their husbands. He said he murdered his lover’s husband.
Christopher Austin, the third defendant who worked as a parole and probation officer dealing with at-risk youth in Oregon at the time of his arrest last year, has lived in a state prison for 16 years in connection with a plea deal with prosecutors without giving up a dispute for a second-degree murder in January.
Austin, now 39, testified that his longtime friend Baker said Seledi wanted her husband, but Austin admitted that he had not personally spoken to her about the crime.
In her final argument, Associate District Attorney Beth Silverman told the ju judge, “It is very clear that the accused, along with her lover, killed Fabio Cementilli with the support of Christopher Austin,” and the murder “for the other motives, that is, for their future.”
She also urged the ju apprentice to find an allegation of a true special situation, saying that the woman’s husband is “ambushed based on a secret plan or design set up by the accused and her lover,” and that Austin has retreated from efforts to kill the victim while taking a dose order at the restaurant.
“She’s the one who destroyed so many lives and all of their families,” Silverman said.
In his final argument, Levine told the ju judge on Tuesday that his client was “fool, duplication, lies, adultery, but not murder.”
“She had a relationship with the person who murdered her husband,” Levine said. “However, she did not commit, organize or conspire to commit the murder of her husband.”
“She struggles with her choices — and they were terrifying,” the defense attorney said. “But she’s not the crime of first-degree murder, destroying her family and putting her in the risk of being murdered when she can control everything.”
Levine described Baker as “Svengari,” saying that Semenriri had made “the biggest mistake in her life” in her involvement in an extramarital affair with him.
“There was nothing good about Mr. Baker, but he left for the rest of his life,” Levine said of Baker’s plea and the life prison that followed. “Now they want to complete the circle and drive her out.”
During her rebuttal discussion, Associate District Attorney Heather Stegel told the ju judge, “She was on it for so long… this is a plan they had together.”
Prosecutors said that she and Baker are not allowed to be together even after Cementri is arrested, “no regret or guilt is guilty – maintaining just sadness.”
Sementilli has remained behind the bar since her and Baker were accused of murdering her husband since their arrests in June 2017. The conspiracy fee was then added to the pair. The two were charged more than two months later with the same charge.
Austin has also been at the back of the bar since his arrest.
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