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More than eight years after famous hairstylist Fabio Cementeri was stabbed to death on the patio of his Woodland Hills home, one of the two murderers told the ju judge this week that the stylist widow “wanted him to die.”
Christopher Austin, convicted of second-degree murder in the murder of Fabio Semeteri, told the ju decree that he and Robert Lewis Baker had killed a hairstylist after his wife, Monica Semeteri, unlocked the couple’s home.
Austin, who testified as a witness to the prosecutor’s star at his wife’s murder trial, said he had never heard of the defendant directly, but her lover, Baker, said she had “got” her husband.
“Everything he did after he received the text message said he was talking to her through text message,” Austin testified. “I didn’t hear him talk to her on the phone…but everything happened in turn.”
As Austin said, Monica Semenri’s face showed little emotion, but she stared at him vigorously.
Austin reveals that Baker called Monica Semenri his “girl” and says she was in a “abusive” relationship and “wanted him.” [Fabio Sementilli] It’s gone. “However, after the stabbing wound on January 23, 2017, Baker told Austin that the murder was due to “insurance money.”
Undated mug shots of Monica Semenrili and Robert Baker.
(LAPD)
The prosecutor is a Canadian hair stylist and the “mastermind” of a conspiracy to kill her husband, a Canadian hair stylist and executive at hair care titan Wella. Her goal was to pocket $1.6 million in life insurance to avoid complications from divorce, he said. Baker, 62, met Monica Semenrilli, a convicted sex offender and former porn star and became a lover of her as a racquetball coach at West Hills LA Fitness.
Austin’s testimony was the worst that didn’t involve his wife. Baker and Monica Sementelli admit that they are lovers. However, Baker pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in January 2017 and claimed that Monica Semenri was not part of the conspiracy.
Last year, Baker admitted to killing a celebrity hairdresser and leaving him in a blood pool on the back patio, which was initially considered a home invasion robbery. The second accomplice to escape with Baker at hairstylist Porsche was unknown until last October when authorities arrested Austin, an Oregon probation officer.
Baker’s attitude that he acted alone until that arrest made prosecution of Monica Sementel extremely difficult.
In court, Austin explained the first blow of the murder, saying they had walked down the tree-lined streets of Woodland Hills and reached the couple’s gateway. “He told me…she’s going to unlock the door,” Austin said.
Before entering, Baker told Austin, “There are three people, you’re trying to hold him down.” They then walked through the kitchen and found a hairstylist sitting on the back patio. There his wife told Baker that he often made business calls.
Austin testified that the dead man did not see them coming when Baker opened the door to the patio. “He opened the door and couldn’t scream, clutching his mouth,” Austin sobbed. “And he began stabing him.” The man then fled to Porsche. Porsche knew Baker was in the garage.
A minute after the man drove, his daughter, Isabella Fabio, discovered her father’s bloody body and called 911. There, the operator desperately guided her, but tried to save him.
Her mother cried when a recording of the 911 call took place in court.
Austin said he was there a few months ago and they knew the layout of the house. He met Monica Cementuri at LA Fitness in Woodland Hills, where she invited Baker and Austin to her home, where she served pizza and showed her back patio.
The murder was not their first attempt to kill the hairstylist, prosecutors said. The day before, Monica Semenrilli was allegedly sending a message to Baker that she was sending her husband to the store, and they tried to target him.
During the mutual review, defense attorney Leonard Levine had Austin repeatedly explain that he had never heard of Monica Semenri directly in the shadow of murder. He also lets Austin explain how he changed his story since he was first taken into custody, telling police that they were only intended to troll hairstylists.
Levine also repeatedly asked if Austin was offered a deal, Austin replied no. Austin is facing second-degree murder and personal use of the knife in 16 years’ prison at next month’s sentence.
In an opening statement, co-defense advisor Blair Burke said “there was absolutely no reason or desire to want her husband Fabio to die.” Burke said there was no evidence that his client was plotting. “There are no statements, no texts or recorded calls,” she said.
Burke said the evidence would reveal that the widow “revealed that he had a connection with Robert Baker and that Robert Baker had decided to kill her husband.” Burke said her client was “making him believe that Robert Baker didn’t do that.”
Initially, when LAPD discovered that he had reacted to the house and was stabbed to death, investigators thought it was the job of the so-called knock-knock robbery that plagued parts of the San Fernando Valley. Sementilli suffered seven sharp force injuries to his face, jaw, neck, chest and thighs, and two minor injuries to his left arm.
While the main bedroom of the house was looted, the Hair Mogul’s $8,000 Rolex watch remained on the wrist and continued to inspire detectives, LAPD investigators testified. Video surveillance showed two hooded men jogging home and filming before the murder. The man then drove on a Cementuri Porsche and was recorded on another surveillance camera when he abandoned the vehicle five miles away.
About a month after the crime, LAPD detective Ryan Verna testified that Baker’s DNA was linked to blood evidence for the crime. Baker’s DNA was previously captured after being convicted in 1993 of lewd conduct with a minor and forced to register as a sex offender.
Investigators also noticed that the murderer had deleted the home’s video recording system, which was not easily found. When investigators tied the widow with the former porn star, forensic technology experts testified that he had restored instructions to Baker about how he could access the home security DVR.
Prosecutor Beth Silverman presented evidence that Monica Semenri had seen the area’s live feed just before the murder, showing that Baker would show him a clear path to her husband.
LAPD DET. Mitzi Roberts testified that his wife was almost overlooked the exit from the target as he was distracted, and showed the ju-describer a security video on a large court screen. She said Monica Sementilli and Baker exchanged 95 messages via the encrypted app Viber on the day of the murder, and 180 messages the day before.
After the pair were arrested in June 2017, Monica Semenril told Baker at Van Nice LAPD Prison that she was “fearing” to find Viver on her cell phone.
It was Roberts who ultimately linked Austin to crime after seeing the Facebook message posted three days after the murder. She tied the pair together through phone and bank records. Baker gave Austin money to buy a ticket to fly from Anchorage to Los Angeles before the murder, and a roll of gold coins after the murder.
Investigators in the LAPD Robbery and Murder Division became suspects and monitored the widow and Baker, and observed them together on a gorgeous trip to cars, bars, comedy clubs and Las Vegas.
Investigators testified that around 200 sexually graphic photos and videos of Monica Cementilli and Baker were recovered from various electronic media belonging to the pair. Investigators told the ju deputy that some of the images taken while Cementuri was in Toronto for her husband’s funeral were taken
After detectives pulled the pair on Monica Cementel’s Black Mustang, officers put them together in the back of the police car after Baker got on the wheel. The video recording system is said to have Monica tell Baker “denies everything and don’t talk.”
During the arrest, a prepaid cell phone from T-Mobile was found in her wallet. Investigators told the ju deputy.
Even behind the bar, the pair continued to communicate with the letter. The sheriff’s prison supervisor testified that Baker also tried to leave a coded kit, a secret method of prisoner communication using handwritten binary codes, in the court stairwell that the widow used after him. Ju’s umpire watched a video of Baker leaving behind something hidden on the rails of the stairs.
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