LOS ANGELES — Monica Sementilli, 53, will spend the rest of her life in prison after being convicted of orchestrating the 2017 murder of her husband, renowned hairstylist Fabio Sementilli, 49. On June 23, 2025, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced that she had been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
The sentencing comes two months after a jury found Monica guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances, including lying in wait and murder for financial gain, as well as conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors said Monica conspired with her lover, Robert Louis Baker, a 63-year-old former porn actor and convicted sex offender, to kill her husband and collect $1.6 million in life insurance benefits. The plot culminated on January 23, 2017, when Baker and another accomplice stabbed Fabio to death while he sat on the patio of their Woodland Hills home.
The murder was discovered by the couple’s teenage daughter, who returned home to find her father’s body in a pool of blood. The attackers fled in Fabio’s Porsche, which was later found abandoned.
According to trial testimony, Monica met Baker while he was her racquetball coach. Though she denied involvement in the murder, Baker testified during the 10-week trial that he killed Fabio out of love for Monica, stating:
“I murdered him because I wanted her.”
The Dateline episode “The Widow of Woodland Hills” and The Real Murders of Los Angeles series dramatized the case, underscoring the scandalous mix of adultery, financial greed, and Hollywood intrigue.
A third accomplice, Chris Austin, 39, a former Oregon probation officer, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and faces up to 16 years in prison. He admitted that Monica left the front door open to allow them entry and described the coordinated attack.
During sentencing, Fabio’s sister, Loretta Picillo, called Monica a “demon” for timing the killing so her daughter would find her father’s body.
“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.”
Judge Ronald Coen condemned Monica as the “mastermind” of the crime, calling it a “brutal, well-thought-out slaughter” and describing her as the “prime mover” behind the murder plot. He dismissed defense attempts to reduce the sentence.
D.A. Hochman said:
“Monica Sementilli betrayed the person who loved and trusted her the most. Her calculated scheme…devastated a family.”
Monica continues to maintain her innocence, according to her attorney, Leonard Levine, who stated she did not commit the crime.
