Monica Sementilli found guilty of murder in plot to kill prominent LA hairdresser

A Los Angeles jury found the wife of famed hairdresser Fabio Sementilli guilty of first-degree murder for his 2017 death where he was beaten and stabbed in their Woodland Hills home.

The 10-man, two-woman jury began deliberations in Monica Sementilli's trial on Wednesday, and by Friday morning, the guilty verdict was announced.

The 53-year-old woman faced charges of murder and conspiracy for masterminding the crime, with special circumstances of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait. Jurors found all the charges to be true.

Sementilli and her lover, Robert Baker, were arrested five months after her husband was murdered. Baker, now 62, has already been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in the crime. He pleaded no contest in July 2023 to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and admitted to two special circumstance allegations.

Baker, a convicted sex offender and former adult movie actor, testified as part of the defense that his lover had nothing to do with the planning or the murder of her husband. He said he murdered his lover's husband because he "wanted her to be around me and with me more -- like all the time."

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 said 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 said 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."

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.