By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
A man who took part in the 2017 stabbing death of a prominent hairdresser at his Woodland Hills home pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder.
Christopher Austin, 38, also admitted a knife-use allegation and agreed to testify against the lone remaining co-defendant in the case stemming from the Jan. 23, 2017, killing of Fabio Sementilli.
Austin is facing 16 years to life in prison when he is sentenced April 30.
Prosecutors said Austin conspired with Sementilli’s wife, Monica, and Robert Louis Baker to kill the victim.
According to the criminal complaint, Monica Sementilli informed Baker that her husband was alone at their home the afternoon of the killing, and that Baker and Austin attacked him as he sat on the back patio.
The complaint also alleged that Austin held the victim down and covered the victim’s eyes as Baker stabbed him several times with a knife and that Austin stabbed the victim in the neck with a knife, and that both men attempted to clean up the crime scene and destroy evidence.
Baker had allegedly told Austin that the victim’s wife wanted to get her husband’s life insurance money, and Austin allegedly received money from Baker to purchase airline tickets to fly from Anchorage, Alaska, to Los Angeles in January 2017, and then received a roll of gold coins from Baker after the killing, according to the complaint.
Monica Sementilli, 52, is awaiting trial on murder and conspiracy charges stemming from her husband’s killing. Jury selection in her case is scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Baker pleaded no contest in July 2023 to one count each of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He also admitted the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait.
Monica Sementilli and Baker were arrested by Los Angeles police in June 2017 and charged with murdering her 49-year-old husband, with a conspiracy charge subsequently being added against them. They were indicted just over two months later on the same charges.
Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggell told a judge at a hearing last year that Austin was arrested in the state of Washington and subsequently extradited to Los Angeles County.
One of Monica Sementilli’s attorneys, Leonard Levine, told reporters after Baker’s plea that the defense was confident that his plea and his “truthful testimony will finally establish once and for all that Monica Sementilli had nothing to do with the planning or the murder of Fabio Sementilli, her husband. And we’re looking forward to the trial, which we believe will establish that fact.”
Baker’s attorney said then that he did not know if his client is going to be called to testify in Monica Sementilli’s trial.
“My client obviously exercised his constitutional right, and I support his right to do that. It’s not something done lightly,” defense lawyer Michael Simmrin told reporters.
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 Today magazine.
The prosecution alleges that Monica Sementilli and Baker “communicated via cell phones and encrypted communication applications regarding their plan to kill victim Fabio Sementilli,” and Baker allegedly “solicited an unknown co-conspirator to assist him in killing victim Fabio Sementilli,” according to the August 2017 indictment.
The indictment alleged that Monica Sementilli forwarded an e-mail to Baker about how to access her home video surveillance system, notified him that her husband would be alone on the afternoon of Jan. 23, and then left to go shopping to establish an alibi.
Baker and the co-conspirator later identified as Austin allegedly saw Sementilli sitting on the back patio and attacked him from behind, with Baker allegedly cutting himself on his left index finger during the attack, according to the indictment.
Baker allegedly “went into the kitchen to wash off the victim’s blood and destroy evidence, leaving his own blood behind” and attempted to stage a robbery and burglary in the master bedroom, the indictment alleged.
Monica Sementilli allegedly waited for her youngest daughter to arrive home to find her father’s body before returning to their home, and she subsequently called a Los Angeles Police Department detective several times to inquire why her husband’s life insurance policy proceeds were being withheld, according to the indictment.
The victim was pronounced dead by paramedics who responded to his home on the 5000 block of Queen Victoria Road about 5 p.m. and found the Canadian-born stylist in a pool of blood in an outdoor patio area.
Homicide detectives determined that Sementilli had been stabbed several times in the neck and upper body. The victim’s black 2008 Porsche 911 Carrera, which had paper plates, was missing.
The car was allegedly parked by Baker on Califa Street in Woodland Hills four hours after the killing, according to the indictment.
Police said investigators believe Baker and Monica Sementilli had been having an affair for about a year and a half, and she stood to gain a sizeable benefit — around $1.6 million — from a life insurance policy on her husband.