Betrayal Turned Deadly: Murder of Stylist Fabio Sementilli Featured on New ’20/20′ Airing Friday, May 17 at 9pm ET

When celebrity hairstylist and hair care executive Fabio Sementilli was found stabbed to death in the yard of his home in Woodland Hills, California, on January 23, 2017, the crime was assumed to have been a robbery gone wrong. Since 2012, police were noticing a growing trend of robberies in upscale Los Angeles neighborhoods that were causing alarm among residents.

As the detectives got to work and dug deeper, they began to realize that something more sinister than a robbery gone wrong happened at the house, something that would lead them down what they described as a trail of love and murder.

“However, this happened,” Fabio Sementilli’s sister Mirella Sementilli told ABC News, “it was brilliantly executed because we were deceived.”

A month-long investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department would result in Sementilli’s wife, Monica, and her lover, Robert Baker, being arrested and charged with first-degree murder. The documents obtained by “20/20” provide a chilling firsthand account of how Baker said he planned and carried out Sementilli’s murder.

“The ultimate goal of the murder was so that he and Monica could be together,” according to Baker’s account.

An all-new “20/20,” airing Friday, May 17 at 9 p.m. ET and streaming the next day on Hulu, examines the investigation that revealed what authorities said was a deeply rooted murder cover-up. planned, the surprising discovery about who, according to the investigators, would love Fabio. Sementilli dead and details recently discovered in new court documents obtained by ABC News.

Fabio Sementilli was an extraordinary father of three who had made a significant name for himself in the hair industry. Family and friends said the 49-year-old was loved by everyone.

Fabio Sementilli, a prominent hairstylist from Canada, worked his way to the top of high-stakes hairstyling competitions around the world, the pride of his Italian immigrant family. He moved to Southern California in 2007 and lived with his second wife, Monica Sementilli, and his two teenage daughters.

Friends who visited Fabio and Monica Sementilli’s home described the cozy atmosphere, full of friends and family gathered to eat and drink.

Elyse Bleuel, a friend of Monica’s who frequently visited the Sementilli home, recalled how Monica Sementilli conveyed to her that “everything is really fantastic” in her nearly 20-year marriage to Fabio Sementilli.

When Monica Sementilli sent an urgent text message to Elyse in January 2017, asking her to come over, she rushed to the house. Bleuel recalled the unusual way she was greeted when she arrived home: A stranger ushered her inside with a warning: “Don’t tread in the blood.”

Inside, police discovered what they described as an extremely gruesome and bloody scene. Fabio Sementilli was stabbed several times in the neck, face and chest. His prized red Porsche, which was later found five miles away with drops of blood inside, was gone.

“I’m sitting with Monica,” Bleuel recalled of that visit. “She couldn’t get any words out. She said, ‘I’m not a wife anymore,’ over and over again. That was her mantra, like she was processing this.”

The family described the disbelief they felt upon learning of the hair industry executive’s murder.

“It seemed like a nightmare,” said Fabio Sementilli’s son from his first marriage, Luigi Sementilli, in an interview with the “20/20” program. “After a while, it seems surreal… When you go through this kind of tragedy, it just doesn’t seem real.”

As family and friends mourned the death of Fabio Sementilli, police searched for possible suspects. They were tipped off about a mysterious man who showed up unexpectedly at a memorial gathering at the family home. “It seemed out of place because it was more of a monument to Fabio. It was more of Fabio’s people,” Bleuel recalled.

A friend at the memorial found the man’s presence so disconcerting that they took a photo of him and gave it to the police. Detectives discovered that this mystery man was Robert Baker, a popular racquetball coach in the Los Angeles area.

“Rob always had a smile. And he’s a handsome man… He has a super charismatic personality and always seems happy,” says Alana Evans, who knew Baker from his previous career in the adult film industry.

However, Evans discovered a darker side to Baker years later. He was a registered sex offender after a conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a minor in the early 1990s.

Baker also shared a surprising connection to Fabio Sementilli’s inner circle: he was Monica’s racquetball coach. Investigators took a closer look at that photo of the monument and saw what appeared to be an adhesive bandage on Baker’s finger. Baker’s DNA was already in the police database from his previous conviction. Detectives compared it to drops of blood found in Fabio Sementilli’s Porsche that they had recovered early in the investigation, and they matched.

Now that investigators believed they had enough evidence to place Baker at the scene of Fabio Sementilli’s murder, they set up surveillance and obtained search warrants for his communications. As the Sementilli family continued to mourn for days, weeks and months, investigators finally moved on to a car Baker was driving on June 14, 2017. They placed Baker under arrest for the murder of Fabio Sementilli, but he wasn’t the only one. in handcuffs

“Detective Parshal called us… and said, ‘Okay, we’ve made an arrest for the murder of your brother. We arrested Monica Sementilli and Robert Baker,'” Mirella Sementilli recalled. “I fainted.”

Investigators claimed that Fabio’s wife Monica did not actually commit Fabio’s murder, but they allege that she did have a role in planning it. According to the indictment, Monica Sementilli and Robert Baker had been having an affair and conspired to kill Fabio so the couple could be together and collect life insurance money. This was unfathomable news for the close-knit Sementilli family.

The felony complaint against Monica Sementilli and Robert Baker details what investigators describe as an elaborate plan to get the two lovers their way. Prosecutors say that with Monica in charge, she and Robert Baker orchestrated a plan to murder her husband Fabio. They allege that it was essential to the plot that Mónica made sure Fabio was home alone on the day of the murder.

Court documents state that Monica drove to a nearby Target to establish her alibi, knowing that her daughters would be out of the house at the time of the murder. While at Target, court documents state that Baker and another unknown assailant entered Sementilli’s home, stabbed Fabio multiple times and staged a robbery, fleeing the scene on the victim’s porch and leaving evidence of blood from the severed finger. from Baker.

Investigators discovered that Monica had given Robert access to the Sementilli family’s home security system and prosecutors allege that she had been monitoring the security camera feed on her phone while Baker entered the Sementilli home, to inform you when the victim would be home alone. Prosecutors also allege that Monica intentionally planned for her youngest daughter, Isabella, to get home first and find her father’s body.

“When it all came to light… my brain just shattered with the dichotomy of the mother, the wife, the home and the life they created,” Bleuel said.

Robert Baker and Monica Sementilli were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The two pleaded not guilty to all charges.

“The matter was already known, that’s a fact,” Monica’s defense attorney, Leonard Levine, told “20/20.”

“But that doesn’t mean she had anything to do with her husband’s murder, and she totally denies that and has done so from the beginning.”

While the couple awaited trial, Robert Baker decided last July to plead “no contest” to all charges related to the murder of Fabio Sementilli, including admitting to the special circumstances allegations of murder for profit and murder by lying in wait. No contest means Baker did not contest the charges and accepts the facts alleged by prosecutors without admitting guilt. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“It sounded like I was hearing the devil speak,” Mirella Sementilli said when asked what it was like to hear Baker’s voice in the courtroom. She and other family members made statements about victims’ rights at the hearing.

After his sentencing, Baker said he planned to testify at Monica Sementilli’s upcoming trial. Court documents obtained by “20/20” revealed that in February 2024, Baker gave a detailed account of what she claimed was her role in the murder to Monica Sementilli’s defense team.

In the documents, Baker alleged that “Monica had nothing to do with the planning or execution of the murder.” She said she acted only after she told him that “divorce was not an option, her family doesn’t divorce.” Baker described the murder in chilling detail, saying that she “snuck into the house with a hunting knife…seeking to kill Fabio so he and Monica could be together.” She said she lunged at Fabio and stabbed him “anywhere there was open skin.”

“He says he’s going to go in front of the jury and tell the truth,” Monica Sementilli’s defense attorney, Leonard Levine, told “20/20.” “If she testifies and testifies truthfully, then we are hopeful that the jury will believe her testimony.”

As of May 2024, 10 months after Baker’s sentencing, Monica Sementilli remains in prison and is denied bail. Her trial has been delayed by one legal proceeding after another, but she is currently scheduled to begin in December 2024.

As Monica Sementilli’s fate hangs in the balance, people close to Fabio tell ABC News they feel they are moving toward some semblance of closure. Monica’s daughters, however, continue to support her mother before the trial.

At Robert Baker’s sentencing, Monica’s daughter Gessica proclaimed that she and her sister “want to make it clear that we will continue to support our mother as we have for the past six years and fight for her innocence.”