48 Hours - Post Mortem | The Monica Sementilli Affair

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

Since 2018, Correspondent Michelle Miller and Producer Greg Fisher have reported on the murder of celebrity hair stylist and beauty executive, Fabio Sementilli. They go behind the scenes of their jailhouse interview with Rob Baker, who is serving a life sentence for murder, the love affair between Baker and Fabio’s wife, Monica, and her alleged involvement in the plot to kill her husband.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. This is Postmortem, and I'm your host, Anne-Marie Green. The murder of beloved celebrity hairstylist and beauty executive Fabio Cementilli sent shockwaves across Los Angeles. Fabio's friends and family learning who could have been involved and why. Shocked the most of all.

So with me to discuss the latest updates and some big news for the case are CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller and producer Greg Fisher. Welcome, guys. Hi there. Hey, great to be here. So 48 Hours has covered this story from the very beginning. 48 did broadcast it an hour in 2018. How did you first learn about this case? There was this open case of this guy who'd been murdered, and I live in Los Angeles.

And it seemed like a pretty high profile case to just be lingering around with no resolution. And I started asking around some of my sources at LAPD. And I started asking around some of my sources at LAPD. And I think it was more what they didn't say that made me wonder, wow, something's going on. There's some layers here. Yeah, they don't want to tell me what's happening. And I actually called Monica because I wanted to just talk to her and find out, hey, why is your case open? Do you have any leads as to who killed your husband?

What did she say? I had a brief conversation with her on the phone. But she just said, oh, you know, I'm really busy. I'm on a plane. I'm taxing on the runway. I'll call you back later. And she never called me back. And then a few weeks later, she got arrested. And I said, oh, wow, this is a story for us. OK, so, Michelle, I want you to sort of take us through how this whole thing unfolded. So on January 23rd, 2017, Fabio was brutally murdered by his pool at home. And at the time, investigators were stumped. They just couldn't fathom why anybody would want to kill this man. He was a celebrity hairdresser. He had come from Canada, having been doing all kinds of hair shows. He was well known in his industry. And everyone we spoke to, his friends, his co-workers, his family, they just say he was this beloved person. No one could figure out why somebody would not just kill him, but kill him so

brutally. And his daughter discovered his body, which was really, you know, I can't even imagine that happening. He had no known enemies. And at first, police believed he was yet another victim of the notorious knock-knock burglars who had been robbing the homes of Los Angeles celebrities for years. Some of their victims had been basketball star Derek Fisher and singer Nicki Minaj. But the thieves typically just stole cash. They stole jewelry. But no one would end up being killed in these things. What was surprising, whoever killed Fabio left an $8,000 watch, a Rolex on his wrist. What we learned later on is that the people that killed Fabio wanted to set it up to look like a botched burglary, knock-knock burglary, who knock on the door to make sure nobody's home

and then they break in. I remember the knock-knock burglars because it made sort of national news and in watching the video, the surveillance video, as well as the knock-knock video, I thought, yeah, they do look a lot like them but I thought it would be quite a leap to kill someone because that's not what these guys were up to and then we find out that there's DNA from another man at the scene his name is Robert Baker yeah Robert Baker they put his DNA in the system and it pinged. And that's because inside the police database, he's a registered sex offender. Yeah. So they get that first hit and they start looking at his phone records and they see that he's got thousands of phone calls back and forth with Monica

Simontilli, the wife of the victim. The way the police describe it is they did a ruse. the wife of the victim. The way the police describe it is they did a ruse. So they don't tell anybody about the evidence they have against Robert Baker. So then they start following them around and they catch Monica and Robert Baker, who are obviously in a relationship, hanging out at these different bars and restaurants,

you know, hugging and kissing outside. And they start taking photographs. And it takes a while. It's almost five months after Fabio's death. Monica and Robert Baker, they're arrested for his murder. One big question still remains. How involved was Monica in her husband's death? I mean, is it really just a love affair between the two

that prosecutors think was the motive for her involvement? Well, prosecutors say that's one angle, but the other is $1.7 million worth of life insurance. That's their theory, that it was love and money. You think, why murder someone that you once loved? And, you know, you talk to family and friends, her close friends, and they just see them as the picture of a love affair.

Yeah. And the family was devastated. So they had been married for 20 years. And by all accounts, their relationship pre-Robert Baker was a loving one. So the idea that you would have your husband murdered so aggressively, defense attorneys are arguing it just doesn't add up. I imagine friends and family are sort of racking their brain, looking back. Were there any signs? You know, and you guys actually spoke to one of her friends. Michelle, you spoke to Elise. Yes, we interviewed Elise in 2018. She described how Monica reacted to her husband's murder. She said

she was inconsolable. She was called over, in fact, by Monica the night that Fabio was murdered. She said she couldn't complete full sentences. She was crying profusely. And for Elise, it just didn't seem fathomable. It just was the last thing on her mind that, you know, Monica could be involved in this way because she exhibited such love for her husband during the times that she saw them together. Yeah. And Michelle, your interview was so great with Elise because there, there was that point where she was so emotional talking about trying to console Monica. She'd never been in a situation before where somebody's loved one was murdered that afternoon. And she talks about just holding her

and you can see the emotion in her eyes when you're talking to her. And you wondered about the feeling of betrayal when Monica's then arrested. While family and friends are watching Monica after the murder of her husband, investigators are watching her. And there are a few things that stand out

in terms of the behavior. One of them doesn't seem like a big deal to me, but she doesn't leave the house. She doesn't move out of the house. I thought to myself, I could understand. This is where your husband was. Maybe you don't want to leave that. But then she doesn't repair the security system,

which does seem odd. Yeah. And she's prosecutors arguing she was too comfortable leaving her children home alone. She would stay out. She went away for the weekend with Robert Baker. And the prosecutors argue that she felt, well, I know there isn't a killer on the loose because I'm with him. The defense argues that's not true, but that's part of their rationale for the case.

So can we talk a little bit about Robert Baker? Because before I watched your hour, the first picture I saw was the last court appearance that he made. And I just thought, this guy? Former porn star, uber masculine, had something about him. I just didn't get it. But Greg, you actually met with him. Yeah, I went to the jail and I met with him. And right at first, I was struck. He looked well. He always seemed kind of like this bedraggled character when I saw him in the courtroom. But when he showed up to talk to me in jail through the glass, you know, he looked like, you know, the guy from the gym. He looked like a racquetball

instructor. He was fit, like he lifted weights. And he was disarmingly charming. You know, we really talked for 30 minutes and he was asking me questions. He was working it, I realized, afterwards. Did he work you? Just in trying to get his message across. What was the message? You know, well, he and I acknowledged, like I always do in those kinds of jailhouse interviews, that their phone call is being recorded. The police are listening to every word he says to use it against him or Monica. And so he knows that. So I think he was trying to send a direct message that Monica was not involved in the crime in any way, shape or form. So the assertion that you brought up from

prosecutors is that Monica is the brains behind the operation, that he's the muscle, but she's the brains. What do they mean by that? Well, they mean that one, that she knew the timing of when her husband would be at home. She knew where the surveillance cameras were outside the home. She knew the security system passwords. She's the one with the access to the financial reward if they're in on it together. I mean, the prosecutors have 56 overt acts which they claim constitute the conspiracy. And those are the things that Michelle is listing.

And they say that she tried to establish an alibi as well. So I want to go through the timeline. Monica Cimentilli left her home around 3.26 p.m., just less than an hour later, about 4.18, there were two hooded figures that rounded the corner. The surveillance camera from a neighbor's home picked them up. And police believe that between that time and 4.53 was when the murder actually happened. Because at 4.53, they see the black Porsche leaving the home Fabio Cimentelli's black Porsche so Monica before the actual murder goes to Target and she drives into

the parking lot and the car door opens and a figure gets into her car. And then she drives to the far end of the parking lot. And the person gets out of the car. She drives to another location in the parking lot, parks the car and walks into the Target store. The prosecution believes this person who got into her car is Robert Baker. That's how the prosecutor describes that tape. But the defense describes that very same Target surveillance video of the parking lot saying, you can't see anybody get into her car. You don't even know if the door opens. The prosecutor is making this all up. It's too grainy. It's, you know, but the behavior

of the car, like, why would you stop? It's odd. Why would you park over on the other side, stay there, and then come back and park in a different location? Those are questions prosecutors are hoping that all 12 members of the jury will define as suspicious. Prosecutors describe her behavior in the stories as she is fixated and fascinated on the screen of her phone. And they check the data and it seems that the prosecutors allege that she's watching the home security system and that she must be doing that because of the amount of data that's being used by her phone

connected to the home IP address. And of course, you know, the defense attorneys will argue that, you know, well, maybe that app was connected, but she was looking at an email on her phone and she didn't know the app was connected. And prosecutors will say that she was watching the period of time that her husband was murdered. So what I loved about this hour is the inclusion of that attorney, that defense attorney. It's not Monica's defense attorney, but another defense attorney that really goes after the case. You got a window into how they are going to tackle this case point by point by point because everything seems so clear until you talk to a defense attorney and suddenly in many cases it's in every case yes they break everything apart yes i think of all the great cases that we have watched that have riveted

america over the last 20 years and that's how in large part many people are found not guilty as a result of the breaking apart of the evidence so one of the most heartbreaking details of this case is of course that their daughter isabella is the one who comes home and discovers her father's body and it would seem unusually cruel for monica a mother to allegedly allow her daughter to walk into the crime scene like that but what may be even more shocking is her daughters are standing by her are they the only family members still standing by her yeah they are the uh you know her daughters are standing by her but all of fabio's siblings, the son from his first marriage, that end of the family feel convinced that Monica was involved. It's very sad how there's

this split now between the daughters and Fabio's siblings, who used to all be such a close-knit family. such a close-knit family. I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. A bizarre and maddening tale involving an eyewitness account that doesn't quite make sense.

A sister testifying against a brother. A lack of physical evidence. Crosley Green has lived more than half his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green, ad-free on Amazon Music. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. The scary cult classic was set in the Chicago housing project. It was about this supernatural killer who would attack his victims if they said his name five times into a bathroom mirror.

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So, Michelle, you interviewed so many people from Fabio's life his friends his family i could feel his energy through the screen even in sort of shaky family video you could see he was a big personality fabio was a self-made man you know he and his sister they were so incredibly talented that they created opportunity after opportunity for themselves. And ultimately, being excellent at what he did, the world came looking for him. They traveled all over the world. The lifestyle, the circumstances, he spent a lot of time away from home traveling. Perhaps that was really the root of an opportunity for Monica to have this affair with Robert Baker. But all of the success in the career ultimately led to this moment.

Monica Cimentilli made a choice and put her family in harm's way by being in a relationship with someone who had a sex offender background, who had, we didn't even really get into this. He was a pornographic film star. Right. Yeah. By some, by some estimations. I can't speak to that, but Greg has a number of details that he can illuminate. Greg, do you tell? Well, so, you know, that was one of the funny things. Baker asked me, well, have you done a background check? Are you aware of my background? And so the first thing I talked about, well, you know, I'm aware that you worked in the industry. In the industry? He looked kind of happy that I brought that up.

He was very proud. Yeah, I had this sense that he was saying, like a lot of people in Hollywood want to say to you, you know, I'm an actor. I had the sense that he wasn't talking about, well, you know how badly it's going to play out in court that I have this history in pornography. No, he was kind of saying, well, you know, I'm an actor, right?

That was strange. And then, you know, he has this sex offense that involved his stepdaughter. Wow. Who, after he got out of prison for the charge, married him. And then they went into the business together and she became pornography and she became kind of somewhat of a small level porn star. That didn't make it into the hour. That didn't. Wow. So then it makes it even more remarkable that after Monica and Rob are arrested for Fabio Savantilli's murder,

they're in custody. They're in a Los Angeles jail awaiting trial. They continue their relationship. They do. Can I just add something on the back end of what Greg just said? Because you wonder if... Michelle, not so fast.

You're leaving my favorite part of the story well it's interesting because it's now part of the evidence uh has been introduced by prosecutors of his pornographic past and so why don't you lead into it just this past week there was a remarkable filing yesterday. I think what's happening is, you know, this is very common in a trial situation that as it comes down to the wire, because the trial is going to start very soon in April, they start both sides, prosecutor and the defense, start arguing what should be allowed in and what shouldn't. And so there's a flurry of motions, which is common. But the defense keeps trying to limit the amount of photos that are allowed in. And so yesterday, the prosecutor did this remarkable filing with, I don't know, 20 or 30,

I would call them pornographic photos of Monica that were found on Rob Baker's phone. They're screen grabs from video taken by ostensibly Rob Baker of he and Monica engaged in different acts. I mean, it was really a remarkable filing to find in the court record. remarkable filing to find in the court record. And at the same time, the prosecutor's arguing that all of Monica's social media posts about being a grieving widow with all these different pictures of Fabio should be allowed in because the judge listened to the defense and said, well, we'll only have a few pictures of Fabio allowed so we don't prejudice the jury. And so this seemed like a really aggressive move by the prosecutor yesterday to file all these offensive photos of the defendant, along with these media posts. I think it was her way of saying to the defense, hey, stop trying to limit things.

Don't forget how much we have out there. Well, you know, shocking. I said to you earlier that when I watched the hour, I thought it doesn't seem like there's a lot of proof of this affair. Clearly, there's a lot more that didn't come to light. How are they able to keep their relationship going after they've been arrested? So there's obviously an intermediary out there, a friend of theirs, who when they call the friend, each calls at the same time and they connect them via the phone. Yeah. So the friend is merging the phone calls because the jail prevents you from talking to other inmates just for their own security reasons. In 2021, there was a filing that for four years there had been numerous, maybe hundreds of three-way phone calls that

they were really complaining in the motion that they didn't even have the resources to record them all. But they clearly had recorded a lot. And they recorded them. They put them early on in cells not far away from one another. And so conversations between the two of them were actually recorded. And they had their own love language, so to speak. Oh, yeah. It was quite remarkable. So we found in the filings two intercepted love letters that Monica had written to Baker. We assume they actually maybe even have more,

but those were the two that were in the filings. And she would sign them like saying, L-O-M--l love of my life they referred to one another as their ride or die or she called herself your wifey yes monica baker till death r or d ride or die wow and they had this according to the prosecutor which i'm sure is going to be disputed by the defense they had this, according to the prosecutor, which I'm sure is going to be disputed by the defense. They had this ride or die pact between the two of them. And they, you know, there are these mentions of R or D and there was a ride or die cartoon of two lovers on Baker's phone. And, you know, they claim that the ride or die means we're together forever and committed to not talk and keep this secret.

But the defense is going to say that's a big leap for the prosecutor to make, but the prosecutor is making it. But you also said that Robert Baker claims they are no longer in contact with one another. Right. So all these letters and overhears, which they call them the recordings of the two of them talking in jail, happened during the first year. So it's not clear if they're still in contact. Baker claims they no longer are and that the last time he passed Monica and spoke to to her in a, you know, a random coincidence between jails, she cursed him as a murderer. So ultimately what we know is that in 2023, Robert Baker pleads no contest, meaning that

he essentially accepts responsibility for Fabio's murder. He's sentenced to life without parole. What impact can his admission possibly have on the outcome of Monica's trial? Was this a gift? I mean, you sort of asked that. Yeah, it's a win for Monica in that she's no longer sitting beside the person that admitted to killing her husband. So he's no longer in line of sight, so to speak. Yeah. And you've got to realize that Monica's defense attorneys tried time and again with the judge to get the cases separated so they'd have separate trials. And the judge denied that request. So Baker, in one fell swoop by pleading, he just said, I'm done. I'm not going to fight it.

I'm going to go down for life. And he didn't get a deal. He gave her that severed trial that her lawyers were unable to get through legal means until he made it happen. And Greg, when you talk to Rob Baker, you know, you said that he made it clear to you that Monica had nothing to do with this, but he said something else too about if Monica had known. Yeah, he, it was a interesting statement. He said, if she had known I would have been in here in jail a lot sooner. His meaning was that if she had known I did it, she would have turned me in. And the prosecutor says, no, I have 56 overt acts that, you know, tell you're lying about that. You asked him directly if this was one more gift, one last gift to his ride or die. What did he say? Oh,

he got offended. He said, it's not a gift. And actually there, I kind of understood where he was coming from. He's sitting there behind glass in a jumpsuit at the beck and call of corrections officers. And he was just kind of looking at me like, you think this is a gift to stay in here for life? And I said to him, well, you know as well as I do that Monica's lawyers wanted to get the cases severed. You were sitting there in court while they argued it before the judge and they were unsuccessful until you made it happen. Sounds like a gift to me. And why not fight for your freedom? Why didn't he plead not guilty? Well, that was another question I asked him. I said,

listen, it's only a one in a million shot because your blood and your DNA is at the crime scene, in the car. You know, it's a slam dunk case against you. But I said to him, most people take that one in a million shot because it's all they got instead of being in here. He hasn't technically confessed yet. You know, he made it clear that he was the killer and no contest without her. What he said was, you think there's due process? And he was kind of saying to me, like, you naive person sitting out there, you haven't faced the system. There's no due process for people like me once we get inside here. And I said to him, well, there kind of is due process. I mean, you know, you got a lawyer. He was paid for by the state.

He's got a good reputation. He argued these things out in open court on your behalf. He even tried to stop you from pleading guilty and talk you out of it. The judge makes his decisions. They're on the open record. That's due process. And he just looked at me like I was so naive. Like that's not due process.

So basically there was no point in fighting. You can't fight the system. Yeah like I was so naive. Like that's not due process. So basically there was no point in fighting. You can't fight the system. Yeah, that was his argument. Well, I got to tell you, I thought I could predict the outcome of this throughout almost the whole hour and now I have no idea. You just can't make some of this stuff up.

It's also fascinating to have a woman as the defendant. I've definitely seen cases where it's harder for a prosecutor to make the case and the jury's looking over at a housewife and a mother and, you know, why would she go to this extent? But then, of course, at the same time, I've seen a lot of cases where they kind of create that Black Widow aura. It will be an interesting case to watch at the trial. Well, I will be watching because this is really a riveting, fascinating case. And of course, Fabio from my hometown of Toronto. So I have a particular interest.

Thank you so much, Michelle and Greg. This has been fantastic. Thank you. Great to be here. So join us next Tuesday, everyone, for another Postmortem. And watch 48 Hours, Saturdays, 10, 9 Central on CBS,

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