The Binge Crimes: Lady Mafia - Cut, Color, Kill | 6. Betrayal

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

Fabio's family is divided as the killers take the stand. A secret is revealed. Want the full story? Binge every episode of Cut, Color, Kill ad-free now by subscribing to The Binge+. You’ll unlock over 60 true crime series instantly, get early access to drops on the first of every month, and hear exclusive bonus episodes. Search for the channel on Apple Podcasts or head to GetTheBinge.com. For behind-the-scenes details, join our free newsletter at Patreon.com/TheBinge. Cut, Color, Kill is a production of Sony Music Entertainment and Novel. Follow @sonypodcasts and discover more at sonymusic.com/podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices at podcastchoices.com/adchoices. The Binge — feed your true crime obsession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That is the problem Nothing in my life goes to smoothie I'm waiting for the catch Maybe there's no catch That's exactly what a catch Would want me to think Wow, you need to relax I need to knock on wood

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You'll hear the entire series before anyone else, get exclusive bonus episodes, and unlock more than 60 other true crime podcasts. Just head to The Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and tap subscribe or visit getthebinge.com to listen wherever you are. The Binge. Feed your true crime obsession. So you told us kind of what you did, but we'd like to put the whole picture together from Chris's perspective. In an interrogation room in Vancouver, Washington, Christopher Austin is sitting opposite two detectives with his head in his hands. He's just confessed to stabbing Fabio Cementilly. His world had just been turned upside down. He knew that going forward, he was forever changed.

Deputy D.A. Heather Stegel is in another room in the police station, watching the interview on a screen. He'd been living this other life now, trying to put this murder behind him. His concern was he had a small daughter and a wife. He repeatedly, repeatedly said, can I see them? Can I talk to them? Can I talk to my wife? Can I see her? That was high priority in him.

Do you see me ever see him across again? You mean, as a guy, walking freely out the door right now, or long-term? Just a general. I'll be honest with you, I don't see you walking out of the door today. The detectives tell him he's not going to be leaving the police station today. He's under arrest, and the DA will most likely charge him. Can I meet the DA today? We'll ask.

And that's when he started asking to talk to the DA. The detectives came back and told me that he wants to talk to you. I said, okay, sounds good. Let's do this. I was ready to go. Stegled strides down the hall and into the interrogation room. She's polished in a smart suit and black stilettos. Austin is leaning forward in his chair looking defeated.

Hi, I'm the DA. You have the top. The prosecutor shakes his hand and takes a seat. She makes it clear that he can ask for an attorney if he wants to. That's one. So do you want to talk to me now with an attorney? Is that accurate? That is accurate.

I asked to speak to you. Okay. He seemed like he wanted to get it all off his chest and just tell everything that he could about his involvement in it. I mean, what can you do as a DA for me to see my girls? At the end of the day, I only care about seeing my girls. What do you need from me so I can go see my girls? We just want the truth because we know we've got one other person to try and that's Monica. Monica Seven Tilly is going to trial in January.

She's being charged with conspiring with Robert Baker to murder her husband Fabio. Deputy D.A. Steggel and her fellow prosecutor Beth Silverman already have a lot of circumstantial evidence against Monica. The lies she told to the detectives and all the sneaking around with Robert Baker, their secret whisperings in the lockup, But they need it to be ironclad. If Christopher Austin is willing to testify that Monica was the mastermind coordinating Fabio's death, that would be some of the clearest evidence yet.

Just solidifying that link, any extra evidence that she's the lead of the conspiracy, every piece was a great new piece of evidence. But the defense also has a star witness of their own. Robert Baker is going to testify that he's murdered Fabio. without Monica's knowledge. She had nothing to do with it. We've got two people taking the stand saying, I killed Fabio.

Two killers, a Baker and an Austin, and they're both going to testify. So now it comes down to which killer are you going to believe? From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is Cut, Color, Kill. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Episode 6.

Betrayal. It's January 2025. Eight years since Fabio Semantilly was murdered in his home in Woodland Hills. Eight years of his loved ones waiting for justice. And in a wood-paneled courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, Monica Semantilly's trial is beginning. Cameras are rolling.

Journalists from outlets including ABC, NBC, CBS are covering the case, and Court TV is streaming live courtroom coverage. This case has captured the attention of people around the world, not least because of the family drama playing out here in the courtroom. We've got family sitting on two sides of the courtroom, not speaking to each other who used to be having lunches and barbecues and parties together. They did not acknowledge each other. Prosecutors Beth Silverman and Heather Stegel have a huge task ahead of them. This trial will last 10 weeks, and there are hundreds of witnesses prepped and a huge amount of evidence to cover.

I can't take you through every single detail of the evidence, and some of it, like the secret police recordings, you've already heard. But I do want you to hear this one piece of testimony that I think really really. cuts to the heart of what's at stake here in this courtroom. Anna Crescentini is called as a witness on day 28 of the trial. She's Monica's older sister by two and a half years, an eighth grade science and math teacher, and she's flown all the way from Canada to testify. Anna says she spoke to Monica on the phone only a couple of hours before Fabio was killed, and she seemed completely herself. And in the aftermath, she says her sister was devastated by grief. We found my sister on the couch, hugging a gray slutter that belonged to Fabio and rocking tears, pouring down her face.

She had toilet paper and Kleenex all around her. And when we tried to talk to her, she wasn't even making eye contact with us. For the defense, the point of all this is to try and humanize Monica, to show that her shock and grief, at Fabio's death was genuine because she wasn't involved in planning it. By the time prosecutor Stegel stands up to cross-examine Anna, she's feeling frustrated. On and on and on and what a great person she is and that she was grieving and I witnessed her grieving so bad. Steggle wants to put to the test how well Anna really knew her sister. You love her, you trust her.

I love her, I trust her. One of my closest friends, yes. Did you talk about everything? I did. Okay. Obviously, you know, you didn't know about the affair this entire time, correct? Correct. I started with the affair, all the text messages, the sneaking out, the leaving her kids, the lies. One time after Fabio's death, Anna says Monica flew from Canada to L.A.,

because she wanted time alone to grieve with her daughters. Did you know that when she landed, she immediately went out with Baker, but didn't go home to grieve with her girls? I did not know. Another time when the family was in Canada for Fabio's cremation, Anna says Monica was so emotionally drained, she had to take her home to their mom's house. Did you know that those three days, every third, fourth, and six, that she was sending sexually explicit photos of herself naked to her boyfriend? No, obviously I did not know. The prosecutor hands over a stack of photographs.

There are printouts of photos that Monica sent to Robert Baker. Stegle asks Anna to look at them. I mean, not my proudest moment, but the point being, you don't know your sister. I don't fault her for taking the stand for her sister. I mean, that's what family does. And it was not meant to embarrass Anna or do anything like that. It was just she was digging in so hard about how she knew her sister and her sister would never do this.

So I'm going through all the examples of what you didn't know about your sister, and the list was endless. At the end of the cross-examination, Stegle asks Anna whether, knowing all of this, she still trusts Monica to tell the truth. I believe my sister. I know she was lying because she was hiding an affair. Do I trust her? Yes. Anna accepts her sister lied about an affair, but she's absolutely clear on this point. Of course she's going to lie. She wants to cover the affair. It doesn't mean that she had anything to do with her. this murder. That's what I want to do to hear. Anna's testimony in the courtroom exposes one of the main fault lines of this entire trial.

The question of how well we really know the people we love. The narrative the prosecution is building is that Monica is a liar and a manipulator. They can lay out the exact timeline of the deception because Monica documented so much of it herself in the hundreds of photos and videos she sent to Robert Baker, taken from ICloud and Dropbox accounts. in the text messages lying about her whereabouts from before and after the murder. But Anna's view of her sister's marriage is more complicated. It is possible to love someone and cheat on them at the same time.

When Monica's defense attorneys stand in front of the jury, they keep coming back to the same point. Yes, Monica had an affair. She lied and deceived her family and friends. She made choices that hurt people. None of that makes her guilty of murder. The financial motive doesn't make sense, they argue, because Monica wasn't the sole beneficiary of Fabio's $1.6 million life insurance payout. It was split between her and his children, too. Their point being, Fabio was worth more to Monica alive than dead.

Why kill him? Why kill him? She had everything she wanted. Moral or not? She had a loving husband, making good living, living the good life, two beautiful kids, and whatever Mr. Baker offered, and better otherwise, she had that too. The charge is not whether Monica had an affair. It's whether she intentionally entered into an agreement to kill her husband.

And that, the defense say, depends on the testimony of one person. Thank you. Do people call Christopher Austin? After more than five weeks of laying out the circumstantial evidence against Monica, on March 4th, the prosecution finally call one of the killers to the witness stand. And Christopher Austin is about to tell the jury something that for nearly eight years before his arrest, nobody knew. Something that will throw everything we thought we knew about this murder plot up in the air. A thoughtfully built wardrobe really comes down to the pieces that mix well and that are going to last and make your life easier. And that's what I love about Quince.

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Quince.com slash crimes. I saw my friend on the other side of the street. I was heading to school with the kids. I let go of mom's hand to wave. I had already forgotten their lunches. I ran over to hug her. She came out of nowhere. And then...

It stopped. Sometimes the moments that never happen matter most. Volvo's automatic emergency braking helps ensure a safe ending for everyone. Learn more at VolvoCars.cairs. safety. Christopher Austin is sitting in the witness stand. He's wearing a blue shirt and glasses and he looks subdued. In January, he accepted a deal from the prosecution. He pled guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison on the condition that he cooperates with the prosecution and testifies truthfully in Monica's trial. We told him that if we found anything out,

that he had told us that was not truthful, that all bets were off and we would prosecute him anyway. Deputy D.A. Stegel says she and her colleague, Beth Silverman, talked to the Semantilly family about the deal they were offering to Austin. Luigi has mixed feelings, knowing that one of the men who killed his father has agreed to testify. I felt the sense of relief that one of his assailants was going to be going to prison. I also felt a sense of pity, and there was even a little tiny sense of feeling grateful that this person was cooperating to the extent that he was and was going to testify against Monica. The fact that there was anything other than negative feelings toward Austin

kind of speaks to how badly I wanted there to be justice in the greater trial. Stegel takes her place at the front of the courtroom, ready to examine Austin. She's focused on the task at hand. But she knows her witness also comes with significant baggage. You're putting a man who says, I murdered somebody in cold blood, which is not a common thing that people walk around saying, and you're asking the jury to now believe everything that he says. Have you known Robert Baker a long time? Yes. And is Rob older than you then?

Yes. How much older? Same age as my dad. I'm not a math guy, 30 plus years older than me. Austin tells the jury how he got to know Baker as a friend of his fathers in North Carolina. Beth Silverman watches her trial partner fire questions at Austin and weighs up how he's coming across to the jury. He seemed very humble.

He came across as not particularly bright, but somebody who trusts people who are older than him, like Baker, especially given that Baker was one of his father's close friends growing up. In July of 2016, the two of them met up in Las Vegas. On that trip, Austin says he heard. heard a conversation between Baker and another friend. They were talking about the woman Baker was seeing. He started asking me, like, how much I weigh?

Who? Baker. I remember hearing he could probably do it. I was like, do what? So I'll tell you later. It sounds like Baker was already sizing Austin up, seeing if he was strong enough to kill someone. Eventually, Austin says, Baker stopped being cryptic, got more direct. He told Austin, his girlfriend.

girlfriend wanted her husband out of the way. Baker said she wants some gone. She wants some dead. Monica Semantilly. Austin says the first time he remembers meeting Monica was when Baker paid for him to fly to L.A. from Vegas, later that July. The three of them played racquetball together at L.A. Fitness.

Afterwards, they all went back to the Semantilly home in Woodland Hills. Fabio was away. She took me out to the patio and Baker was there. Austin says when they left the house, Baker turned to him. He said it's a nice house, right? And then I was like, yeah, remember that layout. I was like, layout. I said, okay.

He said, remember that layout? I remember him saying that. Austin says there were more calls with Baker over the following months, where they talked about killing Fabio. Did you ever speak directly with the defendant at any time, directly with her about killing her husband? No. So was your communication with and through?

Baker. Yes. You might be thinking that this makes Austin's testimony seem pretty weak. After all, the defense could argue it's just hearsay. He didn't actually ever hear Monica conspiring to murder Fabio. But prosecutor Beth Silverman isn't phased by this at all. In fact, she thinks it actually makes him look more credible as a witness. If he was somebody who was trying to buy himself a deal to get out of what had happened, Number one, he would have said he was the lookout. He never would have admitted to being an actual stabber.

And number two, he would have also exaggerated in terms of the conversations he had had with Monica and made her more involved in what was told to him about the plan and the conspiracy to kill her husband. From December onward, Austin says things got more serious. Baker tried to arrange a date for the murder. Austin says he made excuses because he didn't want to go through with it, but his friend was insistent. On January 12th, Baker bought Christopher Austin a plane ticket to Los Angeles. Austin says Baker promised him $30,000 to $50,000 for the murder.

Money that was to come from Monica. He would always say she's loaded, so once she gets this insurance money, we're going to be good. On the 22nd of January, the day before, Fabio was killed, Austin flew out to California. They had to move quickly, he said, because Baker had information from Monica that Fabio would be out of town again soon. Austin says Baker picked him up from the airport and gave him a burner phone. They waited at Baker's apartment all day. Then they went to Walmart so Baker could buy a knife. Then Christopher Austin tells the jury something new, something it

took the investigators on this case eight years to discover. As the night fell, he let me know and said she's going to send him to the store so we can catch him then I want to be really clear Austin is talking about the evening of the 22nd of January

2017 the day before Fabio was killed at 5.11 p.m. on the 22nd of January, Fabio searched Fah near me and sent Monica the address of a restaurant. Monica then Googled the restaurant it was of course a Vietnamese place

she then texted her daughter Bella to ask if she wanted some fried rice. During the same 30-minute window when Monica was texting with Fabio about this restaurant, she exchanged 17 messages on the encrypted messaging app Fiber with Robert Baker. By the end of the day, she and Baker had messaged each other 180 times. Austin says that Monica told Baker where Fabio would be that night. Before we left the apartment, he got a text message from his girlfriend at the time. She was going to send him to the store. So we went directly there.

So him and Baker got in the car, went over to this strip mall, and waited for Fabio to get there. He walked through this breezeway by these pillars, and he was told what kind of car Fabio was driving. He saw the car. He saw Fabio coming out, carrying a bag of what was probably food. He started walking towards Fabio, He said, I chickened out.

I just, I couldn't do it. I was like, I'm not doing this. I can't do this. And I went back to the car. He was like, what happened? I told him I was like, I couldn't get him. Can't do it. Austin says Baker texted Monica when they left the strip mall to update her about the failed attempt.

The plans off. It didn't happen. And Austin was a witness to that. The text messages, the restaurant address. It all corroborates the story. Christopher Austin has just given them evidence that Monica didn't just try to have Fabio killed once. She did it twice.

This wasn't a fluke that happened the day of the murder. This was as premeditated, deliberate, and willful as you get. Before Austin was arrested, nobody had a clue that anything remarkable had happened the night before Fabio's death, let alone an attempted murder. All of us in the room just kind of froze for a second. We're like, the night, what are you talking about? We had no idea this was planned or had even happened.

I mean, we like to think that we had every corner of this case nailed down, and for the most part, all the blanks filled in, but we did not know that. The original plan was for Fabio to be killed in the car park of the strip mall, alone and a seemingly random attack by a stranger, not at home in a location that could easily be linked to Monica. After the failed murder attempt on the 22nd, Christopher Austin was only in town for two more days, and Fabio was about to leave town. The window of opportunity was closing. And so, the next day on the 23rd of January, everything happened in a rush.

Around noon, surveillance footage captured Monica and Robert Baker both arriving at LA Fitness 10 minutes apart. Later that afternoon, Monica and Baker were both seen in the parking lot of a target in Woodland Hills. Around 329, surveillance footage captured a grainy figure getting into Monica's truck. The prosecutors say that was Baker, meeting up with Monica to coordinate their plan. When Baker got back to his apartment, Austin says he got a text. He kind of jolted. He said, yo, he's home alone. Said she's going to go to the store. We have a small window because somebody might come to the house while she's gone. According to Austin, this is it.

The moment Monica gave Baker the green light to murder Fabio. It was rushed. Like Baker got the call from Monica. Like, now, go. We got to go. We got to go. Get in the car. Let's go.

She wanted him killed. That plan didn't work. They're still in town. The next day, it's going to happen. It just really puts the nail in the coffin on. the level of Monica's involvement and the premeditation and her never-ending desire to get Fabio out of the way. The prosecution have made their case, but the defense still have their own star witness, another confessed killer with his own version of what went down in January 2017.

Robert Baker takes the stand. He's wearing a button-down shirt and a suit jacket for the occasion. In 2023, when Baker pled no contest, he wrote a letter. to Monica's defense team, confessing to the murder. In the letter, Baker wrote that he went to the Seminthilly House to deliver a gift to Monica, where he ran into Fabio by mistake. He killed Fabio in self-defense, he said. But now, his story has totally changed.

He tells the jury, this was a planned attack. I murdered him because I wanted her. I wanted to have easier access. I wanted to be around me and with me more, like all the time. He couldn't keep his story straights from years ago, let alone from moment to moment. When it's Deputy DA Beth Silverman's turn to cross-examine Baker, she is ready to go to town on all his inconsistencies. You agreed last week that everything you wrote in the letter was a lie.

Not everything, but... Which part was true? I got to look at the letter. Approximately, how many lies would you say you told in that letter? Give me an estimate. I don't have... I'm not giving an estimate because I don't know. 10? 50? I don't know.

How about 300? He was on the stand, I think, for like three days or four days, and he couldn't remember what he had said the day before. And so the lies just kept changing and becoming more and more outrageous. At one point, Silverman starts asking Baker about the security camera systems at the Semantilly House. When police arrived at the scene after Fabio's murder, they found the DVR was missing. Did you stop to take the DVR? Yes.

So where was that? That was in the garage. Okay. And who showed you where that was? Let's follow the wires. Okay. So there were wires that led you there? Can't miss it. Baker is plain dumb, acting like he just happened upon the DVR. But the prosecutor knows he's lying.

You hadn't had a prior conversation with Monica about the DVR, had you? I hadn't had a conversation with her about it. Never. I noticed she was getting a new system. She said it was getting upgraded. He said that he wanted to get it done. The he is Fabio. When detectives asked Monica about the security system after Fabio was killed,

she told them she didn't know anything about it. Fabio had it installed. Fabio knew all about it. She didn't even know how to access it. So the investigators tracked down the guy who put the cameras in the summer of 2016. The guy said it was Monica, not Fabio. who was there. When the digital forensics team went through all the files, they found another damning piece

of evidence. Monica had received an email with the IP address, the password, and the instruction manual for the security system. And on the 28th of June, shortly before Austin first heard Baker talk about the plot to kill Fabio, Monica forwarded the email to, you guessed it, Robert Baker. Beth Silverman knows that all of these shifting stories, tying himself up in knots, is not helping Baker's case with the jury. This was a person who just came across as completely incredible

because he wasn't smart enough to find his way out of a paper bag. You know, she was really the brains behind the operation. When Leonard Levine, Monica's defense attorney, makes the closing statement, he tries to make it all about this battle between the two killers on the witness stand. Other than Christopher Austin's testimony, he argues, The prosecution doesn't really have a case. All they had was circumstantial evidence, meaning she was having an affair. And Christopher Austin isn't to be trusted because he got a plea deal.

They can offer Mr. Austin his life back in exchange for his testimony. Levine strides down the full length of the courtroom and points his finger at the jury. He says he's not asking them to find that Monica was. a good wife. He's not even asking them to find that she was a good person, but he does hope they'll decide one thing. Monica, you're not a murderer, and they have not proven you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But when the prosecutors make their final statements, they take a different approach. Every detail in this case matters. Every single detail matters. There's never one piece of evidence. This isn't a case with a single smoking gun, they say. This isn't just one killer's

word against another. This is about looking at the pieces of the puzzle and seeing how they fit together. Deputy DA, Beth Silverman, speaks for two and a half days until her voice gets hoarse. She takes the jury back through the entire case, back through all the ways Monica deceived and manipulated her friends and family. The lie she told to the police, like not knowing anything about the DBR system, or the things she said to Baker in the cop car after the two of them were arrested. The first thing the defendant is telling Baker is no deals, none. I'm denying everything except our affair. Well, what else is there if it's only an affair? Silverman reminds the jury that in 60 hours of conversation between Monica and Baker and the courthouse lockup, she never even once asked her

lover to explain why his DNA was all over the crime scene. Never confronts him with the fact that he's the actual killer. Instead, what you hear is the two of them acting together to explain it away. When Heather Stegel makes the final rebuttal statement for the prosecution, she asked the jury to use their common sense. What is the only possible explanation for all of this evidence? As her statement comes to an end, it's not the surveillance or the digital forensics or Monica's behavior she reminds the court of. Instead, she chooses the words of one of Fabio's family members to make a final impression on the jury, his son, Luigi Semantilly. Luigi trusted the defendant, and he gave her the benefit of the doubt, much like you started here with the presumption of innocence.

But as Luigi said, once you go back, and start wreck collecting. It becomes very clear. The puzzle pieces fit together very easily. My co-counsel and I have presented you those pieces and the puzzle is complete. Thank you. I hardly watched any of the trial. I just couldn't stand to. Back at home in Canada, Luigi Semantilly hasn't been following all the drama in the courtroom. I don't need any more bad news right now. I don't want to be strung along with what does this mean? Could this be bad? I don't want to hear it. I've really. really just want to get to the verdict and

get the final word, because that's really the final word that matters. After 10 weeks, dozens of witnesses and thousands of pieces of evidence, that day finally comes. The moment Luigi has been waiting over eight years for. The jury is about

to deliver their verdict. This is it. It's going to go down. It's time. If you wanted to ruin your life, he really could. We all know the internet has a dark side, but But there's one online predator who unleashed hell on his targets. An internet terrorist.

That's the best thing to describe him as. He's after young female gamers, and he'd turn their dream of becoming a big-time streamer into a never-ending nightmare. We get big, bright lights in our face, and we have guns pointed at us. There is no logging off, and there's no getting away. Eventually, you get a message from this guy.

If you want this to stop, you have to talk to me. The cops need to figure out. out who's the mastermind behind it all. I can't believe what I just saw. And stop him before it's too late. Oh my gosh. How is he doing all of this? From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is You Are Next.

Available now on The Binge. Search for You Are Next, wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Fabio Semantilly. Big hearts, big voice, big laugh. A rock star hairstylist who drove a Porsche. He was like a wizard behind the chair. But killers came for Fabio in his own backyard. You can't rationalize it.

You can't figure it out. There was rampant speculation about everything. But every wild theory was wrong. Because the truth was even more unbelievable. What? Is anyone hearing what I'm hearing? And even more heartbreaking. The uncertainty of not knowing is a form of agony.

From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is cut, color, kill. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Cut Color Kill is available now on The Binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcast to start listening today. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, ad free. On April 11, 2025, in the L.A. County Court in downtown Los Angeles, the prosecution and defense teams are assembled to hear the verdict in Monica Semantilly's trial.

There are TV cameras rolling and journalists with pens poised over their notepads. The media have been following every word of this trial. Luigi Semantilly is at home in Niagara Falls. Today, even he is watching online. Constantly refreshing the live stream, watching the live stream, waiting for them to announce that they had come to their verdict, staring at that seal of California that's above the judge's desk for what felt like forever.

Finally, the judge takes a seat. Monica is sat with her defense attorney Leonard Levine. She's wearing a gray blazer. Her expression is neutral, but you can see the tension in her brow. The judge opens the envelope containing the verdicts. He peers down at the papers over his half-moon glasses, then hands it back to one of the court clerks who begins to read. We, the jury, find the defendant Monica Semantilly,

guilty of the crime of murder and violation of Penal Code 187. The clerk runs through the charges, first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, plus the additional special circumstances that make the crime even more serious, lying in weight, and financial gain. Guilty on all counts. Back in Canada, Luigi is overcome. Just endless tears streaming down my face, that it was over. It was done. After over eight years, that it was finally finished was like closing the book on the hardest

chapter of my life and to get the verdict that I wanted was just an unbelievable feeling, an unbelievable rush of emotion. I called my three best friends, I called my mom, of course.

I called my aunt and my aunt Morella and I on the phone, we were just, we were hysterical. And we kept saying, it's done. It's done. It's done. In June, Luigi returns to Los Angeles for Monica's sentencing. He and some of his family are giving victim impact statements. It's a final opportunity to stand face to face with a woman who murdered the man they all adored.

And let the world know how her actions have affected them. You had it all, Monica, and you threw it away. There's a darkness living inside of you that no more. mortal can understand your evil treason. When Fabio's sisters, Loretta and Morella, stand before the court, the emotion in the room is palpable. You didn't just kill Fabio. You humiliated him.

You betrayed him in the most despicable way. Then you held my grieving mother, and you pretended to mourn Fabio when you were the killer. When it's Luigi's turn to speak, he wants to say something different. I always thought that when this moment came, I'd have a holster. full of the nastiest, most vengeful, and vitriolic words, I could possibly muster to do my part in speaking truth to power and righteousness to evil. But that's not what I'm going to do here today. I knew I didn't want to go up there and pour my anger out

because I didn't want to hold on to it anymore. And being that, I studied philosophy, one of the books I remember studying and enjoying a lot was thus spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche. And there's a great chapter in there on the bite of the adder, where he's bitten by the snake, and he says, you can't give me your poison. And he forces the snake to lick the poison out of his wound. I have no poison to give back to the adder.

Because I've come to believe that you become what you behold. And if I hold on to cruel, hateful, and vindictive thoughts, then I too will become a cruel, hateful, and vindictive person. And I refused to be made worse from this experience. I didn't want the poison of this situation to infect me and infect my life. I wanted to let go of the anger. I wanted to let go of the grief. And now this moment was the beginning of the rest of my life.

Monica Semantilly is sentenced to life without parole. But there are two members of the Semantilly family who see this verdict very differently. Luigi's sisters, Bella and Jessica. For years, they've stood by their mother, refusing to believe that she was responsible for their father's murder. They spoke at the sentencing hearing, too, describing their pain at losing not just one parent,

but now too. Their happy memories of time spent with their mom and their dad, and their desire to not be defined by this devastating chapter of their lives. After we got the verdict, I reached out and I said, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for your loss. And since then, we've still been talking more than we have been in many years.

But I imagine it's going to take time to navigate the new normal in our relationship. Everyone leaves the courtroom after the sentencing hearing. Fabio's side of the family go out for lunch. They sit around a table at a restaurant. The two prosecutors come to. One of the cousins said something about like it would have killed us had, you know, the verdict not come back that way. And I said, no, it really wouldn't have because you know what the truth is. You know what the evidence is. And you guys all still have each other. And I think

they all have some recognition that from here on, it's their responsibility to live as wonderful and big a life as they each can because they're living not just now for themselves and their families, but for Fabio. As of this recording, Monica Semantilly is appealing her conviction. she still maintains her innocence. We reached out to her attorney who did not respond. But Luigi and the rest of the Semantilly family are trying to move on. It really feels like, after the sentencing, everyone started to allow themselves to heal. It's not as dark as it was.

We're starting to reminisce in new ways, in lighter ways, instead of the gravity of the situation infecting every conversation and every utterance of him. I've listened to a lot of people talk about Fabio Semantilly while I've been making the show. And across the board, there has been such an outpouring of love for this guy, whether it's family and friends, colleagues, or just people who cross paths with him in the beauty industry at some point. Someone he might have mentored. Someone he inspired. There are hundreds we could have spoken to. Fabio was the kind of guy that left an impression on people.

And people really wanted to share that. He had a rare quality about him. Lots of people described the same way. It was how he made them feel. Talent is one thing, right? Talent, yes, you can be talented and you can do great hair, but a lot of people can do that. How you make people feel and how they remember you,

it's a warm feeling in your heart, and I think that's what his legacy is. He made everybody feel as if they were important, And then they contributed something because that's all people want. Just be seen, you know. I hope that everybody has a chance to encounter somebody like Fabio and their lives.

His ray of light just radiated and affected so many people. He always believed that people may not remember what you say, but they'll remember how you made them feel. He was in the business of making people feel good. And people remembered that. In a story with so much darkness and cruelty,

it would be easy to feel that the lesson here is about deception, betrayal. But for me, what stands out above all is the love that Fabio inspired in so many people. And maybe that's because Fabio himself was so clear about what he wanted his legacy to be. You kind of sit in the backyard and I say to myself, you know, what do I want to be remembered for? In June of 2015, Fabio was interviewed by American Salon magazine. He was asked what had mattered most to him over his life. We know Fabio was wildly successful. He won awards.

He went from rags to riches as the son of immigrants. But as he sits back in his chair and pauses before he speaks, I think you can see on his face that this is what truly matters. I always say to myself, I want to be remembered for the relationships I've built. I want to be remembered for how maybe I've made people feel. in a positive light. And if it was negative for any reason, it's because I was honest. I hope that's what I'm remembered for. Unlock all episodes of Cut, Color, Kill, ad free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show,

but you'll get binge access to an entire network of over 60 true crime and investigative podcasts. Shows like Doctors' Orders and watching you all ad-free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series. That's all episodes, all at once. Search for The Binge on Apple podcast and hit subscribe at the top of the page. Not on Apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. This is Cut, Color, Kill, an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and novel, hosted by me, Jonathan Hirsch. Caroline Thorneum is our senior producer. Catherine Godfrey is our editor. Muhammad Ahmed Ahmed is our assistant producer. Mark Pittam is our engineer. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson. For a novel, our executive producer is Max O'Brien. From Sony Music Entertainment,

our executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and me, Jonathan Hirsch. Production Management from Cherie Houston, Joe Savage, and Charlotte Wolf. Fact-checking by Fendell Fulton, research by Myron Kaplan. Story Development by Nell Gray Andrews. Novel's Director of Development is Selena Mehta. Special thanks to Carolyn Sher Levin at Miller-Korznik-Raman. And a big thanks to the whole Sony Music Entertainment team. Hey y'all. It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.