Third suspect arrested and charged in the 2017 stabbing death of hairdressing mogul
Authorities say they have arrested the mystery man who allegedly teamed up with an accomplice to fatally stab famed hairstylist Fabio Sementilli seven years ago at a Woodland Hills mansion.
Prosecutors allege Christopher Austin was the second man involved in the killing, along with the lover of Sementilli’s wife.
Austin was recently arrested in connection with the killing and extradited from Washington state. On Oct. 18, after being sent back to Los Angeles, Austin pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder with the special allegations of the use of a deadly weapon, and pleaded not guilty Wednesday to an additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
The 38-year-old Austin, prosecutors allege, conspired with Monica Sementilli, the hairstylist’s wife, and her lover Robert Louis Baker in January 2017 to kill her husband as part of a scheme to pocket his $1.6 million in life insurance. Austin’s alleged conspirators have been behind bars for more than five years, but until recently Austin’s identity and whereabouts had been unknown.
Sementilli was the father of three and an executive at the hair-care giant Wella.
Baker, 62, last year admitted that he killed the celebrity hairdresser on Jan. 23, 2017, leaving him in a pool of blood on a back patio in what was initially thought to be a home-invasion robbery gone wrong. Baker is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Six months after the killing, Los Angeles police detectives arrested Baker and Monica Sementilli, revealing that they had been in a relationship for 18 months. Baker, a convicted sex offender, met her at LA Fitness, where he was a racquetball instructor.
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Baker, after admitting to the crime, has said that Monica Sementilli did not know about the murder plot. Prosecutors and LAPD investigators contend that extensive evidence shows she was tied to the killing.
Monica Sementilli’s trial is pending, and she and Baker have been held in the Los Angeles County jail system for more than five years. She had pleaded not guilty, and her attorney, Leonard Levine, said that she was falsely accused and that Baker will testify to that.
Her trial has been postponed a few times, and the arrest of Austin could change the dynamics. Prosecutors allege that Baker stabbed the hairstylist several times with a knife and that Austin stabbed the victim in the neck with a knife.
Baker is alleged to have told Austin that the victim’s wife wanted to get her husband’s life insurance money. As part of the conspiracy alleged by prosecutors, Baker gave Austin money to buy a ticket to fly from Anchorage to Los Angeles and a roll of gold coins after the slaying, according to the complaint.
Austin was arrested in Washington state and extradited to L.A. County, where he is being held on more than $2 million bail pending a Dec. 2 court appearance.
Initially, when LAPD responded to the home and found Sementilli stabbed to death, investigators considered it to be the work of knock-knock burglars who plagued parts of San Fernando Valley.
But though the home’s master bedroom was ransacked, the assailants never took the hair mogul’s valuable watch on his wrist, piquing the interest of detectives, said then-Robbery Homicide Division Capt. Billy Hayes. Security surveillance video showed two hooded men jogging up to the home before the slaying. Afterward, the men drove away in Sementilli’s Porsche and were recorded on another surveillance camera as they abandoned the vehicle five miles away.
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In an apparent attempt to cover up their actions, the two men took a video recording system hidden in the garage of Sementilli’s home that captured video from six cameras around the house, prosecutors said.
Detectives closed in on Baker after discovering blood in the abandoned Porsche. His DNA had previously been captured after he was convicted of a lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor in 1993 and forced to register as a sex offender, Hayes said at the time.
Prosecutors alleged Monica Sementilli told Baker how to remove the home’s video recording system. They presented evidence that she watched a live feed of the area shortly before the killing to ensure Baker had a clear path to her husband. Prosecutors alleged that she also let her 16-year-old daughter come home first and discover the crime scene.
“Monica fully intended for Fabio to be murdered,†Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman told a grand jury in 2017. “She wanted him out of the way because she wants to be with Robert Baker. She’s unhappy in her marriage, even though at the same time she’s acting like the loving, adoring wife.â€
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.
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.’’
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