By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
LOS ANGELES — A man charged along with his alleged lover in the 2017 stabbing death of the woman’s husband, a prominent hairdresser, at his Woodland Hills home pleaded no contest Friday to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Robert Louis Baker also admitted to special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait in the Jan. 23, 2017, killing of Fabio Sementilli, 49.
Judge Ronald S. Coen of Los Angeles Superior Court immediately sentenced Baker to life in prison without possibility of parole. Baker’s alleged partner in the crime, Monica Sementilli, is still awaiting trial.
The pair had pleaded not guilty in August 2017, with prosecutors alleging they conspired to kill her husband, with plans to obtain the husband’s life insurance proceeds.
The two allegedly “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 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 for the time of her husband’s killing.
Baker and the “unknown co-conspirator” 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…
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