Pat LaLama
Appearances
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
for her he gets nothing he's gonna he'll never see the light of day what is motivating him to say she had nothing to do with it so those are two very strong things but remember in a circumstantial case when the pieces all fit together they can be airtight yeah and the defense can try all they will to undo these puzzles but it's hard to break them open they fit together perfectly
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
The prosecution alleged that Monica devised the timeline so that her 16-year-old daughter would come home to find her dad dead. Now, the defense disputes that, and they say, no, no, it just happened that way, you know, because Monica didn't know anything about it.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
But the fact is there is some evidence that Monica did plan everything and even detoured her daughter Isabella for a while to go pick up some glasses that she needed, just out of the blue. But still, Isabella got home in time to find her dad. OK, now, Robert Baker is a convicted sex offender, sodomized a 14 year old girl. Excuse me for the harsh description, but it's true.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And it came out in the case. And yet Monica gave him the codes to her home surveillance footage, right? And pin numbers and everything he needed with two teenage daughters in the home, okay? Also, after the murder, there are text exchanges between Monica and her daughters where she is downright emotionless and callous because Isabella is saying, mom, I'm afraid to be home alone in this house.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Please come home. And Monica's responding like, okay. I'm at a comedy club. And what are you guys, a cop? You know, basically. Yeah, absolutely. I'm talking, Deborah. I'm talking days and weeks after this young girl, Isabella, finds her daddy dead. And get this. I got one. I can't I can't keep this from you. On one of the text exchanges.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Remember, Monica is out with Robert through all of this until all hours of the morning, sometimes not even coming home. Isabella is just pleading with her mother to come home, right? And she goes, I'm alive. I'm a human being. You guys aren't even paying attention. I'm so scared to be here by myself. And then she says, Mom, I'm going to make that therapist appointment tomorrow. Deborah, get this.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
You know what Monica responds? Okay. Okay, fine. I'm coming home. I'm so disappointed. I'm so disappointed, she says.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Debra, you're a parent. I'm a step parent. And I love the kids like they were my own. To me, this is what I mean when I say that, you know, jokingly, I say everybody wants to kill their spouse now and then. Right. I say that jokingly. So don't take that as a comment. But when you hear. But there's truth to that. Exactly.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
When you hear these young ladies and what their mother had absolutely no regard for their emotional well-being, to me, I said to myself, the jury's going to hate this more than the murder. Now, of course, I'm being slightly facetious because murder is murder, of course. But these girls, Deborah, they don't want to believe their mother is capable of this. And you can understand that.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And, Debra, for me to say that is big because I've covered so many trials, and yet this one touched me in ways I can't describe. Let's put it this way, Debra. I live in Hollywood, right? It's the mecca of... screenwriters looking for that Oscar-winning script that'll put their name in lights.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
No, this is in my, think about, well, I've covered hundreds of trials, right, over all these decades, and this is in my top five. This is in my top five because, Deborah, The reason why I made criminal justice the focus of my career, like you, I've covered everything you can throw at me, right? But criminal justice, particularly when it comes to murder, I'm not interested in the murder.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
I'm interested in what happened in a person's life that could make them go off the rails like this. to put yourself above every living thing, to be able to construct and craft such a heinous murder of someone that you had two children with.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
I'll put it this way. The prosecution, the detectives even said on the stand, horrible as it may be, we believe that she set it up this way so that someone else besides her would have to be the one the public sees as having found the dead person. That's what the prosecution's trying to say. She put that on someone else to deal with so that she didn't have to be in the spotlight.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
That's what the prosecution believes. The defense said to the detectives, you can't possibly believe Monica would do
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
such a thing and the detective came back and said well sad as it is to say yes we believe that she constructed it so her own daughter would find it and her own daughter would be the one that would have to carry that weight isabella came home one minute deborah one minute after the the killers left the house
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And in fact, Robert Baker made a comment to his accomplice, oh, expletive, one of the daughters is coming home.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Chris Austin was a baby when Robert Baker met him. Chris Austin's dad is Robert Baker's best friend. Chris Austin is a pretty decent guy, Deborah. I'm going to tell you, you might find it hard. How can Pat say that when he's going to prison for 16 to life for for murder. But I will tell you this. You know what Chris Austin did for a living? He mentored juvenile offenders.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Never been in trouble himself. He was a mentor to them. He kept them on the straight and narrow. If they got in trouble, he tried to put them back on track. He delivered food to people who were mentally challenged. He has a wife and a baby whom he worships and adores. Now, look, I'm a law and order kind of girl. You're responsible for the actions that you take in your own life.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
However, I would say that there are mitigating circumstances in this because The prosecution brought out the way in which Robert coerced him to get involved, but only as a lookout. His role was just to be a lookout. That's what Chris Austin thought he was going to be doing. You may not know this. The first murder attempt was the night before.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
There is nothing those screenwriters can write that, to me, equals what I'm seeing every day in this particular case. It is downright Shakespearean. It is the human condition. Greed, lust, infidelity, anger, jealousy put it all together. And this is the case that you have.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
where the prosecution alleges that Monica gave Robert Baker the name of a Chinese restaurant where Fabio was going to pick up food at a Chinese restaurant. And they went to that scene and he handed Chris Austin the knife and said, you go do it. How's that for a spineless person? Right.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And Chris Austin went, got out of the car, went toward the restaurant where he spotted Fabio and then chickened out and came back. Practically in tears saying, I can't do it, Robert. I can't do it. So that's why they had to do it the next day when Monica, according to the prosecution, let them know when Fabio was going to be home alone.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Christopher Austin testified that he closed his eyes and stabbed him once, couldn't do it anymore. Okay? And then when they figured out who he was, he told them the whole story and Monica's involvement. The defense...
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
countered by saying you're only making the monica stuff up so you can get a deal okay that was a legitimate defense that was a legitimate defense but i gotta tell you he just sobbed on the stand and talked about how ashamed he was and how remorseful how he was and how you know he just robert he called robert unk all his life and he just was trying to help him out and robert baker used him and it breaks my heart i'm gonna tell you breaks my heart that his life is ruined
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Oh, thank you, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it, so thanks.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
That's exactly right. This man. So let me tell you just a little bit about Fabio before we go. Very, I mean, just beloved in the industry. One of the only actual stylists. And he wasn't just a stylist in the salon. He was the creative director for all the big runway shows from here to Paris and Rome and everywhere else.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And he was so beloved and so smart that they made him an executive at Wella Corporation, which was at the time owned by Procter & Gamble. So that's what brought him to L.A. from Toronto. So he came here with his wife and his two young daughters, and they made a home in an upscale part of L.A. called Woodland Hills. And on the outside, Deborah, everything was beautiful.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Classic story. And what happens—now, this is according to the prosecution— Monica, his wife, decides to have this lust driven affair with her racquetball coach. Right. The guy is a convicted sex offender. He's an interesting character. But apparently so many of the women in this upscale health club in Woodland Hills were crazy about him. Go figure. Right.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
You know what? I wish we had eight hours to go through every little detail, but I'll try to narrow it down for you. Here's what really makes this case so interesting. Two men were on that surveillance tape. You can't see them, but they were able to figure them out, right? One of them, it turns out, and I can say this matter-of-factly because they have confessed to the crimes, right?
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Robert Baker is the racquetball coach. He's one of them. The other one is a young man he considered his nephew. They'd known each other for decades, very, very close. He turns out to be the other man. Now, in the end, what happened is the racquetball coach has fallen on the sword 100%. He was not offered any kind of a deal. He just comes forward and says, I'm just going to admit to it. I did it.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
I want nothing. I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison. And darn it, I'm going to testify for Monica Sematilli. Who understands why he wants to die on this hill? I don't know. The other man, the younger one, He pled guilty to second-degree murder. And here's the peg. He testified for the prosecution that Monica was most definitely behind this.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
His words were that Robert didn't make a move without her instruction. Robert is trying to tell the jury or told the jury that she had nothing to do with it. And therein lies this double-edged sword. One killer for the prosecution, one killer for the defense. How interesting is that?
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Okay, so the police, LAPD, deliberately put them in cells next to each other. So there's a lot of different ways they were able to monitor their conversations. And so in these conversations, some of them are phone calls, some of them are what they call overhears, where they can record them talking to each other between cell blocks. But these are actual phone calls.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And the way they were able to do the phone calls, Deborah, is they got a third party to help put them together. Anyway, that's a that's also another long description of how this happened. But let me just tell you.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Absolutely the best. But what happened was you think now they're both arrested for murder. Right. And if she is innocent, then you wouldn't think she would keep this up. But here they are in jail professing their undying love and lust for each other.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Oh my gosh, you haven't heard that. We can't play you the half of it. We can't redo the half of it. We can't play you. We can't show you. I mean, you'd have to go and sit in the trial every day like I did to see your own jaw drop every day listening to the undeniable passion these two had for each other.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
You're so gorgeous, baby. You just like me a little bit. Oh my God, I love you so much. Honestly, I've had quite a few relationships. This is different. This is supercharged.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
He's telling her, be strong, baby. I love you so much.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
they're each other's home. Nobody can take that away. And that's the lustful edge of it. But what you'll find is that in this case, they also, there are recordings of them actually talking about evidence. And Deborah, that is what gave the prosecution a lot of strength because they are discussing evidence and they are expressing concern for some of the evidence.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
So the prosecution is arguing, well, then how is it that she didn't know anything?
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
This is when they first got to jail. But over time, you hear in the jail what they call the overhears, where the cops are monitoring their conversations, where they really do get concerned about. about certain things. For example, how Robert's blood got into the home. And there are lies about that. So the cops are able to establish some inconsistencies and some lies because think about it.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
They're so embroiled in their lust for each other that they're not being very smart, right? So they give themselves away a lot in those conversations. Deborah, here's the important thing. The important point for the prosecution in trying to prove that she was the mastermind
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
is that they have a plethora of compelling, irrefutable evidence of her going to Fabio's many memorials and services, playing the grieving widow, and then going home and sending Robert home. The most salacious nude photographs and messages you can imagine.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
The problem for the defense is they can't refute it because it's right there in the technology, which is what makes this such a great circumstantial case.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Oh my gosh, Deborah, you just hit it on the head. Let me tell you, if I were speaking to, let's say, some young juvenile offenders, what I would say to them back then was, oh, you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison. What I say now is, don't do it. There's a camera. Somewhere there is a record.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And this trial, the prosecution laid out one of the most intricate and fascinating timelines using text messages, encrypted app indications, cell towers, surveillance footage. And when I sat, I've been covering this forever. I feel like I know every detail, right? But you still have to keep yourself objective.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
But when I saw that timeline of the day of the murder and the exchanges between Monica and Robert, and they do this beautiful timeline, it makes it so clear how She placed herself, he placed himself in places and times and communications that made it seemingly clear that she was definitely involved.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Yes, absolutely. So just speaking of only the day of murder, right? They start out in this timeline of showing you cell phone usage where she starts calling him early in the morning. And then you'll see the graph go higher, lower in terms of their communications. It stops when they're not communicating and they're at a location where they meet before the murder.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
And then there's a flurry of activity. Deborah, I am not doing justice to what this timeline was able to reveal for the jury of what happened the day of the murder and they placed them at the Target store where she's basically hiding out while he goes to do the murder. I can't, there's so much detail.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Trust me when I tell you this timeline made it, it parted the clouds for me and I believe for the jury. in terms of how she, alleged by the prosecution, manipulated the whole day, gave him all the instructions, told him, told him where everyone in the family was going to be that day, sent him her husband's itinerary, sent him the code to the DVR surveillance video.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
They have technological evidence that she was watching her home video DVR system as they were there doing the murder she gave him all this information so that he would know when the window of opportunity was yeah now of course the defense disputed that timeline in court yes they did they tried to find glitches in the timeline and and listen There is no smoking gun.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
Hey, Debra. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to talk about this case.
20/20
The After Show: Sex, Knives and Videotape
There is no text message that says, all right, go get him. Okay, honey, we'll be together forever. Now go slice them up, right? There's nothing, nothing. Okay, and the other thing that the jury has to wonder, as I do, is why is this man, Robert Baker, dying on this hill?