Deborah Roberts talks with ABC News Contributor Pat LaLama about what made Monica Sementilli’s trial one of the most interesting she’s ever had to cover in her decades as a crime reporter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the dramatic case discussed in this episode?
Hi there, 2020 podcast listeners. Welcome to the 2020 After Show. I'm Debra Roberts. On Friday night's 2020, we told you about the dramatic case in Los Angeles where Monica Cimentelli has been on trial for the murder of her husband, Fabio Cimentelli. He was an internationally known hairstylist and hair care executive. He was found stabbed to death next to his pool eight years ago.
And interestingly, two men were caught on security cameras entering his property. And although his wife Monica has denied any involvement in the murder, prosecutors and investigators don't buy it. Their big question has always been, what role, if any, did his wife Monica play in her husband's death?
Chapter 2: What role did Monica Sementilli play in her husband's murder?
And we recently received news that the jury has convicted Monica Cimentilli of the murder of her husband Fabio. On today's 2020 After Show, we're going to talk with ABC News consultant and fabulous crime journalist Pat LaLama, who sat in that courtroom every day of the trial and has been on this story since the murder took place in 2017 and has such great insight into it. Hi there, Pat.
Hey, Debra. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to talk about this case.
Well, this is what's so wonderful about doing this program because we all get to talk about the little nuances and the things that happen in the courtroom and what you found along the way that sometimes we don't always necessarily get those into our program. So this is what's great about today. So let's talk about the genesis of this story.
You pitched it actually to us and you said that this was like one of the most fascinating, captivating, and I guess disturbing stories that you had covered. Tell me how so.
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.
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.
Wow. And it is also adjacent to fame, too, because he styled hair for some of the more famous people in Hollywood.
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Chapter 3: Why is this trial considered one of the most fascinating?
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.
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.
That classic story.
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.
I mean, that's that's a story for another podcast.
Well, let's let's go back to that security camera footage we talked about and how police zeroed in. There were two admitted killers in this case and testifying for both sides of the case. One prosecution, one defense.
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?
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.
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.
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Chapter 4: What evidence did police gather in the case?
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?
Wow. It's beyond interesting. And these are the kinds of things that we actually see play out all the time in these cases that we cover on 2020. Pat, hold that thought for a second. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about what police caught on tape about Monica. This episode is sponsored by Get Contact.
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Chapter 5: How did Monica and her lover communicate after their arrests?
With never-before-heard interviews and shocking revelations, Death County PA pulls back the curtain on one of America's darkest institutional secrets. You can follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to all episodes of Death County PA early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Hi there, we're back.
Some of the most fascinating audio presented at this trial came from conversations that police recorded between Monica Cimentelli and her lover, Robert Baker. You brought us, Pat, one of those, and you can set up this clip for us because the fascinating thing is you've got two different people here, two different stories. Tell us what you brought to us.
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.
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.
But clever police work.
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.
Calling each other and the phone calls got a little steamy too, right?
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.
Let's take a listen.
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Chapter 6: What were the implications of the audio recordings between Monica and Robert?
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.
So the prosecution is arguing, well, then how is it that she didn't know anything?
You know, they're talking about their love for each other and their lust for each other. And I'm sure viewers were probably struck by this, too, when this aired. But there's no sense of we're in trouble. What do we do? Oh, my gosh. How do we get here? None of that.
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.
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
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.
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.
Well, that's what I wanted to get at because you've been covering these cases for decades. You know, you have been at it a long time, as have I. And the technology has changed a lot over the years. And when you talk about sometimes things that are circumstantial, and that happens a lot with the cases we cover on 2020.
But that has changed a lot and made the police work a little bit more fruitful, hasn't it?
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Chapter 7: What circumstantial evidence led to the conviction?
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.
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.
That's what's so interesting, the timeline, you know, and they're able to do that with all of this technology. Yeah, kind of walk us through that a little bit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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