Dateline NBC
Audio of a jailhouse sting. A woman's third murder trial in three decades. And the latest on a new texting scam.
Thu, 27 Feb 2025
Listen to this week's episode of the Dateline: True Crime Weekly podcast with Andrea Canning. An officer goes undercover with an alleged killer in the Hollywood hair stylist case. We're listening in. A woman's third murder trial in three decades is underway. This time, she's acting as attorney and defendant — and cross-examining her own children. We've got updates on Karen Read and Adnan Syed, and a verdict in Hawaii. Plus, the latest on a new texting scam targeting drivers. Find out more about the cases covered each week here: www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com
Chapter 1: What are this week's top true crime stories?
Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's February 27th, and here's what's on our docket. In Kansas, a woman accused of murdering her ex-husband and his longtime girlfriend almost 25 years ago is now on trial and representing herself. Last week, she cross-examined her own children.
Watching those kids talk to their mother was a very uncomfortable experience, I will tell you that much.
Chapter 2: What updates are there on the Karen Read and Adnan Syed cases?
Other stories on our radar this week, a verdict in Hawaii where the man accused of murdering his wife's ex-lover has been on trial. In Baltimore, a big ruling for convicted killer Adnan Syed, whose story you may know from the podcast Serial. And we've got an important update in the Karen Reid case.
Chapter 3: What is the texting scam targeting drivers?
Well, the prosecution and defense both made arguments, and Andrea, things got pretty heated.
Plus, Vicky Nguyen, NBC News chief consumer investigative correspondent, has a warning about a new texting scam targeting drivers.
They're just hoping that a small percentage of those people tap on those links and then boom, the hackers have access to your banking accounts.
But before all that, we're heading back to a Los Angeles courtroom where the widow of a famous hairstylist is on trial for allegedly plotting his murder. The prosecution's case against Monica Sementilli has entered its fifth week.
Chapter 4: How was Monica Sementilli caught in a jailhouse sting?
The state is painstakingly laying out the evidence it says proves Sementilli and her lover, Robert Baker, planned the stabbing of her husband, Fabio, to collect his hefty life insurance policy. They were allegedly helped by a third person whose identity remained a mystery for years. Last week, prosecutors presented the jury with video of Monica and Robert immediately after their arrest.
Video, they say, that captured the unraveling of their plan in real time.
Were you able to monitor the conversation or anything that happened inside the patrol vehicle live, like as it occurred?
Yes.
Dateline producer Chetna Joshi is back to bring us up to speed on the latest in the case. Chetna, thanks for making time for us again. Thank you for having me. Sure. OK, so the last time we spoke, Chetna, you told us that prosecutors were telling the jury how investigators had zeroed in on Monica and Robert Baker.
Recently, prosecutors have focused more on what they say was their suspicious behavior after they were arrested. And a lot of that was actually caught on tape. Monica and Robert were arrested together and placed in the back of a patrol car. Chetna, what happens in that patrol car?
Right. So what's really interesting is they use this ruse on Monica and Baker. They are in Monica's new Mustang and they get pulled over. And initially the detectives say that they're driving a stolen vehicle and they get them back in the patrol car. Detectives have rigged up this car. They've put microphones in, really sensitive microphones to pick up whispers.
They have a camera in the car so that they can sort of be monitoring from a different area and be watching them live. And so we see them in the car together. So what are they saying to each other? Monica sounds really upset. She's breathing heavy. She sounds very emotional.
Oh, my God.
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Chapter 5: What is the latest in the Dana Chandler murder trial?
Can you do that in racquetball? Can the ball hit the ceiling in racquetball?
And it's sort of interesting to see, you know, how an undercover agent actually works. Yeah. And Monica's just obviously letting her guard down. She is. And, you know, at one point, Monica actually admits her affair with Robert. And she says, he's not just my lover. He's my confidant. He's my everything. Right.
Another interesting moment happens when the detectives, they come back at a later point and they basically tell her that, look, you and Rob were arrested today. We know that there is a third person. There was another guy there with Robert when Fabio was killed and he's not here anymore. So I want you to think about that.
And what it seems to be is that detectives are sort of suggesting to Monica that that third suspect is not here because he's talking to us. He's cooperating. And of course, we know now that that was a ruse.
Remind us who the police believe this man is and how he fits in.
For a long time, they didn't know who the second man was. But police were later able to identify him as Christopher Austin, and they arrested him in October of last year. But inside the cell, the detectives use this ruse on Monica, and the undercover agent totally picks that up and runs with it.
He's the third person. Ugh.
She's sort of telling Monica, like, look, the first person to talk is usually the one that gets the best deal.
At this point, you should be thinking about yourself. I'm sorry, though. Your kids and yourself, not whoever that guy is. Screw him. He did this. Make him responsible for it. If he brought all this heartache and stuff to your life... Screw him, because I bet you he's not going to think twice about screwing you over.
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Chapter 6: Why was Dana Chandler's conviction overturned?
They say that her behavior was getting obsessive.
Absolutely. They were describing she would show up in restaurants all of a sudden where Mike and Karen were having dinner and she'd start walking around them and taking snapshots of them. Or another instance, she was jumping outside on their trampoline, jumping up and down in the middle of the night.
And a lot of phone calls? Yeah.
Yes, that she was incessantly calling. You know, there was one point at Karen's house, the phone rang 17 times in 18 minutes.
Dana has maintained her innocence from the very beginning.
She says she was in Denver that weekend in July, far, far away from where the murder had occurred. And she and her team, you know, argued for years that there's no physical evidence or eyewitnesses to show she's lying or she had anything to do with the murder.
But still, she was convicted in 2012, and it was super fast.
The jury didn't even think about it for 90 minutes, and they came out and they said, guilty. So why was it overturned? She appealed, and then the Kansas Supreme Court said the evidence was substantial but not overwhelming. They said the prosecutor played a big role in that guilty verdict, and she, the prosecutor, in fact, was... less than truthful.
She said that Mike had gotten protection order of abuse from the judge right before he and Dana's divorce. And that was not true. And then the prosecutor said that Dana had found out about Mike's engagement to Karen two days before the murder. That was also not true.
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