Sex, Knives, and Videotape

Speaker 1 This show is supported by Hot and Deadly, a podcast from ID. Hot and Deadly brings you American true crime that is often stranger than fiction.

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Speaker 2 Tonight, the bombshell trial that just wrapped.

Speaker 5 It could be a big movie or TV series, but it's real.

Speaker 7 These are real people.

Speaker 8 This really happened.

Speaker 10 Hey guys, Fab here for another Fab Style episode.

Speaker 12 What was about to happen to Fabio, nobody could believe.

Speaker 13 His daughter Isabella opened the door.

Speaker 15 She goes to the patio and lets out a scream.

Speaker 17 Sees her father slumped over in his favorite chair.

Speaker 18 There's blood everywhere.

Speaker 19 They killed Fabio. They killed Fabio.

Speaker 20 Who would want to do these things to them?

Speaker 16 And why?

Speaker 20 How do you answer that question?

Speaker 22 Had this been a case of a a home invasion robbery that turned deadly, but authorities now investigating if knock-knock burglars may be to blame.

Speaker 23 Maybe that knock-knock burglar ain't no knock-knock burglar.

Speaker 5 There's a twist here.

Speaker 24 The knife is personal for the quantity of times he was injured with it.

Speaker 25 I thought this is really personal.

Speaker 21 They were on this torrid trail of love and murder.

Speaker 17 There's no way.

Speaker 26 There's got to be a mistake.

Speaker 27 I'm blown away. I'm in shock.

Speaker 19 I just wanted him to open his eyes.

Speaker 30 It's January 2017 after a weekend of rain.

Speaker 31 It's a sunny Monday.

Speaker 33 And as 16-year-old Isabella Cementilli pulls up to her family's house in Los Angeles, it's about 5 p.m.

Speaker 14 Three minutes later, Isabella is screaming into her cell phone.

Speaker 33 In just a few minutes, law enforcement and emergency vehicles converge on the site, but Isabella's father is dead.

Speaker 36 Police say the victim was stabbed to death at his home. He's been identified by police as 49-year-old Fabio Cimentelli.

Speaker 12 At the house, distraught family and friends gather into the night.

Speaker 39 Isabella is there, along with Fabio's older daughter, Jessica, and his widow, Monica, who is inconsolable, speechless with shock and grief.

Speaker 27 And I'm sitting with Monica, and she could not put words together. She was like, I'm not a wife, honey, more, over and over.

Speaker 17 To have somebody murdered in their home, it freaked all of us out. These kinds of things don't happen at Woodland House.

Speaker 37 Yet Fabio Cementilli's murder did happen and it happened in cushy Woodland Hills, California.

Speaker 38 This brazen killing would reveal secrets that would tear this family apart.

Speaker 46 And since we first brought you this story in 2024, new video and shocking new revelations direct from the courtroom.

Speaker 48 This is a homicide case. That's why it's look like a Hollywood movie,

Speaker 48 except that it's reality.

Speaker 50 The explosive trial and verdict, some eight years in the making.

Speaker 48 And in this case, what you heard was that the defendant deceived everybody.

Speaker 51 Hey everybody, how you doing?

Speaker 52 My name is Fabio Cimentilli.

Speaker 37 Decades before his murder, Fabio Cimentilli had started living life to the fullest in his hometown of Toronto, Canada.

Speaker 53 This technique will be here, you can take it to the bank, let me tell you.

Speaker 28 A hairstylist with a personality so grande, they called him Big Daddy.

Speaker 48 The first time I heard Big Daddy, I'm like, who are they talking about? Oh, of course, Fabio.

Speaker 54 Fabio was a salon standout, and he thrived in the spotlight.

Speaker 55 And everywhere he went, people adored him.

Speaker 55 Fabio, Shiva.

Speaker 55 Fabio styled people like J-Loe, Russell Crowe, Jackie Chan, Jennifer Lovewick, and the list goes on and on.

Speaker 53 People always would have to remind me, you know, do you know who your dad is?

Speaker 59 Your dad is so cool, right?

Speaker 53 And I would say, yeah, I mean, he's just my dad.

Speaker 58 But now I realize, oh my gosh, yeah, he was a big deal in the hair industry.

Speaker 62 Fabio reveled in that life as a self-made superstar from Little Italy in Toronto,

Speaker 13 where he was a first-generation Canadian.

Speaker 59 He sang Italian. He sounded Italian.

Speaker 14 He drove an Italian car.

Speaker 47 He drove a fear.

Speaker 32 For Fabio, family seemingly was at the center of his universe.

Speaker 28 In those days, he had a loving wife, Vonda, and a young son, Luigi.

Speaker 2 But he was especially close with his sister, Morello.

Speaker 30 She was a well-known hairstylist in her own right.

Speaker 56 Nobody could style hair the way Fabio and Morella were styling hair.

Speaker 26 We opened up a salon Modelli, salon and spa, and that's where he came to work with me.

Speaker 5 And then she taught you everything you know.

Speaker 48 I don't want to take all the credit there.

Speaker 26 And a lot of clients loved his personality, of course, his laugh, and he could do no wrong in the salon, honestly.

Speaker 52 This young lady's transformation

Speaker 58 is going to be tough to beat.

Speaker 31 Fabio and Morella, they became immersed in the glamorous world of competitive hairstyling shows.

Speaker 47 Sementilli's flair under pressure made them instant standouts.

Speaker 26 So within 17 minutes you had to create from start to finish your look.

Speaker 26 We just loved every minute and killed it.

Speaker 19 They would announce five more minutes. Cinkwe minuti rimani.

Speaker 26 And then hands off, don't touch.

Speaker 7 And I still have my finger on the hairspray.

Speaker 7 Team Madeline International.

Speaker 54 Then one day in the mid-90s, she would walk into their salon and change Fabio's life forever.

Speaker 34 She was Monica Crescentini, who was then working at a nearby clothing boutique.

Speaker 26 Fabio needed a model. You know, Monica was one of his clients, so of course it was very easy.
He asked her to be a model, and she was very happy to be his model.

Speaker 54 Monica took to her new role and to the man who was styling her.

Speaker 26 She was doing a great job. Fab was winning.
It was always, you know, a nice celebration, and I think they bonded.

Speaker 2 but while Fabio and Monica were growing increasingly close for his wife Vonda not a lot of highlights

Speaker 7 yeah

Speaker 7 tough

Speaker 24 I noticed after a while that you know my marriage started getting a little crowded

Speaker 38 Fabio had fallen for Monica and the two were in love.

Speaker 29 They ended up getting married in 1997.

Speaker 24 Just when the ink on my divorce was dry,

Speaker 24 I, you know, said to him, good luck with this marriage.

Speaker 53 I hope that she gives you everything that you're looking for.

Speaker 32 Fabio and Monica would have daughters Jessica and Isabella.

Speaker 28 Monica also welcoming Fabio's son by his first marriage.

Speaker 26 She welcomed Luigi into her home

Speaker 26 and they had a lovely little family. Fabio admired her for welcoming Luigi like her own son.

Speaker 53 Brought me into the family and treated her like family. It was a very good relationship that we all had together.

Speaker 28 But then in 2007, the hair care company Wella makes Fabio this amazing offer to move him and his family to Southern California for a dream job as their vice president of education.

Speaker 28 And it meant leaving Toronto and so many Cementilles behind.

Speaker 59 You could have said, how can you do this to us?

Speaker 40 I could have.

Speaker 63 I could have.

Speaker 26 And I didn't. He was just so excited about it.

Speaker 15 Can you believe it, Mara?

Speaker 40 They want me.

Speaker 19 He felt the need.

Speaker 26 He had to go.

Speaker 38 By 2011, Fabio was living his best life in the warm California sun,

Speaker 28 along with Monica and their two daughters, eventually moving to that neighborhood of Woodland Hills.

Speaker 23 The area that Fabio and Monica bought a house in LA is in a very, very nice part of Woodland Hills.

Speaker 40 Perfect kitchen, perfect patio, perfect porch.

Speaker 66 By early 2017, 49-year-old Fabio is already making plans for a 50th birthday blowout later that year.

Speaker 21 Seemed like he was living the American dream.

Speaker 19 The life that a lot of people would want, right?

Speaker 30 But then came that fateful January day when Isabella came home and went out to Fabio's patio office, where she was greeted by a scene of horror.

Speaker 12 Now, the question on everyone's mind: who would murder Fabio?

Speaker 4 And why?

Speaker 12 Fabio Cementilli was living large and loving it.

Speaker 65 Married to his second wife, Monica, he'd brought her and their two daughters far from the lives they'd known back in Toronto, all the way to Southern California.

Speaker 29 Where his dreams of sunshine and success, they were coming true.

Speaker 23 The area that Fabio and Monica bought a house in LA is in a very, very nice part of Woodland Hills. He does everything you can think of to this house.
It's almost perfection.

Speaker 23 But you even redo the security systems, so they got the fanciest and the best.

Speaker 28 That security system, it let Monica monitor comings and goings remotely, even when no one's home.

Speaker 14 And Fabio's on the road a lot, glad-handing and hugging as a hair industry VP, posting exuberant updates from his worldwide travels on social media.

Speaker 53 He loved checking in with his audience that he developed on social media, his friends and family, right?

Speaker 53 So here we've got one of his famous airplane pictures.

Speaker 58 He was traveling all the time.

Speaker 52 He was a go-getter, man. He was everywhere at once.
He was everywhere at once.

Speaker 53 That's the best way to put it, yeah.

Speaker 13 But at his house, with a Rolex on his arm and a Porsche in the garage, the prosperous executive, he struck a more cordial tone.

Speaker 10 Hey guys, Fab here for another Fab style episode.

Speaker 66 His Fab Friday posts, they were signature Fabio.

Speaker 79 Number 10, teamwork.

Speaker 6 Showcasing his good-natured outlook, his passion for his work, all from that home office of his, his favorite place on earth.

Speaker 15 This was Fabio's place. No one would ever dare sit in that chair.

Speaker 6 While Fabio was working, the two girls seemed to be flourishing in Los Angeles.

Speaker 43 And Monica also had found her footing in Southern California, spending time with friends who admired her gracious style.

Speaker 27 Monica was my fancy friend. I mean, everything she touched was elegant.
Her home was elegant. Her daughters are beautiful and sweet.

Speaker 26 Monica had some really nice dinner parties, and people would be like, How did you make this? She had made friends.

Speaker 19 She was going to the gym.

Speaker 26 So she had already set her roots down. So it was always reassuring for Fabio that the family was also thriving in LA.

Speaker 15 Part of Monica's life was being involved in a racquetball club at the local gym called LA Fitness.

Speaker 15 And she developed lots of friends in this racquetball club. Two women in particular, they called themselves the Musketeers.

Speaker 27 The three Musketeers of Racquetball, I felt like we were in high school and we would tease the guys, especially the head of the racquetball league. He was like the cool teacher.

Speaker 27 He would keep us all on schedule and he was very serious. And Monica was

Speaker 27 fit and she was ready to play. Monica was like a beast.
She was like climbing the ranks.

Speaker 28 Monica would play to win on the racquetball court.

Speaker 39 After competing in their LA Fitness League in West Hills, it was time for the Musketeers to P-A-R-T-Y at her place.

Speaker 27 A week over to Monica's and they had the fire pit and she'd bring out this crude

Speaker 27 of like cheese and meats and it was so delicious

Speaker 27 and there was always the wine and we would talk, girl talk, like what's going on. I mean, you've been married 20 years, Monica.
What are you gonna share? She was like, no, everything's really great.

Speaker 27 Everything is like, he's the love of my life.

Speaker 31 10 days into 2017, Fabio celebrated Monica's birthday with a family dinner at a fancy restaurant.

Speaker 28 Truly, La Dolce Vida in Southern California, just as he might have imagined it.

Speaker 26 He's like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm here. Morella, do you believe this?

Speaker 28 But what was about to happen to Fabio less than two weeks later, nobody could believe.

Speaker 81 January 23rd, 2017 was a Monday.

Speaker 64 Fabio planned to work from home all day that day.

Speaker 28 So it's just about five o'clock when his daughter Isabella, who'd been in school all day and then stopped to apply for a job after school, enters the house.

Speaker 15 And she can feel things seem a little odd. And she walks through the kitchen.
and can see there's blood

Speaker 7 everywhere.

Speaker 15 She goes to the patio and lets out a scream.

Speaker 17 Sees her father slumped over in his favorite chair.

Speaker 51 Bella calls 911 right away, and before help arrives, she stays on the line as the operator tries to help her save her father's life. I want you to go ahead and put the month back immediately.
That's

Speaker 51 what we're doing. Okay, you're doing very good, Jack.

Speaker 51 I got it.

Speaker 51 Just put a month back as long as you can, Captain.

Speaker 51 You're doing a good job, Matt.

Speaker 51 It's dead.

Speaker 36 On arrival, police say they found the victim lying in his outdoor patio. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Speaker 21 We were learning some shocking details about the case as soon as we arrived on scene. Detectives right away said that this was extremely gruesome and bloody scene.

Speaker 27 Monica texted me, please come over. I need you.
And I was like,

Speaker 27 da, da, da, da, of course.

Speaker 27 So I drive over and this lady comes out of Monica's house. And I was like, yeah, my friend Monica, who lives there, asked me to come over.

Speaker 27 And she goes, okay, come with me, but just don't step in the blood. And I was like,

Speaker 27 um,

Speaker 40 okay.

Speaker 27 It's beyond.

Speaker 17 It's just, it's just beyond.

Speaker 27 It's just horrible.

Speaker 65 Even as his family mourns elsewhere in the house, the investigation into Fabio's death is already underway.

Speaker 71 LA police surveying this hideous scene.

Speaker 28 Inside, police discover that Fabio has been stabbed to death.

Speaker 39 He's got several wounds in the neck, and he's been stabbed in the thigh, directly into his femoral artery.

Speaker 29 It seems an area targeted to cause maximum bleeding.

Speaker 28 Cops determining that Fabio had been alone in the house for about 80 minutes before his body was discovered by Isabella.

Speaker 39 Monica telling police she had been running errands at a nearby mall.

Speaker 36 No motive has been determined, but police say burglaries have increased significantly in the area.

Speaker 23 You know, it's presented. By the initial investigators, oh, maybe it's a burglary gone wrong.

Speaker 83 Some suspects came into this house, ended up killing the owner, and leaving. One of the things we've determined is that there was a sports car that was parked here that's missing.

Speaker 45 Fabio's pricey Porsche, it's been stolen.

Speaker 62 His home has been hit at the same time that a crime ring, dubbed by police the Knock Knock Burglars, has been terrorizing wealthy neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Speaker 22 Authority's now investigating if knock-knock burglars may be to blame for the murder of a hairdresser Fabio Camentelli.

Speaker 21 It was instantly the thought that, oh my gosh, had this been a case of a home invasion robbery that turned deadly.

Speaker 23 Oh my god, they may be killing people now.

Speaker 31 Fabio Cementilli had been at the top of his game, but the man described as larger than life had just been found murdered in his own backyard, sitting in his favorite chair.

Speaker 62 Phone calls from Fabio's grief-stricken daughter, Jessica, bringing the horrible news home to his relatives in Ontario, Canada.

Speaker 53 My sister called me, and she's absolutely hysterical.

Speaker 8 I'm thinking, What happened?

Speaker 53 And she goes, Someone killed Dad.

Speaker 68 Jessica called me.

Speaker 22 Then Monica came on the phone because she started crying, Jessica.

Speaker 19 And she said, Morella, they killed Fabio.

Speaker 16 They killed Fabio.

Speaker 59 The pain is in your stomach.

Speaker 35 And it hurts.

Speaker 35 It hurts. Yeah.

Speaker 59 Very painful.

Speaker 85 And everything else that happens. The disbelief.
The whys, the when, the how.

Speaker 53 It felt like a dream.

Speaker 53 And really, when I say that, I mean it felt like a nightmare.

Speaker 29 Police launch their investigation, and they get a break.

Speaker 6 A neighbor's security camera provides an immediate clue to the possible identity of the perpetrators.

Speaker 21 It showed two suspects, two hooded suspects, their hoodies pulled all the way around their faces, tied and tight so you couldn't see anything, running up to the home.

Speaker 8 When they leave, they leave in a car, and it ain't their car.

Speaker 23 It's Fabio's favorite, Polosh.

Speaker 15 As the LAPD is scouring the house, they do notice that there is some cash missing.

Speaker 17 There's some jewelry missing.

Speaker 21 Right Right off the bat, their thought was that this was a home invasion robbery termed deadly strictly because the home, part of the home had been ransacked.

Speaker 36 No motive has been determined, but police say burglaries have increased significantly in the area.

Speaker 28 Fabio's house has been hit at the same time that a crime ring that the police dub the knock knock burglars has been terrorizing wealthy neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

Speaker 86 There were some people on the video who appeared to be dressed similar to how the knock-knock burglars were dressing.

Speaker 86 In 2017, we were seeing probably double the burglaries of what we were seeing five years before. There was a dramatic rise.

Speaker 23 When it comes to the knock-knock burglaries, there was kind of an MO at the time. They'd be looking for a bigger, nicer house.
They'll knock on the door, usually middle of the day. No one answers.

Speaker 8 They break in.

Speaker 86 Neighborhood like this would attract them mainly because you have obviously some really expensive cars in the driveways. The homes look like they're really well taken care of.

Speaker 86 They're in and out of the home in three to five minutes.

Speaker 75 They're looking for money.

Speaker 86 They're looking for jewelry, anything that they can grab.

Speaker 23 It was also the celebrity knock-knocks. Celebrities who were clearly on social media would become targeted.
They would watch the house, see they weren't there, and then they would go break break in.

Speaker 62 It's an A-list of victims who all led lives that took them on the road.

Speaker 38 Nikki Minaj, Rihanna, the Dodgers Yassil Puig, Lakers legend Derek Fisher.

Speaker 65 Elenis Morissette lost more than a million dollars in jewelry.

Speaker 87 When the burglars would break into the homes, these guys were pretty savvy.

Speaker 86 They were going straight for the bedrooms because everybody who's wealthy keeps everything in their bedroom for some reason. They're young guys, they're strong guys.

Speaker 86 They can pick up a safe and take it and get it in the car and they're gone. I don't think that this can ever be stopped the way that it is right now.

Speaker 86 They're making too much money and they're not getting enough time in jail.

Speaker 23 Plenty of people are getting here.

Speaker 23 It was almost a weekly event.

Speaker 23 There have been fights, there have been attacks, people have been hospitalized, but no one had actually been murdered.

Speaker 28 But was it possible that the knock-knock gang had become more brazen? Had they expected that Fabio's home would be unoccupied?

Speaker 19 A board is now investigating if knock-knock burglars may be to blame for the January murder of a hairdresser Fabio Cementelli.

Speaker 15 The cops have work to do. They're trying to figure out if these knock-knock people are getting really, really ruthless to the point where now they're willing to kill.

Speaker 23 This was kind of seen as an escalation. Oh my God, they may be killing people now.

Speaker 28 Residents are now terrified that the knock-knock burglars have turned deadly. But as police go deeper, they are not 100% sold on the idea.

Speaker 86 The issue that I had with it was the homicide. I had not seen any homicides with any of my knock-knock burglars.

Speaker 86 One of the ground rules that we did find in the knock-knock series was that if they ran into anybody, it was all agreed that no violence.

Speaker 86 From the video that I've seen where victims had confronted these guys, they run.

Speaker 57 Who are you? What do you want?

Speaker 86 They're just like cockroaches when light hits them. They're just scattered.

Speaker 15 Well, look, if they just wanted to burgle the joint, they could have seen Fabio outside on the patio, smoking his cigar, sipping his wine, and said, let's go in here and get all this stuff and get out of here.

Speaker 15 It would have been easy.

Speaker 23 Initial detectives start realizing, hey, if they were ransacking the house, why is there blood inside the house?

Speaker 6 Doesn't that suggest that they ransacked the house after killing him?

Speaker 28 The detectives begin to think maybe that ransacked bedroom was a staged robbery.

Speaker 66 After all, what's missing?

Speaker 28 Just some money and some costume jewelry.

Speaker 15 Here's the other thing. Fabio's very expensive Rolex watch is still on his wrist.

Speaker 15 What, it takes three seconds to pull the watch off his wrist and get out of there? They didn't.

Speaker 23 And these are the things which start to make any good detective wonder, maybe that knock-knot burglar ain't no knock-knot burglar.

Speaker 24 I thought the knife is personal, and for the quantity of times he was injured with it, I thought this is really personal.

Speaker 28 Remember, like other houses in their well-to-do neighborhood, Babio and Monica's house had an up-to-date security system.

Speaker 28 So, all police should have to do is get their hands on the main unit and check to see what was recorded on its cameras.

Speaker 34 There's just one problem:

Speaker 64 it's missing.

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Speaker 82 Fabio Cementilli had lived a life with his family at the very center.

Speaker 30 So one week after his murder, his grieving loved ones gathered together, some from Toronto, others from Southern California, for his funeral in Los Angeles.

Speaker 26 There was a lot of visible wounds, and my mom wanted to see my brother.

Speaker 26 In Italian funeral, the caskets are open. So they suggested that maybe we put a scarf around him.
And I said, that's my brother. He always loved the scarf.

Speaker 26 He looked so peaceful and rested. And

Speaker 19 I just wanted him to open his eyes.

Speaker 19 Just say goodbye.

Speaker 53 There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about it.

Speaker 86 It still

Speaker 58 weighs heavily on me.

Speaker 53 We've got this poem from the funeral and a little guardian angel pin.

Speaker 53 If I start reading it, it's going to make me cry for sure.

Speaker 28 Beyond the tears of his family, news of Fabio's untimely death, also occasioning an outpouring of mourning like this tribute video to Fabio.

Speaker 9 Early in the year, we tragically lost a member of our industry family.

Speaker 9 And it's left a hole that will really never be filled.

Speaker 56 We lost an icon. We lost a colleague.

Speaker 56 So although we lost Fabio,

Speaker 90 his legacy is going to live on forever.

Speaker 15 While it seems the Globe is mourning the loss of Fabio Cementelli, the cops have work to do.

Speaker 28 Weeks into the investigation, the knock-knock burglar theory is a no-go. Detectives thinking about the murder differently once they learn how Fabio was killed.

Speaker 15 The coroner made note that there were no defensive wounds on Fabio's hands, so police are now starting to think there is intent here.

Speaker 17 This is a target.

Speaker 30 Then police get a big break when they find Fabio's Porsche.

Speaker 28 It's been abandoned about five miles away from the Cementille home, and it's got vital clues.

Speaker 15 Some really, really critical information comes from the swabbing of this Porsche, because there's blood in a few places.

Speaker 15 There is blood on the inside panel of the driver's side door. Blood on the clutch and brake?

Speaker 15 Very, very significant.

Speaker 28 While the DNA from that blood is getting processed, investigators make another discovery.

Speaker 45 Remember, Fabio's home had that state-of-the-art security system with the multiple cameras.

Speaker 13 Well, there are cameras that should have recorded the events leading up to his death. But it turns out the DVR, where that surveillance footage would have been stored, it's missing.

Speaker 28 Gone from its spot, even though it was not in plain sight in the garage.

Speaker 23 How did they know to take it? So then they started to wonder who had access to it.

Speaker 49 How lucky am I to have lived the greatest love story of all time?

Speaker 81 As the investigation continues, Fabio's grief-stricken spouse, Monica, she's overcome as she speaks at his memorials.

Speaker 26 My heart went out to her.

Speaker 17 I just felt like, oh my God, how devastating can this be, right?

Speaker 21 I couldn't imagine.

Speaker 59 If you saw posts or you saw them in person, you would see them dancing in the kitchen and singing.

Speaker 92 And

Speaker 56 he would always call her nicknames.

Speaker 35 I know that Fanny walks by my side, and he has his drink in one hand

Speaker 49 and his cigar on the other.

Speaker 17 And he's singing his favorite song anyway.

Speaker 28 But it wasn't always easy for Monica when Fabio wanted it my way, as she would confide to some of her friends.

Speaker 27 When Fabio was in town, she had to be available.

Speaker 27 She would complain about how Fabio would call from his chair in the backyard, Monica, I need a beer. Monica, get me another cigar.
And she would have to wait on him hand and foot.

Speaker 27 And she did it, and she took pride in it because she was a good wife, and he loved her very much.

Speaker 27 And at the other side of it, it seemed like she was getting tired of it and didn't like it, and it felt disrespectful.

Speaker 54 Friends say Monica had mentioned other things that would get on her nerves about Fabio.

Speaker 34 The pride she took in her racquetball matches, for example.

Speaker 55 She felt was underappreciated by her husband, they say, who was so often on the go somewhere else.

Speaker 27 She would get very, very offended and hurt if he didn't come and watch her play.

Speaker 27 She was really angry about it.

Speaker 27 She's like, where's Fabio? She would say, I gave up everything for him and he can't be bothered to care about what I care about.

Speaker 15 And she revealed to Elise that she felt felt a little homesick mr. mom back in Canada felt a little neglected because Fabio was so busy and out of town a lot

Speaker 28 but knowing Fabio's love of life and love of parties Monica had yet another chance to honor her late husband

Speaker 15 after the Los Angeles memorial for Fabio on the 29th of January Monica invited several of the people friends and family to come back to her home for a more quiet gathering.

Speaker 65 Yet, in that intimate group, there was an unexpected figure present.

Speaker 26 We were all outside, and this guy comes in.

Speaker 12 And that leaves family and friends of Fabio all asking the same question:

Speaker 7 Who is this man?

Speaker 34 At the Cementille home, it was supposed to be an intimate gathering, a memorial for the late Fabio's closest confidants and loved ones.

Speaker 8 So when a mysterious guest shows up, it raises a lot of eyebrows.

Speaker 27 It seemed out of place because this was more of a memorial for Fabio. This was more of Fabio's people.

Speaker 13 So mysterious, in fact, that a friend of Monica's takes this photo of him and turns it over to the police.

Speaker 28 He was Robert Baker, the racquetball coach at the gym nearby, where Monica and her pals had become avid competitors.

Speaker 27 Robert was a spectacular athlete. He was very fit and very muscular, and he wielded it proficiently.

Speaker 57 Robert would play till he dropped dead.

Speaker 84 It was so fun to watch him. He's like a marathon runner on the racquetball court.

Speaker 58 I saw how much he loved the game.

Speaker 27 He was a very alpha male.

Speaker 27 It was found out, or discovered, that Robert had some porn that was on the internet. And that was shocking.

Speaker 84 He told me he did performed in films, but I never asked any more than that.

Speaker 57 I'm sure nobody will be using it.

Speaker 27 So he had to watch it.

Speaker 41 We were in the industry together in the 90s and the early 2000s.

Speaker 62 Alana Evans was just a rising performer in the porn world when she first encountered Robert Pape.

Speaker 42 I started porn. My very first scenes were in 1998 and I remember meeting Rob and his wife at the time on set.

Speaker 15 Robert Baker, it turns out, also acted as a manager specifically for his wife, Dee, who also appeared in adult films.

Speaker 90 And our special guest today is...

Speaker 71 Dee.

Speaker 90 How long have you been in California?

Speaker 8 That's where you met your husband, Rob.

Speaker 48 You can say that.

Speaker 42 So as a girl coming into the business, you see what's happening, you immediately are going to flock to Rob because he's a mover and a shaker.

Speaker 41 He's got it all going on.

Speaker 12 But by 2013, Robert Baker had moved on.

Speaker 6 He'd left the porn industry and his wife Dee for the world of racquetball.

Speaker 12 But there was a part of his past preceding those game-filled days that he could not outrun.

Speaker 17 I lived at Woodland Hills for a long time, and as a mom, I will check the sex offender registry for my neighborhoods. And I see a picture

Speaker 93 and it's Rob's face.

Speaker 93 And

Speaker 41 I am thinking, this can't be right.

Speaker 15 It turns out that in 1993, he was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.

Speaker 94 When I originally got this case, looked into his background.

Speaker 90 At the time, he was a recruiter for the Army.

Speaker 28 In the late 80s, early 90s, police were notified that a student had made serious allegations against Robert Baker to her school counselor.

Speaker 28 Events that occurred after an incident following a basketball game.

Speaker 86 Apparently, they

Speaker 94 had a very good day and they started hugging afterwards.

Speaker 92 And then there was a kiss on the lips.

Speaker 94 After that, I think things progressed during the next couple weeks.

Speaker 92 At the time that this happened, she was 14 years old. He was in complete control of her, complete dominance of her.

Speaker 31 Baker was arrested and charged with six counts of a lewd act upon a minor.

Speaker 92 After pleading to these charges, he got a two-year state prison sentence.

Speaker 90 And he has a lifetime requirement to register as a sex offender anywhere he lives.

Speaker 34 Now, despite Baker's past, for police, this didn't necessarily add up to murder.

Speaker 28 But investigators say when they took a closer look at another photo of Baker sent to them by that same friend of Monica's, they spot something.

Speaker 54 Baker's hand is bandaged.

Speaker 15 According to the cops, it looks as if Robert Baker has a cut on his left index finger. Also, remember, there were those blood droplets in Fabio Cementilli's Porsche.
Could there be a connection?

Speaker 34 Mysteries abound.

Speaker 43 Those two masked men running toward Fabio's home.

Speaker 64 Who are they?

Speaker 44 Fabio found stabbed to death inside and his car stolen.

Speaker 4 But why?

Speaker 23 What seems to start off was a sort of, it's a burglary gone wrong.

Speaker 8 It's horrible. It's terrible.

Speaker 5 There's a twist here.

Speaker 59 So all of a sudden, people were saying, oh, so there's really more to this than what's going on.

Speaker 23 So they start to watch. They're looking for a connection.

Speaker 62 When investigators make that connection, a tangled web of lust and lies begins to unravel.

Speaker 27 At this point, I'm blown away. I'm in shock.

Speaker 26 However, this went down, it was executed brilliantly because we were deceived.

Speaker 29 Those deceptions then on full view at a sensational trial.

Speaker 48 The evidence in this case is this is a murder that was total depravity.

Speaker 13 Where sex, knives, and videotape take center stage

Speaker 29 and a betrayal so stunning it will shock the cementilles to their very core.

Speaker 26 I said, there's no way it there's got to be a mistake

Speaker 37 tonight. The bombshell trial that just wrapped.

Speaker 50 Ladies and gentlemen, the jury.

Speaker 21 It was like a made-for-TV movie.

Speaker 23 There's money, lust, greed, you name it.

Speaker 31 Hey, guys, Fab here.

Speaker 64 Fabio is found stabbed to death on the deck of his Woodland Hills home.

Speaker 21 Turns out it was a murder, allegedly fueled by two things: love and money.

Speaker 44 One murder, but three possible conspirators.

Speaker 62 That courtroom verdict just did.

Speaker 87 Oh, he saw me. He saw me.

Speaker 17 I see a picture,

Speaker 93 and it's Rob's face.

Speaker 93 And

Speaker 41 I am thinking, this can't be right.

Speaker 20 What did the sound of his voice feel like to you?

Speaker 26 Sound like I was listening to the devil speak.

Speaker 21 According to prosecutors, Monica claimed she didn't really know him. She didn't even know his last name.

Speaker 23 They are constantly communicating in some sort of code. This is like old code cracking from World World War II kind of stuff.

Speaker 15 But suddenly, Robert Baker makes a move that turns this case on its head.

Speaker 66 Fabio Cementilli was an exuberant, larger-than-life Canadian, making a real name for himself in the flashy field of competitive hair shows.

Speaker 66 Thank you.

Speaker 13 Ben Fabio moved from the salon to the C-suite, living the sweet life as a hair care company executive in Southern California, settling in with second wife Monica and their daughters Jessica and Isabella, telling American Salon in an online interview his loved ones always mattered most.

Speaker 52 For me, the first thing is my family comes first.

Speaker 84 My parents taught me that.

Speaker 56 I have sisters who I adore and

Speaker 84 my own family unit is the most, most dear to me.

Speaker 88 But Fabio's triumphant rise is cut tragically short here on January 23rd, 2017.

Speaker 36 They found the victim lying in his outdoor patio with several stab wounds to his neck and upper torso.

Speaker 32 Seemed at first like it had to be something random.

Speaker 54 Fabio's wife Monica telling cops she couldn't imagine anyone who'd want to kill him.

Speaker 35 I can almost 100%

Speaker 35 guarantee she has not won a need, you know, just not one.

Speaker 15 One of Monica's friends sends a photograph to police, and it's a mystery man at the wake for Fabio at the Cementille home.

Speaker 2 It turns out that the mystery man is Robert Baker, a former porn star manager and one-time felon turned racquetball instructor who was training Monica and her friends in the sport.

Speaker 34 Investigators say when they take a closer look at another photo of Baker's sent to them by that same friend of Monica's, they spot something.

Speaker 47 Baker's finger is bandaged.

Speaker 15 Keep in mind, there were blood droplets found in the Sementilli home as well as in Fabio's Porsche that didn't belong to Fabio. When the DNA profile comes back, it turns out they had a match.

Speaker 26 His name, Robert Baker.

Speaker 23 He seems to be, based on their evidence, one of those two men who came into that house that day, and most likely the one who wielded the knife.

Speaker 15 So now a special unit of the LAPD is brought in. They put GPS trackers on his Ford expedition and start following him.

Speaker 37 They soon make a very disturbing discovery.

Speaker 12 That man that police believe murdered Fabio Cementilli is spending a whole lot of time with Fabio's widow, Monica.

Speaker 15 There's also quite a lot of titillating footage that they're capturing.

Speaker 15 Let's just say lots of kissing and fondling and embraces.

Speaker 21 All the while, they say she was posting on social media that she was this grieving widow.

Speaker 27 Every day I was seeing her Instagram and it was like this constant living love letter to Fabio.

Speaker 15 My heavy heart misses you, she would write. I married the greatest man on earth.

Speaker 15 It's so hard to live without you, doing our best to cope.

Speaker 32 But Monica seems to have found her own way of coping.

Speaker 34 Cops tracking her and Robert Baker to Las Vegas, where they're both seen checking into the Venetian.

Speaker 21 Investigators say they were living it up. They were having a great time, going to clubs, going to bars, snuggling together.

Speaker 15 Back in LA, investigators are really focusing on Monica and her spending habits.

Speaker 27 She had just bought a brand new Mustang and all the bells and whistles. The Scuttlebutt was like, who does that? But Monica was like, Fabio would want me to have this.

Speaker 27 He loved us and this is what he would want us to have.

Speaker 13 And even as Monica appears to be freely spending money, authorities say she's also haranguing people about Fabio's life insurance.

Speaker 27 She was on the phone with the insurance company and she's like, how am I supposed to take care of the bills if you guys aren't going to pay out?

Speaker 15 The cops mention this. They've never seen a victim spend so much time begging to be cleared for the sake of the insurance money.

Speaker 35 I need some answers. I think it's not going on here.
It's four months. Please tell me about something.

Speaker 62 Just because Monica is having an affair with Robert Baker, that does not prove that Monica is involved in Fabio's murder.

Speaker 34 Detectives pay her what looks like a run-of-the-mill visit to probe what she'll choose to disclose about Robert Baker.

Speaker 21 According to prosecutors, Monica claimed she didn't really know him.

Speaker 49 Robinson leaked around her for a rapt call.

Speaker 23 They know this is a lie and immediately moves her from being, oh, she might be involved to being involved. And now she's in the frame as much as Baker is.

Speaker 38 For investigators, investigators, it's go time.

Speaker 47 Cops concoct a clever plan, one they hope will elicit more incriminating information as it catches Monica Cementilli and Robert Baker totally by surprise.

Speaker 23 It's amazing that they would say anything inside a police car, which implicates themselves. I mean, it's pretty ridiculous.

Speaker 35 I need to know what's going on right now.

Speaker 35 Help me!

Speaker 70 An all-new season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is now streaming on Hulu.

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This is gonna be catastrophic.

Speaker 1 We're fighting for our marriages, and the girls are just putting us through hell. They make everything about themselves.
I can't.

Speaker 48 Hopefully, this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

Speaker 70 Watch the Hulu original: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

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Speaker 35 I hate you.

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Speaker 29 It's been five months since Fabio Cimentilli was murdered on his back patio in Los Angeles.

Speaker 34 Now as his widow Monica tools around town in her brand new Mustang with her racquetball coach turned lover Robert Baker, the cops are moving in.

Speaker 23 They come up and they're like doing the stolen car ruse. We think the car might be stolen, you know, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 23 They wanted to just get them out of the car into the position where they would be able to extract some information.

Speaker 15 LAPD has rigged this patrol car with microphones and cameras. The dispatcher has been told to say over the radio for Monica and Robert's benefit alone, how Monica Cementelli is wanted for 187 murder.

Speaker 15 This is the big sting, but the camera malfunctions right at this critical moment. So, in the beginning, you don't see, you just hear audio.
Well, Monica's hyperventilating.

Speaker 35 Oh, my God, what's going on?

Speaker 15 When the patrol car camera does come on, the scene is surreal in a way, right out of an LA movie.

Speaker 15 Robert Baker tells Monica to stay in protocol. To detectives, it implies that they have pre-planned a certain behavior if and when they get arrested.

Speaker 28 Robert Baker and Monica Cementilli are taken to a police station in Van Nuys, booked on murder charges.

Speaker 73 The news that Fabio Cementilli's widow has been arrested for his murder hits the Cementilli family like a shockwave.

Speaker 26 Detective Parshal called us and he said, okay, we've made an arrest for your brother's murder. We arrested Monica Cimentilli and Robert Baker.
I blacked out.

Speaker 2 I don't know what to think in that moment.

Speaker 53 I'm like, are you sure this is right?

Speaker 21 Turns out, it was a murder allegedly committed by his wife and her lover, allegedly fueled by two things, love and money.

Speaker 10 Fabio Cimentelli had a substantial life insurance policy that Monica Cimentelli would have been the direct beneficiary of.

Speaker 69 Now that Monica and Robert Baker are both under arrest, investigators have access to their devices and authorities say it's Monica's communications and her actions on the day of Fabio's murder that will put her in the hot seat right alongside her lover as cops begin to assemble a minute-by-minute TikTok via surveillance cameras and precise times of phone calls and text messages.

Speaker 15 January 23rd, 2017, Fabio Cementilli has decided to work from home that day.

Speaker 15 Investigators have noticed that there are constant encrypted messages going back and forth between Robert Baker and Monica on the encrypted app Viber.

Speaker 28 You can see the comings and goings of the Cementilli family that morning.

Speaker 32 Isabella leaving for high school.

Speaker 31 Monica and Jessica going to LA Fitness.

Speaker 64 They happen to be there at the same time as Robert Baker, arriving and leaving within minutes of each other.

Speaker 37 A few hours later, here at at the Target, it's about two miles from the Cementille home, that's when things get really interesting, according to investigators.

Speaker 6 Robert Baker arrives at the lot.

Speaker 56 He parks.

Speaker 2 He's seen entering and exiting the store.

Speaker 80 And then he reparks his car all the way over here.

Speaker 21 According to prosecutors, surveillance video shows Monica pull into the parking lot of Target. She pulls off to a more remote area by another store.

Speaker 15 Is it just a coincidence that Robert shows up at that very Target at the same time that Monica's at that very target and suddenly he goes over to murder her husband?

Speaker 15 Cops say that's Monica walking into the target.

Speaker 15 She texts Jessica, who is still at home with Fabio, and reminds her, Jessica, don't be late for babysitting.

Speaker 30 After Jessica drives away from the house, investigators say Monica activates her home security system app from her phones.

Speaker 34 They believe she is watching a live stream of her home security cameras.

Speaker 15 Right around that time, two men are running up to the home to commit a murder.

Speaker 28 Prosecutors allege that Robert Baker and his accomplice enter the house through an unlocked door and make their way to Fabio out back. There, authorities say they ambush him and stab him to

Speaker 15 Detectives say that right after the murder, Robert Baker goes into the master bedroom and starts ransacking to make it look like a robbery.

Speaker 15 Then he goes to the garage and rips that DVR for the surveillance cameras right out of its wiring.

Speaker 15 Then he gets into Fabio Cementilli's Porsche, his accomplice in the passenger seat, and they take off.

Speaker 34 High schooler Isabella comes home at 4.54 p.m.

Speaker 13 That's just one minute after the intruders have fled and finds her father dead.

Speaker 39 Monica arrives nine minutes after that.

Speaker 15 Investigators feel certain that Monica planned it for her own teenage daughter to be the one to find her father in a pool of blood so that Monica could distance herself from knowledge of the sea.

Speaker 21 When you started to see how they allege this crime unfolded. I mean, it was like a made-for-TV movie.

Speaker 15 LAPD robbery homicide detectives believe that this entire operation was masterminded by Monica Simantilli.

Speaker 21 Simentilli and Baker's arraignment was continued today. In the meantime, the search continues for that third suspect.

Speaker 21 Both Monica and Baker were charged with capital murder with special circumstances for financial gain, and they were held without bail. Both of them pleading not guilty to to the crime.

Speaker 57 My client adamantly denies any involvement whatsoever in the murder of her husband, and we are hopeful that when all the facts come out, she will be totally exonerated.

Speaker 66 Totally infatuated.

Speaker 2 That's what these lovers were like behind bars, from a ride-or-die vow to an illicit message and code.

Speaker 15 But suddenly, Robert Baker makes a move,

Speaker 15 sir, that turns this case on its head.

Speaker 28 Denied bail after their June 2017 arrests for the murder of Fabio Cementilli, lovers Robert Baker and Monica Cementilli are still allowed to communicate with each other on the phone and by letter, with authorities monitoring every word.

Speaker 15 It seems like being arrested for murder has actually made the relationship steamier and more impassioned, as we hear in jailhouse phone calls.

Speaker 16 It's so gorgeous, baby.

Speaker 16 Oh, you just like me a little bit.

Speaker 16 These likes people charge. I love you so much.

Speaker 13 But it turns out, authorities say, that the pair are also trying to communicate with each other away from the prying eyes of law enforcement.

Speaker 2 In one instance, during October of 2017, surveillance cameras spot Robert Baker on his way to a pre-trial hearing as he stops to leave something on the railing of the courthouse stairwell.

Speaker 6 What authorities discover later, they say, is a note meant for Monica written in some sort of code.

Speaker 23 Kites are basically pieces of paper written with binary codes. These are typically used by people in prison.
This is like old code cracking from World War II kind of stuff.

Speaker 55 Is it intimate or incriminating?

Speaker 15 Detectives are now reading word for word all this jail mail between Robert and Monica.

Speaker 15 And there's yet another reference to keeping with the protocol, something we already heard in the back of the patrol car.

Speaker 6 It seems clear their time apart and their legal jeopardy has not cooled their passion for each other.

Speaker 12 Monica even signs her letters Mrs.

Speaker 4 Baker and calls Baker her ride or die.

Speaker 76 That's good. You want to see mine?

Speaker 76 Sure.

Speaker 28 Okay.

Speaker 34 Then during a visit with her daughter Jessica, Monica compares tattoos with her.

Speaker 76 I can't see it. I can't see it at all.
What does it say?

Speaker 4 Showing off some fresh jailhouse ink penned on the back of her neck.

Speaker 22 You couldn't see it.

Speaker 22 It says ride or dying.

Speaker 65 That ride is longer than anyone might have imagined.

Speaker 4 Amid COVID delays and legal moves, six years plus into their incarceration without a trial, there is a huge development in the summer of 2023 from Robert Baker himself.

Speaker 15 Robert Baker has done

Speaker 15 the unimaginable. He's gone to his lawyers and said,

Speaker 15 I

Speaker 15 am going to plead guilty with no offers from the prosecution. I'm going to take the blame.
I don't care what the sentence is. It is what it is.

Speaker 28 So on July 7th, 2023, Fabio's loved ones gather at the courthouse in downtown L.A.

Speaker 59 When you saw them bring him into court in the orange jumpsuit, what struck you as you looked at him?

Speaker 97 He's ugly.

Speaker 26 Ugly. I was on pins and needles for it all because we were told that he could change his mind at any time.

Speaker 98 On the record of me versus Baker, defendant is present.

Speaker 98 Then in this indictment, conspiracy to commit murder.

Speaker 99 Though those two charges, how do you plead? No contest.

Speaker 34 A no contest plea means the defendant accepts a conviction for the crime without admitting to being guilty.

Speaker 30 But in the eyes of the court, it's exactly the same as a guilty plea.

Speaker 98 You intentionally committed the murder by means of lying in wait.

Speaker 99 Yes.

Speaker 48 No statements by the people, Your Honor. However, I do have multiple family members who would like to give victim impact statements.

Speaker 30 Members of the Semincilli family stand up to speak and outpours not only anguish over Fabio's death, but their long-suppressed rage at Robert Baker.

Speaker 100 Why would a delinquent monster do this to Fabio?

Speaker 36 Why rip away the life of a transcendent man

Speaker 19 who was destined to be a legacy? Baker may have hurt him, but Fabio will live forever in our hearts.

Speaker 53 From my grief, I summon the strength to speak and to demand accountability against those who choose savagery over humanity.

Speaker 34 And what about Jessica and Isabella, the young daughters that Fabio shared with Monica? What might they say to the court about their mother?

Speaker 95 My sister and I never thought we would finally see the day that justice would be served.

Speaker 95 You took our beautiful mother's selflessness and our amazing father's life down with you.

Speaker 49 Our dad was, quite frankly, the best man in the world, in our eyes, and a rock for an entire family. His smile and laugh was like the sun as it touched everyone he met.

Speaker 49 We miss him so much and think about him every damn day.

Speaker 65 Like her sister, Jessica, believing in her mother's innocence.

Speaker 95 We know that today there will be many statements berating our mother, my sister, and myself, who are helpless and suffering as well.

Speaker 101 We want to clearly state that we will continue to stand by our mother as we have done for the last six years and we we will fight for her innocence.

Speaker 70 Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 54 With the victim impact statements completed, it's sentencing time for Robert Baker.

Speaker 98 Finnish sentence to state prison for the term prescribed by law, which in this case is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. I realize that that would not mend the hearts of anyone.

Speaker 99 And I'm sorry.

Speaker 98 We are done.

Speaker 9 Six and a half years to wait for this day.

Speaker 26 Six and a half years.

Speaker 26 Torturous six and a half years just makes us feel like we're halfway there right now.

Speaker 32 At last the stage is set for the murder trial of Monica Cementilli.

Speaker 48 So she and Baker decided that Fabio was getting in the way.

Speaker 32 Featuring two star witnesses, one for the prosecution.

Speaker 16 And he had his mouth cutting screen.

Speaker 31 One for the defense.

Speaker 91 I murdered him because I wanted her.

Speaker 73 With one big thing in common.

Speaker 4 They were both there when Fabio was murdered.

Speaker 51 On trial today, the woman who prosecutors say was the mastermind of the killing, Cementilli's wife, Monica.

Speaker 15 Over the years, I've covered every pretrial except one. And now the jury has to decide: is Monica Cementilli capable of such a heinous act?

Speaker 48 This is a homicide case that's going to look an awful lot like a Hollywood movie,

Speaker 48 except that it's reality.

Speaker 15 In her opening statement to the jury, prosecutor Beth Silverman insists that Monica was motivated to have her husband killed because she was desperate to spend her life with Robert Baker.

Speaker 48 So she and Baker decided that Fabio was getting in the way. of their future plans to be together, for her to become Mrs.

Speaker 17 Baker.

Speaker 15 So the prosecution shows the jury this picture of her standing in front of Robert's mirror in his bedroom, and she's scantily dressed, and she writes in lipstick, Mrs. Baker.

Speaker 13 An early prosecution witness telling just how wickedly indiscreet he says Monica could be about her bed fests with Robert Baker.

Speaker 74 She was saying how great the sex life was and how great Rob was in bed.

Speaker 48 At any point in time, did you see

Speaker 48 the defendant express any grief or sadness that her husband had been murdered approximately two months before?

Speaker 74 We had no idea of that and she didn't grieve even 1%.

Speaker 77 Though she's a staunch believer in her mother's innocence, daughter Jessica called to testify about the time she caught Baker in Fabio and Monica's bed while her dad was out of town on business.

Speaker 49 I noticed Rob in her bed.

Speaker 67 It was in the morning. I asked, why is Rob in the bed? She told me that he doesn't drink often.

Speaker 49 They had a a party last night. He got drunk, and so

Speaker 95 he's left it off.

Speaker 15 But when the defense has its turn with Jessica, she is insistent that her parents were the most loving couple and had the happiest of marriages.

Speaker 67 My mother and father were the epitome of what a loving marriage was, and they were the best parents.

Speaker 15 Prosecutors showed the jury that Monica was not going to lead a lesser life with Robert, that financial gain was the primary motive because she was going to be left with a lot of money if her husband was dead.

Speaker 48 She stood to inherit a great deal of money through Fabio's insurance policy, his stock options, and other assets he had set up.

Speaker 28 Luigi Cementilli, Fabio's son by his first wife, testifying about a conversation he had with his stepmother just hours after his father's death when he says she was all about the money.

Speaker 50 Monica's freaking out about money,

Speaker 50 worried that they're not gonna have money.

Speaker 48 And this was a conversation that you had with the defendant perhaps an hour or a couple hours of your dad's murder?

Speaker 99 An hour, yeah.

Speaker 15 But the defense counters. They say it is perfectly reasonable to expect a woman who's in a state of deep grief to also be worried about the welfare of herself and her two young daughters.

Speaker 46 A mystery that has lingered over this case from the very beginning.

Speaker 38 Just who was that second man running with Baker towards the Cementille home on the day of the murder?

Speaker 15 Now, in an explosive moment inside the courtroom, the prosecution brings that mystery man to the stand, and it turns out he is their star witness.

Speaker 17 Thank you. The people call Christopher Austin.

Speaker 45 39-year-old Christopher Austin.

Speaker 28 Investigators first came across his name as a person Robert Baker messaged on Facebook.

Speaker 13 After a years-long investigation, police were able to arrest Austin in October 2024 in Washington state, and he would eventually make a full confession to his role in Fabio's murder.

Speaker 48 When you flew here, what was the purpose of coming to LA on this particular date

Speaker 91 to kill the victim?

Speaker 15 And this very soft-spoken man

Speaker 15 throws a bomb into the courtroom with his testimony. He tells everyone that there was a first murder attempt on Fabio on January 22nd

Speaker 15 and that Monica had masterminded the whole thing.

Speaker 70 He said,

Speaker 91 she's going to send him to the store

Speaker 91 so we can catch him then.

Speaker 74 He showed me a picture of him.

Speaker 97 He said, this is who you're looking for.

Speaker 85 And as I'm walking, I was like, I'm not doing this.

Speaker 41 How are you feeling at this point?

Speaker 91 Shame and relieved.

Speaker 91 In my mind, I was like, okay, this isn't going down.

Speaker 28 But Austin testifies that the very next day, Baker decided to make another attempt on Fabio's life. Austin saying he was following Baker's orders as they accessed Fabio's home.

Speaker 92 He said he should be out back.

Speaker 16 And then he opened the door. He said, I'm counting three.

Speaker 16 You're going to hold him down.

Speaker 40 And he opened the door

Speaker 16 and he held his mouth. Couldn't scream.

Speaker 26 And he started, he started stabbing him.

Speaker 40 And he stabbed him once.

Speaker 37 And Austin testified that Baker told him very clearly who wanted Fabio dead

Speaker 39 and why.

Speaker 91 Monica wanted it. The wife wanted it done.

Speaker 99 I'm sorry.

Speaker 91 Baker told me she's loaded.

Speaker 85 She wants him gone.

Speaker 88 It's an emotional, even compelling account. But on cross-examination, the defense hammers at his credibility.

Speaker 23 The defense argues, Christopher Austin cut a deal. He got second-degree murder.
He'll walk out one day from a prison, essentially, because he made a deal. So who do you trust?

Speaker 63 And you knew the only way you could save yourself was to testify on behalf of the prosecution, correct?

Speaker 91 To tell the truth, yes.

Speaker 63 So it was at that time was the first time that you ever said,

Speaker 63 oh, Mr. Baker told me that Monica Cimentilli wanted him dead for insurance money, right?

Speaker 91 After I spoke with my attorney, yes. Right.

Speaker 63 And your attorney told you if you stick to this f ⁇ you've been telling, you're getting no deal.

Speaker 37 And remember, the defense has its own star witness who's waiting in the wings.

Speaker 19 Do you solemnly take his testimony?

Speaker 15 It's the tale of two killers, one for the defense, one for the prosecution. And Monica's freedom may depend on which one of those two men the jury believes.

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Speaker 60 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 22 911, what is the address to your emergency?

Speaker 60 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 60 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 48 Is there any way you can get out of the building?

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Speaker 50 The prosecution has been piling up evidence against Monica Cimentilli, and it's crystal clear what the defense sees as a key point.

Speaker 19 You have not heard one piece of evidence, one text, one recorded call that Monica Cimentilli ever uttered a word about wanting her husband dead.

Speaker 19 Having a sexual affair doesn't mean you want your husband to die.

Speaker 30 Now the defense is looking to to rehabilitate Monica's reputation in the eyes of the jury.

Speaker 103 Monica was duped into believing

Speaker 19 that Robert Baker had nothing to do with Fabio's death. After Fabio was murdered, in her grief, the person who stepped up to replace Fabio, to control Monica, is Robert Baker.

Speaker 15 In the defense opening statement, Blair Burke made a case for Fabio being far worth more to Monica if he was alive, not dead.

Speaker 15 The most valuable thing that Monica Cimentilli could have wanted, if she cared about money, was for Fabio to continue with his salary.

Speaker 15 Then the defense brought up Isabella, the youngest daughter,

Speaker 15 the one who found her father lying in a pool of blood.

Speaker 61 You still believe in your mother's innocence?

Speaker 97 Yes.

Speaker 61 Can you describe what condition she was in after realizing that Fabio had been murdered?

Speaker 95 She fell to her knees when she came home.

Speaker 95 She was screaming, crying. She couldn't stand up on her own.

Speaker 15 The defense vehemently challenges any notion brought about by the prosecution that Monica timed it so that Isabella would find her father's body.

Speaker 61 It's inconceivable that if Monica was orchestrating this murder, she would allow her own daughter to potentially arrive home when the killers are still there and risk her being murdered.

Speaker 15 The defense also calls Monica's sister Anna Crescentini to the stand. Those two siblings were incredibly close.

Speaker 25 I believe she had nothing to do with that murder. She was just concealing an affair and her lifestyle.

Speaker 37 But the prosecution uses Anna's time in the witness box to launch another withering assault on Monica's character and truthfulness.

Speaker 41 Do you still think they had a great marriage?

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 25 It is possible to love someone and cheat on them at the same time. It happens all the time.

Speaker 41 At that funeral in Canada, you wrote down that Monica was feeling ill and emotional. Did you know that she was sending explicit, graphic, sexually explicit photos of herself naked to her boyfriend?

Speaker 25 No, obviously I did not know.

Speaker 12 Despite all that sexting, she insisted that Monica had been devastated at the time.

Speaker 32 At last, the stage is set for this trial's climactic testimony.

Speaker 23 When Robert Baker takes that witness stand, that cool house is full.

Speaker 63 Did she have anything to do with the planning or the execution of the plan to kill Fabio Cimentilli?

Speaker 91 No.

Speaker 34 Why did Robert Baker want Fabio dead?

Speaker 8 His response is brutally frank.

Speaker 99 I murdered him because I wanted her.

Speaker 99 I wanted to have easier access. I wanted her to be around me and with me.

Speaker 102 More, like, all the time.

Speaker 28 Baker then lays out the horrifying details of the fatal stabbing of Fabio Cementilli.

Speaker 7 He got up real quick and

Speaker 99 he grabbed me and I'm struggling with him and I'm trying to get away from him. He's a pretty big guy.
Just try to get him off me and just kept cutting until he stopped me, until he got off me.

Speaker 48 Now now it's the moment everyone's been waiting for as da beth silverman begins her cross-examination of robert baker did you think at all about the trauma that you would inflict for a lifetime on these two young girls and losing their father in their home in such a horrific manner

Speaker 75 never crossed your mind no to make this easy for you no

Speaker 15 a man who's going to prison for the rest of his life will never see the light of day, was offered nothing from the prosecution. What is in it for him?

Speaker 48 And you still love her, right? That's why you're here.

Speaker 8 I love her.

Speaker 71 Of course I still love her.

Speaker 35 Of course I can.

Speaker 22 So again, you do anything to protect her too, right?

Speaker 19 That's what you do.

Speaker 62 If I could.

Speaker 15 The question is, just how far would Robert Baker go to protect Monica? Well, he says something quite interesting in the jailhouse conversations that are being monitored by authorities.

Speaker 48 And once again, you said, I'll lie. I'll lie and I'll take it.

Speaker 18 Remember that?

Speaker 99 I don't remember the conversation, but I'm sure if you said it's there, it's there.

Speaker 15 The prosecution tries to get Baker to admit that it was Monica who tipped him off about the first murder attempt, even telling him where to go to lie in wait.

Speaker 48 Remember being there waiting for Fabio to get there before Fabio even knew he was going there?

Speaker 35 No?

Speaker 58 I don't remember being.

Speaker 59 I really don't.

Speaker 48 And while you're waiting there for two and a half hours, you and Monica exchanged 69

Speaker 48 via messages.

Speaker 61 Well, we're always texting.

Speaker 15 Baker denies that he coordinated a murder with Monica.

Speaker 15 He told the court that he always knew exactly where Fabio was going to be because he could just pick things up in random conversations with Monica.

Speaker 31 Baker concedes that months earlier, Monica had set him up to be able to monitor the security cameras in her home.

Speaker 99 She sent me to log on?

Speaker 102 Yes.

Speaker 48 And that was so that you could also be aware of people coming and going, the family, from the home, right?

Speaker 99 No, it was just for her to say hello to me.

Speaker 16 For her to say hello to you.

Speaker 99 Yeah, stupid as that sounds, but yes.

Speaker 15 Investigators believe there was a heavy volume of activity between Robert Baker and Monica on the day of the murder on Viber, the encrypted app.

Speaker 15 The defense says, not unusual, nothing like any other day.

Speaker 99 Because we use Viber all the time.

Speaker 50 Like millions of other people.

Speaker 48 But millions of other people aren't plotting a murder.

Speaker 99 Yeah, but they still use Viber.

Speaker 32 It's been eight years since Fabio's murder.

Speaker 43 And after a trial that stretched from January to April, a verdict is finally on the way.

Speaker 87 The trial is wrapping up in the sordid case of a woman accused of plotting her husband's murder.

Speaker 15 It's been more than 42 days, 65 witnesses, and over 300 court exhibits. And now the jurors have their final task.
The case is in their hands now for deliberation.

Speaker 96 Ladies and gentlemen, the jury, you have heard all the evidence and the arguments of the attorneys and must base your decision on the facts and the law.

Speaker 31 Two days after receiving the case, the jury has reached a decision.

Speaker 39 Inside the courtroom, loved ones of both Fabio and Monica Cimentilli are on pins and needles as the jury jury returns its verdict.

Speaker 86 Good morning.

Speaker 17 The people of the state of California versus Monica Cimentilli. We, the jury, in the above entitled Action, find the defendant Monica Cimentilli guilty of the crime of murder.

Speaker 17 A felony is charged in Count 1 of the indictment. We further find the defendant Monica Cimentilli guilty of the crime of conspiracy to commit murder.

Speaker 15 Monica Cimentilli was found guilty of everything across the board, conspiracy to commit murder, murder in the the first degree, and including the special circumstances of lying in wait and financial gain.

Speaker 15 It was incredibly emotional as she got taken away in handcuffs.

Speaker 79 Well, we continue to believe that Monica Cimmentilli had nothing to do with her husband's murder, and we will pursue every legal avenue

Speaker 102 to obtain her complete exoneration and her freedom.

Speaker 87 Obviously, we're very disappointed in this result.

Speaker 54 We're extremely disappointed.

Speaker 50 This has been a long eight years.

Speaker 102 A long eight years.

Speaker 48 It's a very good day for justice. We've been waiting for this for Fabio and his family for many, many years.

Speaker 17 Justice with Serf today is the most beautiful day for our family.

Speaker 100 Our spirits are lifted.

Speaker 16 My brother can now rest in peace. And the murderers that have deceived him are exactly where they belong today.

Speaker 37 For some, this verdict is justice at last for the Semantilli family.

Speaker 30 But at the end of the day, their beloved Fabio is still gone, and the family must take comfort in his memory, each in their own way.

Speaker 53 So my dad was a cigar smoker, and some of the other coats and stuff, even to this day, smell like cigar. I'll go in the closet every now and then and open it up and smell it.

Speaker 58 Those smells smells are very dear to me, absolutely.

Speaker 53 This is his Rolex.

Speaker 58 He wore this all the time.

Speaker 53 He wore it when he died. I wear it for special occasions when I want to feel close to him.

Speaker 53 It's probably one of my most cherished possessions.

Speaker 26 It's hard to dig deep for a silver lining here. No, it's

Speaker 19 his legacy will live on.

Speaker 26 We were blessed to have him, even for a short time.

Speaker 40 Hey, Hey, Fab.

Speaker 11 Fab, you're so beautiful.

Speaker 49 I miss you every day of my life.

Speaker 26 I remember every one of these pictures.

Speaker 16 Yeah.

Speaker 15 Yeah, everyone.

Speaker 19 Remember this one? His iconic smile.

Speaker 49 I love you.

Speaker 17 I miss you.

Speaker 15 We'll be back.

Speaker 103 Two heartbroken sisters, a tearful goodbye, and a verdict. Finally, after eight long years of investigations.

Speaker 58 And we should point out, Deborah, that after Fabio Cimentelli's death, a scholarship in his name was established to help students in the beauty field, hoping to follow in his footsteps.

Speaker 58 That is 2020 for tonight. I'm David Muir.

Speaker 68 And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News. Good night.

Speaker 104 It's one of Britain's most notorious crimes, the killing of a wealthy family at Whitehouse Farm. But I got a tip that the story of this famous case might be all wrong.

Speaker 70 I know there's going to be a twist, won't they? A massive twist. At every level of the criminal justice system, there's been a cover-up in this case.

Speaker 104 I'm Heidi Blake. Blood Relatives is a new series from In the Dark and the New Yorker.
Find it now in the In the Dark podcast feed.

Speaker 1 This is Deborah Roberts. To hear the backstory to this episode, join me for the 2020 After Show.

Speaker 1 Every Monday, I'm going to talk with correspondents, producers, some of those folks behind the scenes who bring you these stories.

Speaker 1 And you're going to hear bonus tape that's not necessarily included in the episode. That's 2020, The After Show, Mondays in your 2020 podcast feed.