LOS ANGELES (CNS) — A 39-year-old man on Tuesday was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for his role in the Woodland Hills killing of a celebrity hairdresser whose murder was masterminded by the victim’s wife.
Christopher Austin pleaded no contest in January to second-degree murder in connection with the 2017 killing of Fabio Sementilli, then served as a key prosecution witness in the trial of the Sementilli’s wife, Monica, who was convicted last month.
Austin — who was working as a parole and probation officer dealing with at-risk youths in Oregon at the time of his arrest last year — pleaded no contest in January to second-degree murder in connection with the Jan. 23, 2017, stabbing death of Fabio Sementilli, 49, in the back yard of the Woodland Hills home the prominent hairdresser shared with his wife and two daughters.
Sementilli’s lover, Robert Louis Baker, now 63, pleaded no contest in July 2023 to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and admitted the two special circumstance allegations. He is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole.
Baker, a convicted sex offender and former adult movie actor who was called to the stand during the defense’s portion of Sementilli’s trial, maintained that the mother of two had nothing to do with the plan to kill her husband. He said he murdered his lover’s husband because he “wanted her to be around me and with me more — like all the time.”
Sementilli cried after being convicted April 11 of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, with jurors finding true the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait. She is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set June 23.
Austin testified March 4 that Baker told him that Sementilli wanted her husband dead, but acknowledged that he did not personally speak to her about the crime.
After his arrest, Austin told a jailhouse operative that “she was supposed to get a lot of money if we did it,” saying that Baker — whom he considered “family” — told him that she was “loaded” and “wants him gone.” He said he mentioned insurance money because Baker had told him about it.
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Austin testified that Baker paid for his airline flight to Los Angeles and drove him the same night to a shopping center after getting a text message that Sementilli was going to send her husband out that night. He said he couldn’t go forward with the attack, but said the two men went the next day to the Sementilli family home to commit the killing after Baker received a text message.
“He said she’s going to the store. We have a small window,” said Austin, who told jurors that he learned then that the victim had a “kid” who might come back to the house.
The prosecution witness testified that Baker put him in the trunk of the rented Nissan and drove to an area where Baker gave him a knife and asked, “Are you with me?”
“Like a dummy, I said, Yeah’ and followed him,” he said, noting that the two men ran up the hill to the victim’s home.
“He said the front door should be open, meaning unlocked. He told me, he said, She’s gonna leave the door open,” Austin told jurors.
“… Did he tell you who she was?” the prosecutor asked.
“The defendant,” Austin responded, saying that the door was “indeed unlocked.”
He said Baker told him that the victim should be on the back patio and that the victim didn’t see him until Baker got close to him and tried to yell then.
“Baker covered his mouth and started stabbing him,” he said. “I covered his eyes and stabbed him once.”
He said he got into the passenger side of the victim’s Porsche at Baker’s request and saw Baker — whom he said had told him that it had to “look like a robbery” — returning with a pillowcase before the two men left in the vehicle. Austin said Baker eventually handed him items to throw out the car window and ordered him out of the Porsche before meeting up again with him on a main street.
Austin testified that Baker dumped the clothing they had both been wearing in a trash bin and that he decided to return to Washington state a day early “because I couldn’t be there.” He said Baker stuck a roll of gold coins in his pocket that his friend said was valued at around $10,000 — an item that he said Baker told him had come from the victim’s safe.
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