A former porn actor — accused of fatally stabbing a Canadian haircare executive in his Los Angeles area backyard in 2017 — has pleaded no contest.
Robert Baker, 61, entered the no contest plea to killing 49-year-old Fabio Sementilli during a hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Friday. The convicted sex offender was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors alleged that Baker and his lover, Sementilli’s wife Monica Sementilli, concocted the plan to kill Fabio in order to collect more than $1 million in life insurance money. Monica, 51, is still facing a murder charge. She has pleaded not guilty, according to the Toronto Sun.
“We are confident that Robert Baker’s guilty pleas and his truthful testimony will finally establish once and for all that Monica Sementilli had nothing to do with the planning or the murder of Fabio Sementilli, her husband," Monica Sementilli's defense attorney Leonard Levine said after the sentencing. "We are looking forward to the trial we believe will establish that fact.”
The well-known hair executive was home alone in the backyard of his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Woodland Hills when two people wearing hoodies sneaked onto his property. As the father of three was watching TV, he was attacked from behind, suffering seven stab wounds to the neck, chest and thigh. His femoral and carotid arteries were cut.
After the vicious attack, the assailants ransacked Fabio and Monica's bedroom and removed the DVR from the garage where the home security footage was stored, according to previous reporting by PEOPLE.
The intruders then allegedly fled in Fabio's 2008 Porsche 911, which was found abandoned about five miles away two days later. Around 5 p.m. that fateful day, Fabio's youngest daughter Isabella arrived home, saw bloody shoe prints and blood on the floor and found her father slumped over in his chair outside.
His shocking death — on the patio where he loved to smoke cigars, sip tequila and post motivational videos on social media — sent shockwaves through the hair care industry, where the globe-trotting hairstylist and Wella executive was a star.
"He would charm you with his personality and his wittiness," friend Ramsey Sayah previously told PEOPLE. "It was terrible to think that this is the way Fabio had died because he was such a great guy. You don't think anyone deserves to die that way, but especially not a really good person, that you really love and you know is kind and loving. It just didn't make any sense."
At first, Los Angeles police believed his death was the result of a home invasion burglary gone awry. But soon, their focus moved closer to home.
Almost five months after the murder, police arrested the couple and charged them with murder, with the special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and financial gain, which made them eligible if convicted to life without the possibility of parole.
"Monica fully intended for Fabio to be murdered," Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman previously claimed before a grand jury. "She wanted him out of the way because she wants to be with Robert Baker. She's unhappy in her marriage, even though at the same time she's acting like the loving, adoring wife."
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Prosecutors said investigators found Baker’s DNA at the crime scene.
At the Friday hearing, numerous members of Fabio’s family — who were wearing black T-shirts with the image of Fabio on them — read emotional victim’s impact statements before Baker was sentenced. Many of the family members spoke about how losing Fabio destroyed their lives, including his mother’s.
Fabio’s sister, Loretta Picillo, remembered listening to her mother’s “blood curling screams” when she was told her only son was murdered.
“My mom died whispering his name, Fabio,” she said.
Picillo said she was a "mess" since the death of her brother, who she described as a role model to her children and peers, charismatic, charming and big-hearted.
"He had it all," she said during her statement. "He changed lives for the thousands of hairstylists around the globe. He was such an inspiration."
Picillo said she is still haunted by how Fabio died, saying, "I wonder what his murderer said to him?"
"Baker treated him as he was nothing and left him to die on his own,” she said. “We are glad this monster will be locked up forever."
Fabio’s sister Mirella Sementilli told the judge that his death “destroyed who I was.” The brother and sister worked years together in the hair industry and traveled around the world together. "I am a shell of a person," she added.
Known as "Big Daddy" by his friends and family, Fabio was "at the top of his career" when he died.
Baker, Mirella said, “May have ended his life, but he did not take his honor.”
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen sentenced Baker after hearing the families statements.
“I know that won’t mend the hearts of anyone," he said. "I’m sorry.”
Monica Sementilli’s next court hearing is scheduled for July 14. Her trial is scheduled for September.