Former Agent Robert Baker Testifies in Ex-Lover's Murder Trial

LOS ANGELES—Robert Baker, a former adult performer and talent manager, in new court testimony earlier this month attempted to bolster the defense of his former lover Monica Sementilli in the criminal proceeding for the murder of her hairstylist husband in 2017.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Baker's testimony comes over eight years after Fabio Sementilli was stabbed to death on a patio at his home in Woodland Hills.

Baker and Sementilli were both arrested for the Jan. 2017 murder, which resulted in the former pleading no contest and testifying against his former lover, Monica. Now Baker is facing a life sentence and holds a central role in the case brought by prosecutors against Monica Sementelli. 

In an attempt to sway the court, Baker took full responsibility for the murder. Serving as the star witness for the defense, Baker's words are being presented to defend Sementelli's plea of not guilty to the charges of murder with special circumstances and felony conspiracy to commit murder.

"She had nothing to do with it," Baker disclosed. Not swayed by his testimony, prosecutors on cross-examination attempted to impeach his current claims by indicating that Baker had been inconsistent with his recollections of the actual murder and the events leading up to the crime.

Baker's new revelation contradicted testimony given by Christopher Austin, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Sementilli’s death and got 16 years to life. Austin had fled the killing with Baker in Fabio's Porsche —a detail authorities didn’t discover until October, when they arrested Austin, an Oregon probation officer, the Times reported. Austin told the jury recently that the Fabio's widow “wanted him dead," testifying that he and Baker stabbed the hairstylist to death after Monica left the door to the couple’s house unlocked.

Austin said he never heard directly from Monica, but that Baker told him she wanted her husband “gone” and afterward told him it was for the insurance money, according to the Times report.

Beth Silverman, deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, asked Baker, “You have repeatedly changed your story to fit the evidence in this case, correct?”

The Times explicitly states that Baker failed to explain the inconsistencies in his testimony. Prosecutors in this marathon 50-day trial painted Monica as "the mastermind" behind the plot and conspiracy to kill her husband. Baker was involved because they got involved at the West Hills LA Fitness club and became lovers.

Baker admitted to buying burner phones after the murder after the Los Angeles Police Department arrested both of them six months later. Prosecutors also alleged that her motivation to follow through with the murder was a $1.6 million life insurance payout to avoid the complications of going through an ugly divorce.

Baker and Monico Sementilli were charged with capital murder with a special circumstance of murder for financial gain, per AVN's previous coverage.

DNA matching Baker's was found at the crime scene and in the vehicle, turning up in a criminal database due to a 1993 conviction against him for "lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor," which made him a registered sex offender.