HUNTER: Alleged black widow accused of killing famed Toronto stylist finally facing trial (2024)

The weather was a little cool in Los Angeles that January day, sunny and around 13C.

Article content

But it wasn’t chilly enough to deter famed Toronto hair stylist Fabio sem*ntilli, 49, the vice-president of beauty product giant Wella.

Article content

On the patio of his suburban Woodland Hills home, he enjoyed a glass of wine and a cigar. But by the end of play on Jan. 23, 2017, the man known in the styling world as “Big Daddy” would be dead of stab wounds.

Literally and figuratively stabbed in the back.

Arrests were made within six months of the heinous crime: His widow, Monica Crescentini, and her clandestine lover, Robert Baker, a convicted sex offender were accused. Cops say she was the brains, Baker the brawn.

The sem*ntilli case has been plagued by a staggering array of delays that have lifted the dead man’s family’s hopes only to see them crushed time and again.

Article content

Article content

Now, family sources tell the Toronto Sun that the alleged black widow will go on trial in Los Angeles for first-degree murder on April 4.

For anyone counting, by the time the big day arrives, 2,628 days will have passed. That’s seven years, two months and 12 days of agony for his heartbroken family.

LAPD homicide detectives have said the golden chalice for the merry widow was her husband’s $1.6-million life insurance payout. Investigators theorized that with Fabio dead, Monica planned to waltz into the sunset with Baker, bags of dough and her ravenous sexual appetite.

But Robert Baker won’t be at her side. The 61-year-old pleaded guilty last July and was sentenced to life in prison without parole (U.S. life, not Canadian life).

Article content

Cops say the sem*ntilli murder was orchestrated as a home invasion gone off the rails.

Prosecutors allege that Monica told her lover boy how to torpedo the video recording system. She allegedly watched the live feed just before the brutal murder, coaching Baker, and allowing her 16-year-old daughter to find her father’s body.

“Monica fully intended for Fabio to be murdered,” Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman told a grand jury in 2017. “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.”

But as Baker and the widow romped in Las Vegas following the murder, investigators zeroed in on the pair.

Article content

A third suspect has never been identified. Baker was ID’d when cops found his blood in sem*ntilli’s stolen Porsche. The lothario’s DNA was already in the system because of his 1993 sex conviction, and he led them to Monica.

At Baker’s sentencing hearing, the courtroom heard of how “insincere” the widow appeared in 2017. That betrayal turned the family into paranoid wrecks.

She has pleaded not guilty and denied all wrongdoing.

“You never know who is conspiring against you,” said Anthony Picillo, the victim’s nephew, the Los Angeles Times reported.

As for Monica’s family, they claimed they “loved Fabio like a son,” a member of the sem*ntilli clan told the Sun.

“They didn’t come to the sentencing, offered no victim impact statement or support. Just zero respect for Fabio,” the family member said.

After seven years, far from fading, the gaping wounds are raw as ever.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

Article content