Cut, Color, Kill | 5. The Other Man

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Binge Crimes: Cut, Color, Kill | Episode 5: The Other Man (May 29, 2026)

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Overview

In episode 5 of "Cut, Color, Kill," host Jonathan Hirsch unravels the escalating aftermath of renowned hairdresser Fabio Sementilli’s murder. Titled "The Other Man," the episode explores courtroom intrigue, family divisions, the hunt for a mysterious accomplice—and ultimately delivers a major break in the investigation. Listeners get an inside look at Monica Sementilli’s relationship with co-conspirator Robert Baker, prosecutors’ efforts to piece together the events leading to Fabio’s death, and the shocking emergence of a second confessed killer. The episode’s tone is tense, intimate, and methodical—combining investigative procedural with deep, emotional family reflections.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Courthouse Conversation: Monica & Baker’s Jailhouse Reunion

• Setting: Monica and Robert Baker meet for the first time since their arrests, separated in adjacent jail cells but able to speak.

• Beth Silverman (Deputy DA) arranged recording devices to monitor their conversation.

• Instead of anger or confrontation, Monica and Baker share tender words, reaffirm their love, and discuss staying loyal through trial.

  • Quote:

    "If you don’t get out, just write me… And I've been told not to, but fuck that."
    —Robert Baker (02:31)

  • Quote:

    “No deals.”
    —Monica Sementilli (04:09)

• Monica and Baker reveal knowledge of a missing accomplice, confirming to investigators that a "third man" was involved.

• Surveillance video referenced: Two hooded figures ("joggers") flee from Fabio's house—the identity of the second remains a mystery.

2. Family Perspectives and Divisions

• Luigi Sementilli (Fabio's son) describes how he views Monica’s past “ruthlessness” as plausible evidence of her capacity for murder.
  • Quote:

    "It wasn't such a jump to accept that she was involved and she had orchestrated the whole affair.”
    —Luigi Sementilli (09:01)

• Luigi discusses how the family splintered: some accept Monica’s guilt, others remain in denial for their own emotional survival.
• Deputy DA Beth Silverman uses a photo board of Fabio and family as motivation during the case.
  • Quote:

    “I always have photos of the victim. It's what keeps you going...”
    —Beth Silverman (10:47)

3. Monica’s Manipulation & the Choreography of the Crime

• Prosecutors reconstruct Monica's day-of-murder alibi: Carefully timed errands and texts to her daughters placed her away from the scene but aligned precisely with when the murder unfolded.
• Monica used encrypted app Viber to exchange 95 messages with Baker between 6 AM and 5 PM on the day of the murder.
• Monica jokes about a “ride or die” tattoo with her daughter Bella while in prison, a phrase she shares privately with Baker.
  • Quote:

    “Ride or die is the two of them, Baker and Cementilli, telling each other…they’re going to take what they’ve done to the grave…spend the rest of their lives together.”
    —Beth Silverman (14:44)

4. Grief, Family Impact, and Delayed Justice

• Luigi expresses the relentless grief of losing his father and the drawn-out agony of the legal process.
  • Quote:

    “It was that realization of, this is really it. It's this kind of dull agony that never quite goes away. Details about the case…came in trickles…It was like a faucet you could never quite close.”
    —Luigi Sementilli (19:50–21:19)

5. Legal Turns: Baker’s Plea and the Hunt for the Other Man

• Robert Baker pleads "no contest" to first-degree murder and conspiracy: Unusual move with no plea deal—interpreted by prosecutors as an attempt to exonerate Monica.
  • Quote:

    “Anybody else in their right mind would have taken a shot at going to trial…”
    —Beth Silverman (24:30)

• Baker pens a self-serving letter claiming the murder was accidental and that Monica had no involvement.
• Break in the case: New digital evidence—a mysterious Facebook message—points to a previously unidentified accomplice.

6. Discovery and Arrest of the Real “Other Man"

• Digital investigators identify Christopher Austin as the likely second "jogger."

• Austin, who had been living a clean life as a probation officer, is tracked down and arrested in Washington state (October 2024).

• In interrogation, Austin unexpectedly confesses to taking part in the murder—directly implicating Monica as the orchestrator.

  • Quote:

    “And then I…I covered his eyes and then I stabbed him.”
    —Christopher Austin (35:01)

  • Quote (about timing and orchestration):

    “Right before this murder happened, Monica called Baker and said, now, now’s the time. Let’s go. She’s the ringleader. She’s directing it. Everything went through her.”
    —Heather Steggle (36:07)

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Notable & Memorable Moments

• A jailhouse marriage proposal: Baker gets down on his knees in the holding cell (03:11), declaring:

  “I'm kneeling because I'm looking up at your cell. I'm looking at you to say something. I'm kneeling right now for you. I will be proud. Very proud. So is that a yes?”

• Chilling precision of Monica’s actions: The minute-by-minute breakdown (16:00–17:20) of Monica’s texts, errands, and app use paints a portrait of calculated orchestration.

• Prosecutors’ shock at Austin’s confession:

  “Wait, what? …is anyone hearing what I'm hearing?… So now we've got two people actually involved in the physical stabbing murder of Fabio…”
  —Heather Steggle (35:06)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Courthouse Interrogation/Proposal: 01:01–05:00
• Surveillance Video & Missing Accomplice: 05:04–07:24
• Family Background & Division: 07:58–11:38
• Monica’s Jail Visit with Daughter ("Ride or Die"): 13:25–15:12
• Monica’s Day of the Murder Detailed Timeline: 15:36–17:26
• Luigi’s Reflections on Grief: 19:50–21:19
• Baker’s Plea & Self-Exoneration Letter: 22:42–25:03
• New Digital Lead—Discovery of Christopher Austin: 26:22–31:13
• Austin’s Arrest and Confession: 31:37–36:07

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Episode Tone and Style

The podcast mixes methodical legal drama with emotional intimacy and suspenseful investigation, employing first-person accounts, family interviews, and direct prosecutorial insight. The mood is somber, tense, and personal—targeting the true crime audience’s appetite for both psychological nuance and reallife resolution.

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Conclusion / Teaser for Finale

The arrest and confession of Christopher Austin are game-changers. Prosecutors are now armed with direct admissions from both "joggers." Monica’s trial approaches—with Austin and Baker expected to testify, bringing the series to its "explosive conclusion" in the next episode.

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For listeners: This episode skillfully brings together years of investigation, fractured family perspectives, and the tireless pursuit of justice—all culminating in an unexpected, seismic break in the case.

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Memorable closing quote:

“Baker says she wants him gone. She wants him dead. I murdered him because I wanted her.” (36:34)

Transcript

[Jonathan Hirsch]

If you want a deeper look behind Cut Color Kill, now is the time. Join our free [e-mail] thebinge and you will get exclusive story details you can't get anywhere else. Again, join [e-mail] thebinge listen to every episode of cut color kill ad free right now when you subscribe and to the Binge, you'll hear the entire series before anyone else, get exclusive bonus episodes and unlock more than 60 other true crime podcasts. Just head to the Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and tap subscribe or visit getthebinge.com to listen wherever you are. The Binge feed your true crime obsession.

[Monica Sementilli]

The Binge.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

In the belly of the Van Nuys courthouse, there is a place called the Lockup. It's directly underneath the courtroom, down a flight of stairs. It's a room lined with grim cells. This is the holding place for the people who find themselves on trial here in the San Fernando Valley. The inmates get dropped off by a prison van and led into one of the cells by a bailiff to wait.

[Robert Baker]

Monica's yes. Are you okay?

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

Are you?

[Robert Baker]

I am and I am now.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Today, those inmates are Monica Sementille and Robert Baker. They're here at the courthouse for their arraignment hearing. They've been placed in separate cells, but they're close enough to talk.

[Robert Baker]

You know they're recording everything, right?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Robert Baker is absolutely right. Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman has made sure of it.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

I told the detectives I wanted to put recording devices into the cells at the Van Nuys courthouse. And while the bailiffs are going about their business handling other inmates, these two have the opportunity to converse.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

This is the first time Monica and Baker have been able to talk since they were arrested and separated two weeks ago, when Monica had learned that the police had found his DNA all over the scene of her husband's murder. You might expect her to be devastated or screaming at Baker, or at the very least to have some questions.

[Robert Baker]

If you don't get out, just write me.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

Yes.

[Podcast Sponsor Voice]

Yes, I.

[Detective]

Okay.

[Robert Baker]

And I've been told not to, but fuck that.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Monica seems pretty calm. She says she'll keep writing to Baker. In fact, she's brought a letter to the lockup stashed in her bra. And within minutes, Baker is making grand declarations of love.

[Robert Baker]

It's different, Lord, maybe it's different. It's bigger. You don't. It's bigger, man. It's bigger. I'm not a marriage type of guy, but for you, and under these circumstances,

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Robert Baker gets down on his knees on the dirty floor.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

Why are you kneeling?

[Robert Baker]

I'm kneeling because I'm looking up at your cell. I'm looking at you to say something. I'm kneeling right now for you. I will be proud. Very proud. So is that a yes?

[Monica Sementilli]

I wish more than anything else,

[Jonathan Hirsch]

this isn't just a marriage proposal. It's a commitment to fight the charges against them.

[Robert Baker]

I will stick with this. I'll stick by you, no matter what kind of shit you're trying to throw at us.

[Detective]

I'm here.

[Robert Baker]

I ain't going anywhere.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The couple start to whisper, but the recorders still pick up some of their conversation.

[Monica Sementilli]

No deals.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

No deals, says Monica. No, none.

[Robert Baker]

I'm with you. Okay. I'm with you.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

That's my baby. Monica starts telling Baker what she knows about the evidence against them.

[Monica Sementilli]

Encrypted texts.

[Detective]

Whose?

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

Both, I think.

[Robert Baker]

Really?

[Detective]

Yeah.

[Monica Sementilli]

Circumstantial right now.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Encrypted text. Monica says it's circumstantial right now. But Baker is worried about the video evidence.

[Robert Baker]

They said it was a figure or figures on video. So they saw. They didn't say what or nothing. Didn't say it was anybody or anything.

[Monica Sementilli]

They didn't let me. How?

[Detective]

What?

[Monica Sementilli]

Because they can't hide in the prison.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

They think that's me in the video, she says, because they can't find the other person. In the days after Fabio's murder, the police uncovered a surveillance video. The one with the joggers, as detectives called them. Two figures in hoodies with their faces covered, running towards Fabio's house, then driving away from the scene in Fabio's Portia. Right now, the investigators believe that one of those joggers is Robert Baker. But the other one can't be Monica. She was out running errands while Fabio was killed. That means there's another person still out there who was involved in Fabio's murder. The police know it, and their romantic prison cell conversation has just proven that Monica and Baker know it, too. From sony music entertainment and novel, this is cut color kill. I'm jonathan hirsch. Episode 5 the other man. Just a few short months before the murder that will shock Woodland Hills, Fabio and Monica Simmentilli are dancing in the kitchen to an old Italian love song. Monica is wearing a hoodie and slippers. Fabio is in a tracksuit and socks. His feet slide on the tiled floor as they waltz about. They're giggling and singing along to the music. One of their daughters is filming. Now the wife that Fabio is holding so tenderly is accused of his murder. This video of them dancing is part of a stack of evidence that Deputy DA Beth Silverman has to sift through. Monica Sementilli and Robert Baker have pled not guilty, which means this case will be going to trial. Digital investigators are trawling through Monica and Baker's phones and reviewing surveillance footage from the day of the murder.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

We were still looking for who this third suspect, this other male individual who went up to the crime scene with Baker was.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

In the meantime, Beth Silverman starts making calls. Before Monica was arrested, the investigators couldn't ask anyone about her in case word got back to her. But now, if the prosecutor is going to take the case to trial, she needs to understand what people in Fabio's life knew about him and Monica. That means talking to friends, colleagues, and, above all, the Cementilli family.

[Luigi Sementilli]

He met Monica through work. She did makeup in addition to also being a hair model at times as well.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Luigi Sementilli, Fabio's son, and the rest of his family in Canada believe Monica's guilty, so they're happy to talk to the prosecutor. Luigi accepted Monica as his stepmom, but he tells Beth Silverman that he was well aware of the role she played in his parents. Divorce.

[Luigi Sementilli]

I know that the marriage between my mom and my dad had largely been intervened with by Monica, and it seemed like in order for her to get her way, she wouldn't let anything stand in the way of that. I had seen the ruthlessness of emotion, of getting involved with a man who was married and who had a son at home. And I'm not naive to think that my dad had no part in that. Of course he did. But it takes two to tango.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

For Luigi, that ruthlessness he'd seen in Monica made it easier for him to believe she could be capable of murder.

[Luigi Sementilli]

It wasn't such a jump to accept that she was involved and she had orchestrated the whole affair. But for others, it was too great a leap to take, and they couldn't accept it. For my sisters, their world was turned upside down far more than anyone else's. Not only had they lost their dad six months prior, but now they'd also lost their mom. And in some way, for them and for Monica's family, this denial was necessary in order to salvage their worldview. I was doing my best to be diplomatic and to say, okay, I suppose we'll see.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Not everyone on Fabio's side of the family has been so diplomatic. I've heard Luigi is one of the only ones still on speaking terms with his sisters. I admire your Compassion for them. It's the human thing to do to understand and to not rush to judgment of them because of that. That's a really hard place to be in when you're grieving.

[Luigi Sementilli]

I appreciate you saying that. I know that as a maxim, people will accept something insofar as it fits what they already believe. And for her family and for my sisters, it didn't fit at all.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

We reached out to Luigi's sisters and Monica's family. They either declined to comment or didn't respond. Deputy DA Silverman puts a photo of Fabio and Luigi together on the notice board in her office. As she digs into the case, she fills this notice board with more and more photos. Fabio beaming at the camera with his usual confidence. Fabio with the people that mattered most to him, his family.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

I always have photos of the victim. It's what keeps you going when you remember, you know, that there are people who are destroyed by senseless crimes like this.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Over long conversations, the semantiles have brought Fabio to life for the prosecutor.

[Luigi Sementilli]

He acted out his affection towards his family. So he would often walk with his arm around me and stuff like that, and I would kind of shy away being an unconfident 13, 14 year old. And I would say, dad, come on, you know, don't embarrass me now. If I could go back, I would say, you know, I'm not embarrassed. I love being with you, and I'm sorry I wasn't more confident to accept that display of affection as you had displayed it.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Half of Fabio's family are standing by Monica. And those who believe she's guilty are counting on Silverman to get justice for Fabio.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

It's our job to sort of shepherd them through this really lengthy, horrible process and try to leave them on the other side of it as whole and complete as you can. They put their trust in me, so I certainly don't want to let them down.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The prosecutor will have to keep building her case without Fabio's daughters. Meanwhile, in prison, Monica and Robert Baker are building their own.

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

In a stark jail visitation stall, Monica Cementilli is looking at her 16 year old daughter Bella through a thick pane of glass. Bella is here to visit her mom and they're speaking across the glass through a phone line. She's just shown Monica a tattoo she wants to get. Now Monica has something to show her.

[Monica Sementilli]

That's good. You want to see mine? Sure. Okay.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Monica turns and lifts her hair up to show Bella something on the back of her neck.

[Monica Sementilli]

I can't see anything. Can't see. I can't see it. I can't see it at all. What does it say?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

It's a drawing in ballpoint pen.

[Monica Sementilli]

Couldn't see. Says ride or die.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Ride or die. Bella's face falls.

[Monica Sementilli]

Okay, I'm kidding. It's just a pen. I want to joke around with you.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Maybe it's the sight of her normally immaculately turned out mother with a crude prison tattoo. Maybe she doesn't know the significance of these words, but Deputy D.A. silverman does. When she gets a hold of the footage of this jail visit, she recognizes the words ride or die instantly. She's seen it before, over and over in letters Monica and Robert Baker have been sending to each other while they're in prison.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

Ride or die is the two of them, Baker and Cementilli, telling each other how they're each other's ride or die. They're going to take what they've done to the grave and they're going to spend the rest of their lives together.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

They write it in cursive letters, big hearts, and on cartoon pornographic drawings. In one letter, Monica even tells Baker that she's had a ring made for him with Ride or die inscribed on it.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

She's playing with Isabella, right? Which I think is particularly cruel because Isabella doesn't know Monica's like, oh, look at this tattoo I have in pen on the back of my neck.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Part of why Beth Silverman finds this so cruel is because of what she knows about Monica's movements on the day Fabio was killed. The detectives have the whole thing plotted out.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

She had left just before the murder to go run some errands and then was caught on surveillance video from the target coming out and being glued to her cell phone in the store for a period of time, but came out with a tiny little bag of purchases all day long.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

While Monica is running those errands, she's sending messages. On the afternoon of the murder, Isabella is at school and has a job interview after class. At 1:40, Monica sends a message to her saying, text me after the interview and let me know when you're on your way. I'm making fetina and corn for dinner. Later that afternoon, Monica is out at the shops and her other daughter Jessica, is still at home with Fabio. At 3:40, Monica texts Jessica, don't be late for babysitting. I won't. Lol, she replies. A few minutes later, Jessica heads out to her babysitting job, leaving Fabio alone. About six minutes after that, at 3:53pm, Monica connects to the app set up to view her home security cameras. 25 minutes later, the two suspects with their faces covered, are caught on a street surveillance camera running toward the Cementille house. Four minutes after that, while the suspects are still at the house, Monica gets a call from Isabella, who has finished her job interview. Monica sends Isabella on a detour to pick up some glasses from the eye doctor on her way home. At 4:52, Monica leaves the store she's in and starts driving home just as the suspects back at the house make their getaway. Fabio's Portia. One minute after the killers flee, Isabella Sementilli arrives home to find her father's body.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

It was just such a very coincidental timeline that she had set up where she just happened to come home, I don't know. Four minutes behind her daughter.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

To the prosecutor, this doesn't look like a coincidence. It looks carefully choreographed. Because on January 23rd, while Monica was texting her daughters and running errands, she was also using an encrypted app called Viber. Although the investigators can't read the messages, they can see when they were sent and to who. And between 6am and 5.14pm, just after Fabio was killed, Monica exchanged 95 messages with Robert Baker.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

She has manipulated her youngest daughter so that she will find her father's body. Right. So she's not the one to find her husband's body first to sort of distance herself from the crime. She's used her youngest daughter to do that, and now she's joking with her daughter on what's an inside secret between her and her lover who have conspired to murder her daughter's father. To me, that was just a perfect example of who Monica Sementilli is and how she treated and thought about her daughter.

[Monica Sementilli]

Hey, babe. Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm talking to you.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Beth Silverman has been keeping close tabs on Monica and Baker in prison. They've been going to increasingly desperate measures to stay in contact.

[Monica Sementilli]

I'm buying other people's minutes so I can use them. So it's like a different name every time I call in.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

Using other inmates to send mail to each other through fake names. Using other people's booking numbers to place calls through third parties on the outside so they could actually get on the

[Monica Sementilli]

phone the next time we call. I need to give you a way we can communicate stuff that we don't want no one to know about us.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Silverman knows they're conspiring, but she won't know exactly what their defense strategy is until the trial. There are endless delays and requests to revisit evidence. Monica's defense team also keeps requesting to speak with Robert Baker. In the meantime, Fabio's family are stuck in limbo over in Canada. With the holidays approaching, Luigi is trying to grieve with the case still hanging over him.

[Luigi Sementilli]

The first Christmas without my dad was a particularly painful event. And it reminded me of something that he told me years ago. I remember asking him when his father died, what was that like to deal with? And I specifically remember him saying it was hard at first to deal with his death and deal with the funeral and the whirlwind of people. But the hardest part came when the people stopped coming, because you realized life has to go on in this new way without this person in your life, and you just have to accept it. And that's what that first Christmas in 2017 felt like. It was that realization of, this is really it. It's this kind of dull agony that never quite goes away. Details about the case, details about the affair, details about the murder came in trickles once a month, once every two months, a few times a week. It was like a faucet that you could never quite close. I remember going to a wedding of a good friend of mine, and moments before leaving the hotel room, as I had been dressed and ready to celebrate with my friends, getting an email or a call with some question, some new information. And when that happened, it thrusted me back into the grief.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Yeah, you're not watching this like it's some movie. It's not some form of entertainment for you. You're not, like, waiting on every turn of a story. This is your real life?

[Luigi Sementilli]

Absolutely. I'm not watching a true crime story where these details are a matter of entertainment or a plot twist. This was part of my life in the sense of grief. And I can't speak for others, but I had a hard time living my life being constantly reminded of my grief. And the worst thing, the murder of my dad, had already happened.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Luigi doesn't want the constant drip, drip of details. Others might, but he chooses to preserve his peace. He's waiting for the trial, that trial. And with it, the promise of closure keeps getting postponed. It drags on for months, then years. Eventually, a date is set for summer 2020. But when LA is hit by the COVID pandemic, everything is held up in indefinitely. 2023, more than six years after his father's death, Luigi Samantilli gets a call. It's Deputy D.A. silverman.

[Luigi Sementilli]

She said she's got some news, and I knew something big had happened. She told me Baker is changing his plea. I should fly out to make a statement and to be there for when it happened.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

In that moment, as he starts preparing to fly to California, Louis Luigi only has one thought in mind.

[Luigi Sementilli]

One down, one to go.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

On July 7, a Friday, 2023, Robert Baker stands before a judge in the downtown courthouse. Luigi is in the courtroom, and there are lots of Fabio's friends, like his old Wella friends Carol, Alicia and Melanie.

[Carol (Friend of Fabio)]

Here I am in this courtroom just looking at this individual person here who murdered our friend. It's just weird knowing all the things that you know about Robert Baker, you know, convicted sex offender and in the porn industry and just not a savory human being. You look at what this woman has spent 20 years of her life creating, you know, two beautiful daughters, and then you're like, you threw that away for him. I guess you get caught up in a manipulation. You get caught up in, like, lust and greed and like, wow, it's just mind blowing.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

How does that happen? Robert Baker announces to the court that he's pleading no contest to the charges against him.

[Luigi Sementilli]

The judge explicitly said, are you aware that pleading no contest is the same as pleading guilty? And he affirmed. And then that was it. The person who went and killed my dad was gonna face justice and spend the rest of his life behind bars.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The judge sentences Robert Baker to life without the possibility of parole. What you need to understand here is that Robert Baker isn't taking a plea deal. There's no offer on the table. He's waiving his right to a trial and the judge can still impose the maximum sentence with the charges Baker is admitting to. Frank first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. A life sentence is basically a given. It's really, really unusual in a murder trial for someone to do this.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

Anybody else in their right mind would have taken a shot at going to trial and convincing at least one person that either Monica led you to do this or come up with some other excuse for why his DNA was in the house and in Fabio's car.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

If Baker pled not guilty and went to trial, the worst case scenario for him would be the sentence he's just received. So Deputy DA Silverman knows there must be a reason he's doing this.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

The only reasonable conclusion from his plea was that he was going to take the blame and try and get Monica off.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Robert Baker has written a letter to Monica and given it to her defense team. It says, In January 2017, when this all happened, the intent was to actually deliver a gift for your birthday. Baker writes that he wanted to surprise Monica by leaving a present somewhere, only she would find it. So he snuck into the house and placed a gift under Monica's pillow. Then when he went out to the patio, he ran into Fabio. It went bad. From there. He writes, all I remember is going down numb. I knew I'd been hit hard by something. I sort of blanked out with fear, panic. And my last thought was, I'm going to be killed. I grabbed whatever I could to defend myself and let instinct take over. Baker tries to make it sound like he killed Fabio in self defense, then staged the scene to look like a home invasion gone wrong. And most importantly, Monica had nothing to do with it. A date for Monica's trial is set for early 2025, and now prosecutor Silverman knows what she's up against. But the case is about to be shaken up again because a new detective has been going back through the digital evidence ahead of the trial. She's found something.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

She noticed that Baker had sent a Facebook message soon after the murder to somebody we didn't know who wasn't coming up as somebody who was regularly communicating with Baker, nor was he in communication with Monica when we tried to link phone numbers together.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

After years of searching for the missing jogger from the surveillance video, the cops have a new lead.

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[Jonathan Hirsch]

It's October 2024, and Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle is on a plane flying from LA to Washington state. Heather works on the same floor as Beth Silverman. So she's heard about the Monica Simmentilli case.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

She was talking to me about it in the hallway, and it was fascinating. The minute she asked me, would you want to do this with me and do the trial? I said, yes, yes, yes, I want to do it.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Deputy DA Steggle starts reading through the case files so the two prosecutors can strategize. She can see there's a strong circumstantial case against Monica here, but nothing is ever totally certain.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

Is it enough? We don't have a confession in terms of I did it. It's a female defendant. Juries tend to feel sympathetic for female defendants. I don't know why, but I've had it happen before, too.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Then there's the question still hanging over the case. The missing suspect, the other jogger caught on the surveillance cameras running towards Fabio's house.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

Whenever we're prosecutors and we do a trial, we hate when there's something left unanswered. We knew that was going to be an issue because people want to know. We want to know. The family wants to know, who is that second person?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

That person has remained a mystery for years. But in 2019, a new detective, Mitzi Roberts, joined the case. She's been trawling back through the digital evidence, and she found a Facebook message from Robert Baker.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

In this message, Baker directed him to download WhatsApp, which is an encrypted application for them to communicate.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The name of the man Baker messaged is Christopher Austin. At the time of the murder, he was living in Alaska, but he'd grown up in the same neighborhood as Robert Baker, and his dad was a friend of Baker's. The investigators start digging and pass on what they find to the prosecutors.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

He seemed to be staying on and off with Rob Baker doing odds and end jobs. He was driving him. He was kind of like his errand boy almost.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

This makes sense to the prosecutors. A lackey is exactly the kind of profile they're looking for most of these

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

crimes just from experience. A lot of times they have lookouts because you're going somewhere where you're not supposed to be. Someone could come home, Someone could call the police. So we assume that the second person jogged up the hill with Rob Baker. We assumed it was a lookout.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The investigators pull flight records and subpoena financial records. On 12 January, Robert Baker made a payment to someone in Alaska. Then on 22nd January, 2017, the day before the murder, Christopher Austin took an Alaskan Airlines flight to la.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

They knew that he was in the area. He was friends with Rob, he had gone to Los Angeles. They tracked him to Los Angeles, but it wasn't quite enough to put him at the scene of the crime and involved in the crime.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

The detectives already know that on January 23, the day of the murder, Robert Baker rented a car to get to the scene of the crime. Turns out that 45 minutes after Fabio was murdered, Christopher Austin got a traffic ticket in that same rental car.

[Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman]

At that point, all the pieces started falling into place. Place.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Deputy DA Steggle and a team of a dozen or so detectives fly to Washington state to arrest Christopher Austin. If he's willing to talk, this could crack Monica's case wide open. It's been more than seven years since the murder. Austin has moved to Washington State. He seems to have made a fresh start there.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

He had a small child. He, he was married. He'd been working as a probation officer. He didn't have any problems in the job. He was, for lack of better words, well respected in his career.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Christopher Austin is about to get a big surprise. On the morning of October 2nd, Deputy DA Steggle and another dozen investigators arrive at the local police station in Vancouver, Washington.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

We're in a big conference room. There's a giant screen. And what they had is they had cameras looking at Christopher Austin's house.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

More detectives are surrounding Austin's house, waiting for him to leave.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

They had a team out there ready to follow him and arrest him as he's driving to work. They've got another team waiting as soon as he's arrested to go in and speak with his wife simultaneously. All of it's very strategic because it has to happen at the same time where Christopher isn't able to necessarily call his wife, get stories straight, so they've got to have a lot of different people in place for this arrest, pulling him over. Like they don't know if there's a gun in the car, what he's going to do, who this guy really is.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Deputy DA Steggle watches through the camera feed as the door to the house opens. Right on time. Christopher Austin is setting off to work, but he's not alone.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

He left with his daughter. That was not planned. These detectives do not want to stop him with his daughter in the car. So then we're in the room thinking, what's going on? Are we going to arrest him or not? This is not a good time. We're all on a little bit of pins and needles on where's he going if he's with his daughter, we're not going to do anything. We're going to let him go on his errands, and he might just go home. And then the plan is going to have to be revamped.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Detectives tail Austin as he drives his daughter to daycare. Once he drops her off, it's safe to move in. Heather Steggle gets word from the team in the field.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

We've got him. We're bringing him into the station. And that's when we know it's go time.

[Detective]

A seat in that chair over there.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Christopher Austin is placed in a cell and then taken into an interview room by two LAPD detectives.

[Luigi Sementilli]

This is my partner, Nick Myers.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Over in the conference room, Deputy DA Steggle is watching the whole thing play out on a live video feed. Everything has been building to this moment.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

The minute he says, I want a lawyer. I don't want to talk to you, the detectives have to stop. That's his right. He didn't do that. He just started talking.

[Detective]

So may I say something? I truly do understand that you guys are here to do a job. We are. I really do. It's my understanding that you're here for a reason.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

He knows exactly why he's there. And it seemed like this weight had been on him for years and years and years.

[Detective]

I want to get home to my girls.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Austin's body language is defeated. He tells the detectives he's been waiting for them to find him.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

I'm listening, and I'm taking notes. They're asking him about the killing of Fabio.

[Detective]

It was supposed to go in rough mud, take a couple things. Didn't happen that way. So how did it happen?

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

And he just says. And then I. I covered his eyes and then I stabbed him.

[Detective]

It was 1, 2, 3, go. He was stabbed.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

Wait, what? I was like Did. Did he just say he stabbed him?

[Detective]

How many times did you stab him?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Austin holds up one finger.

[Detective]

Was that once where?

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Austin gestures to the side of his neck. It seems like he can hardly speak.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

That was not on my radar. I was not expecting him to say that. We always assumed going into that interview that there was one stabber and that was Robert Baker. We thought the second person was more of a lookout. And I remember looking around being like, is anyone hearing what I'm hearing? Like what? So now we've got two people actually involved in the physical stabbing murder of Fabio Simon.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

But even more than that, Austin says there's a reason that he and Baker knew when Fabio would be alone.

[Detective]

How did he know when to go? Is he talking to her? She said, he's in the house.

[Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggle]

Right before this murder happened, Monica called Baker and said, now, Now's the time. Let's go. She's the ringleader. She's directing it. Everything went through her.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Next time on the finale of Cut Color Kill, Monica's trial finally arrives and two confessed killers take the witness stand.

[Detective]

Baker says she wants him gone. She wants him dead. I murdered him because I wanted her.

[Jonathan Hirsch]

Unlock all episodes of Cut Color Kill ad free right now by subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of the show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of over 60 true crime and investigative podcasts, shows like Doctor's Orders and Watching youg all ad free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series that's all episodes all at once. Search for the binge on Apple podcasts and hit subscribe at the top of the page, not on apple. Head to getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. This is Cut Color Kill, an original production of Sony Music Entertainment and Novel, hosted by me, Jonathan Hirsch. Caroline Thornham is our senior producer. Kathryn Godfrey is our editor. Mohamed Ahmed is our assistant producer. Mark Pittam is our engineer. Additional engineering by Daniel Kempson for Novel. Our executive producer is Max o' Brien from Sony Music Entertainment. Our executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and me, Jonathan Hirsch. Production management from Cherie Houston, Joe Savage and Charlotte Wolf. Fat fact checking by Fendel Fulton. Research by Myron Caplan. Story development by Nell Gray Andrews. Novel's director of development is Selena Mehta. Special thanks to Carolyn Schur Levin at Miller Korsnick Raymond and a big thanks to the whole Sony Music Entertainment.

[Jeremy Schwartz]

Hey, I'm Jeremy Schwartz from American Criminal on our latest season, a deadly bomb blast rocks the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, but no one steps forward to take credit, leaving authorities scrambling for answers. Six months later, another bomb, this time outside an abortion clinic. As locals fear for their safety, investigators struggle to find evidence that will lead them to the killer. Listen to American Criminal Domestic the Hunt for Eric Rudolph. Wherever you get your podcasts.