@GaryAndShannon - True Crime Tuesday

It's time for our True Crime Tuesday. The story is true, sounds true? No, it sounds made up. I don't know. Garry and Shannon present True Crime.

Well, there was a woman, Monica Semonilly, who you know. We often talk about the motive for murder. Sometimes it's money, sometimes it's love, and for Monica it seems like.

It was both.

Quite the story just last Friday, convicted of sending her lover to kill her husband, Fabio semon Tilly and the woman who helped all of that come to fruition at least the guilty verdict was La County Deputy Da Beth Silverman, who joins us live for True Crime Tuesday.

Beth, thanks for taking time for us. We really appreciate it.

Of course, thanks for having me on.

So Beth, this case really had everything. I mean, the lover was a former porn star, a racquetball co like it's nineteen eighty eight. You've got the slain man, the man stabbed and killed out side of his Woodland Hills home, and he's a famous hairstylist. You've got a massive life insurance policy. My god, there's something for everybody, that's right.

That's why I think the media is so finding it so scintillating, especially all the sex Ooh the sex.

I don't think I got into that part yet.

Oh yeah, wells tell us of what's going on, So we know that what we originally thought, and I'm by we, I mean investigators originally thought that this might have been a knock knock burglar because the house, you know, it was in an area where there had been some ransacked expensive homes in the valley. But there were a couple of clues that said that it was something more than that. Can you talk about the early stuff that we found out about the case?

Yeah, so I think the initial investigation showed that the crime scene features didn't add up. It appeared that someone had come in and ransacked only one room in the house and that was the master bedroom, and went out onto the patio and stabbed Fabio Semanteley, who was a famous hairdresser in Canada and then came to the United States to take an executive role at Wela, which is part of Cody and then PNG, a very large beauty company.

Now when did they start looking at the wife or did they was that later in the game.

Well, it was pretty early on. I would say within less than a month the attention was directed there. They had some information to indicate that it obviously wasn't your typical burglary with someone come in during the day and want to take property and get out as quick as possible. Because then there was blood from the victims mirrored on items in the master bedroom, it was clear it was

So I assume in this evidence gathering time frame they also started digging through text messages. And I think we've all been to funerals, right, I don't think any of us in the conversation has ever sexted somebody during a funeral.

Is that the stage? Is that the stage where they uncovered.

Those Yeah, that was the crazy part was during the cremation, the memorial, the funeral, the various burial services that took place in Canada after his body was flown back to

Wow, Wow, you ken't like going to a church bathroom or something like.

I don't even know it was.

Like when she came back, Like her sister testified that one day she left, she had to take her home early because she just couldn't take being there anymore and she was just so mentally exhausted. And then of course we have these photos of her in her parents' home that she was taking later on during the day and then again in the evening that just happened to wind

Wow, leaving your dead husband's funeral, murdered dead husband's funeral to go to your parents' house and master bate and send to your ex porn star, racketball coach lover is next level. Okay, so this is my big question, Beth. My big question is this, The lover is found guilty of killing this guy, and then she goes The wife goes on trial, and the lover during this trial says she had nothing.

To do with it. I did it just for love. I want to know what his motivation was.

Not to sand bag this woman, because you prosecuted that that case as well.

Can we do that when we come back?

Sure? Okay?

Are we talking with La County Deputy DA Beth Silverman about the Monica Semonily case, convicted Friday of sending her level to kill her husband, who happened to be a pretty well known hairstylist named Fabio Simon Telly. We're in the middle of a true crime Tuesday talking with La

Finally that conviction.

Now the lover was convicted of this murder, of Fabio's murder and sentence to life without parole.

He was the star.

Witness at her at Monica's trial, and he insisted at this trial that he killed Fabio for love, that she was not the mastermind. Beth, Why did he maintain this was Was there some sort of payout that he was going to get into his commissary?

Why would he not just roll on her?

I think that could be part of it. But the real truth is the belief that they are going to stay by each other forever, and that we showed a lot of evidence to the jury where they had said that to each other on recorded jail calls, recordings in the lock up outside the courtroom, jail mail, things of that nature, that he would take the fall for her, and that she would be able to support him on

Yes, that was the great word.

There was another person in there as well, an accomplice, a guy named Christopher Austin, who also testified for the prosecution explain his role in all of this.

So we said, we were able to identify him a couple of years back, but we never were able to put enough together to have a case where we had sufficient vidence to prove it to the standard that were required as prosecutors until sometime late in twenty twenty three, towards the end of twenty twenty three, when we finally arrested him and extradited him down to California. And so he basically testified contrary to Baker about the fact that the wife was the one, Monica Simantilly, who set the

So you have to pour through all of the evidence, including the nudes sent from our parents' house.

What's that like?

There was a lot of that. There was an extraordinary amount of digital events in this case that they created the two defendants themselves from their cell phones and they're swinging they were involved in. I learned a lot of things on this case, so I never knew about before. I didn't know that still went on. But there's a whole web page for that in a way for people to hook up with other couples and have group sex

Yeah.

So okay, so the swinging thing, So was if Monica and the lover were into the swinging or is? Yes?

Okay, huh, Yes.

Yes, they had They had names. She went by the name Madonna. She talked in her jail mail about wanting to get rid of ditch the name sem and teely. She hated that last name and she wanted to marry Baker. And you know, she used the name Madonna for their sexcapades, but also when she signed letters to him, she that's how she signed it. Monica Madonna Baker.

Now the defensive this case.

They were trying to suggest that that that Monica was was a victim in all of this as well, right, that that the Baker had done all this all by.

Himself, right, which wasn't at all believable. And when you saw Baker testify for about five minutes he was on Stamp about three or four days on cross, it was fairly obvious. The man couldn't find his way out of a paper bag.

Man.

It's that the funeral stuff. I mean, I go back to Scott Peterson at Lacey's memorial, you know, on the phone with Amber talking about, oh, I'm at the Paris and the fireworks and it's the was it New Year or something like that. It must have been New Year's because she went missing, I don't know.

Actually missing Christmas easy.

Yeah, but they didn't get the body for a while anyway. So I just the idea that you're at your your husband or wife's funeral and your and you're on the phone with your lover.

I mean, that's like a husband who you were married to for almost twenty years. I mean we're not talking about some brief, fleeting, short lived marriage. I mean this is a you know relationship where, at least from Fabio's side, he loved his girls. You know, family was the most important thing to him, his daughters and his wife.

So it just was narcissism to the nth degree degree. Yeah. So the daughters, how are they They're grown? I assume they are.

They're grown now. You know, this has been going on for eight years. They strong strongly believe their mother's innocent.

Oh.

Interesting, and that whole side of the family has, you know, is completely hid their heads in the sand and they refused. The girls didn't see any of the trial other than the portions of the defense put on, so they weren't interested in hearing the truth.

Oh I see, so they don't know about the wilfullest swinging and the sex sting.

Exactly, willcal ignorance. That's right.

Well, Beth, again, thanks for taking time out of the afternoon to talk to us.

We greatly appreciate it. Sure, sure, Beth's silverman there again.

It sounds like a fun trial that honestly, like I know, it's a lot of work, but that would be a lot of entertainment.

Yeah,