LA DA AGAIN REBUFFED BY A JUDGE

Judge Won’t Dismiss Sentencing Enhancements In Woodland Hills Murder Case

 

LAPPL News Watch

January 20, 2021

 

A judge rejected a bid Tuesday, Jan. 19, by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to dismiss special-circumstance allegations that could result in a life prison term without the possibility of parole for a woman charged, with her accused lover, in the stabbing death of her husband, a prominent hairdresser, at his Woodland Hills home four years ago. 

Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen’s decision in the case of Monica Sementilli, 49, and Robert Louis Baker, 58, marks the latest in a series of cases in which judges have rebuffed attempts by the District Attorney’s Office to dismiss sentencing enhancements under a directive from new District Attorney George Gascon, who has said there is “ample evidence sentencing enhancements do not necessarily make us any safer.” 

Court papers filed by attorney Robin Sax, representing victim Fabio Sementilli’s son and two of his sisters, called on the judge to keep in place the special-circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait. 

“Our family will never get closure like this,” wrote Luigi Sementilli, the victim’s son from a prior marriage. “Gascon’s special directive must be suspended for this case. “It is truly disturbing to know that such a blanket directive can come into effect without any reference to the circumstances of each case,” he wrote. “This does not encourage an arena for justice.”