Pat LaLama
speaker
269 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard 19 Jan
Pat LaLama’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jan 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Classic story. And what happens—now, this is according to the prosecution— Monica, his wife, decides to have this lust driven affair with her racquetball coach. Right. The guy is a convicted sex offender. He's an interesting character. But apparently so many of the women in this upscale health club in Woodland Hills were crazy about him. Go figure. Right.
I mean, that's that's a story for another podcast.
You know what? I wish we had eight hours to go through every little detail, but I'll try to narrow it down for you. Here's what really makes this case so interesting. Two men were on that surveillance tape. You can't see them, but they were able to figure them out, right? One of them, it turns out, and I can say this matter-of-factly because they have confessed to the crimes, right?
Robert Baker is the racquetball coach. He's one of them. The other one is a young man he considered his nephew. They'd known each other for decades, very, very close. He turns out to be the other man. Now, in the end, what happened is the racquetball coach has fallen on the sword 100%. He was not offered any kind of a deal. He just comes forward and says, I'm just going to admit to it. I did it.
I want nothing. I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison. And darn it, I'm going to testify for Monica Sematilli. Who understands why he wants to die on this hill? I don't know. The other man, the younger one, He pled guilty to second-degree murder. And here's the peg. He testified for the prosecution that Monica was most definitely behind this.
His words were that Robert didn't make a move without her instruction. Robert is trying to tell the jury or told the jury that she had nothing to do with it. And therein lies this double-edged sword. One killer for the prosecution, one killer for the defense. How interesting is that?
Okay, so the police, LAPD, deliberately put them in cells next to each other. So there's a lot of different ways they were able to monitor their conversations. And so in these conversations, some of them are phone calls, some of them are what they call overhears, where they can record them talking to each other between cell blocks. But these are actual phone calls.
And the way they were able to do the phone calls, Deborah, is they got a third party to help put them together. Anyway, that's a that's also another long description of how this happened. But let me just tell you.
Absolutely the best. But what happened was you think now they're both arrested for murder. Right. And if she is innocent, then you wouldn't think she would keep this up. But here they are in jail professing their undying love and lust for each other.
Oh my gosh, you haven't heard that. We can't play you the half of it. We can't redo the half of it. We can't play you. We can't show you. I mean, you'd have to go and sit in the trial every day like I did to see your own jaw drop every day listening to the undeniable passion these two had for each other.
You're so gorgeous, baby. You just like me a little bit. Oh my God, I love you so much. Honestly, I've had quite a few relationships. This is different. This is supercharged.
He's telling her, be strong, baby. I love you so much.
they're each other's home. Nobody can take that away. And that's the lustful edge of it. But what you'll find is that in this case, they also, there are recordings of them actually talking about evidence. And Deborah, that is what gave the prosecution a lot of strength because they are discussing evidence and they are expressing concern for some of the evidence.
So the prosecution is arguing, well, then how is it that she didn't know anything?
This is when they first got to jail. But over time, you hear in the jail what they call the overhears, where the cops are monitoring their conversations, where they really do get concerned about. about certain things. For example, how Robert's blood got into the home. And there are lies about that. So the cops are able to establish some inconsistencies and some lies because think about it.
They're so embroiled in their lust for each other that they're not being very smart, right? So they give themselves away a lot in those conversations. Deborah, here's the important thing. The important point for the prosecution in trying to prove that she was the mastermind
is that they have a plethora of compelling, irrefutable evidence of her going to Fabio's many memorials and services, playing the grieving widow, and then going home and sending Robert home. The most salacious nude photographs and messages you can imagine.
The problem for the defense is they can't refute it because it's right there in the technology, which is what makes this such a great circumstantial case.
Oh my gosh, Deborah, you just hit it on the head. Let me tell you, if I were speaking to, let's say, some young juvenile offenders, what I would say to them back then was, oh, you're going to spend the rest of your life in prison. What I say now is, don't do it. There's a camera. Somewhere there is a record.
And this trial, the prosecution laid out one of the most intricate and fascinating timelines using text messages, encrypted app indications, cell towers, surveillance footage. And when I sat, I've been covering this forever. I feel like I know every detail, right? But you still have to keep yourself objective.
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