Ex-MLB pitcher Dan Serafini was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2021 murder of his father-in-law and attempted murder of his mother-in-law.
In a Placer County, California courtroom, the jury concluded that Serafini’s actions “were deliberate and premeditated” when he shot his in-laws Robert Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood at their home in Lake Tahoe following serious financial disputes. Wood survived her injuries but died by suicide a year later.
“He is a monster that knows no moral boundaries and has zero reservations about taking lives to benefit himself,” Adrienne Spohr, Serafini’s sister-in-law, said during his sentencing Friday.
Over the course of the six-week trial, jurors heard “about heated disputes over financial obligations” and communications leading up to the murder, the Placer County District Attorney’s Office posted on Facebook.
The former MLB first-round draft pick was found guilty in July of waiting inside his in-laws’ home with a gun before fatally shooting his father-in-law and gravely injuring his mother-in-law.
Serafini and his lover, Samantha Scott, were arrested two years after the incident. Scott later testified that she gave Serafini a ride the day of the shooting, believing it was a drug deal before Serafini later admitted that he had shot his in-laws.
Prosecutors accused Serafini of targeting his in-laws to access a multimillion-dollar inheritance.
According to Adrienne Spohr, Serafini and her sister Erin had taken millions of dollars from her parents over the years, including over a million dollars for a horse estate, and smaller installments for nanny services and to pay off credit cards. Spohr said that Serafini and her sister continued to ask her mother for money after the attempted murder.
“Dan showed no remorse,” she said. “He cashed in a $200,000 check made to him from his victim’s account just weeks after holding a gun to her head and pulling the trigger.”
Spohr said her sister and Serafini fought her efforts to post a reward announcement for her father’s murderer. “And now we know why,” she said during sentencing.
At sentencing, Spohr asked for her brother-in-law to be given the maximum sentence, including a period of solitary confinement, as Spohr feared Serafini might conspire with other prisoners to murder her. “Dan Serafini should never see the outside of a prison again,” Spohr said.
Serafini continued to claim innocence during sentencing, calling the trial a “popularity contest” and giving his condolences to the “victims of this heinous crime.”
Serafini spent seven years in the big leagues, logging time with the Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies. His busiest season was in 1998, going 7-4 with a 6.48 ERA for the Twins.
He also pitched professionally in Japan, Taiwan and Mexico.
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