7 days ago
Ex-MLB Player Danny Serafini Found Guilty In Father-In-Law Murder Case
Former Major League Baseball pitcher Danny Serafini was convicted Monday of the first-degree murder of his father-in-law and attempted murder of his mother-in-law.
The Placer County District Attorney's office confirmed in a news release on Facebook that Serafini, 51, was found guilty in the fatal 2021 shooting of Robert Gary Spohr, 70, in the community of Homewood near Lake Tahoe, California.
Serafini was also convicted of shooting Spohr's 68-year-old wife, Wendy Wood, twice in the head. She survived, but died by suicide about a year later.
'The jury also found the defendant guilty of first-degree burglary and found the special circumstance allegations of lying-in-wait and felony murder, as well as related firearm allegations, to be true,' the news release read.
The verdicts follow a six-week trial that included 'testimony from dozens of witnesses and the presentation of physical evidence, including digital, cell phone, and other forensic evidence,' according to the release.
Serafini is due to be sentenced Aug. 18.
A San Francisco Bay Area native, Serafini played for the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago Cubs, among other major league teams, from 1996 to 2007, when he was suspended following a failed performance-enhancing drug test.
Following his exit from the MLB, he owned and operated The Bullpen Bar in Sparks, Nevada, with his wife, Erin Spohr. The bar ― which was featured in an episode of the reality series 'Bar Rescue' in 2015 ― has since been shuttered.
After a two-year investigation, authorities arrested Serafini along with Samantha Scott, his children's former nanny, for the attacks on Spohr and Wood in 2023. Scott, who was in a romantic relationship with Serafini at the time of the attacks, pleaded guilty to being an accessory in February.
According to Sacramento-based news station ABC 10, prosecutors found that Serafini had been in a financial dispute with his in-laws for years. Much of the tension stemmed from a $1.3 million ranch renovation project. Serafini reportedly wrote emails and text messages that read, 'I will be coming after you' and 'I'm going to kill them one day,' among other threats.
At her husband's trial, Erin Spohr testified that she did not believe Serafini had murdered her father or shot her mother, according to ESPN. She also said she and her husband had an open marriage and that she was aware of his romantic relationship with Scott.
Watch a report from NBC affiliate KCRA 3 on Danny Serafini's trial below.
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