The former Major League Baseball player sentenced to life in prison for shooting his in-laws in an alleged inheritance scheme has continued to plead his innocence during an interview with Dateline.
‘I don’t understand it at all,’ Dan Serafini, a journeyman pitcher for seven MLB seasons, said in an exclusive interview from prison. ‘I believed in the justice system. And the justice system failed.’
Dan Serafini is accused of shooting in-laws Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood in Lake Tahoe, California nearly five years ago, allegedly, to obtain a portion of the couple’s $23 million estate. Spohr died at the scene, while Wood survived the attack only to die by suicide in 2023 at age 70.
Prosecutors claimed Serafini, now 52, entered the couple’s home while they were away on June 5, 2021. Serafini is accused of hiding with a firearm in a closet, only to emerge when they returned home, shooting them both in the head.
Serafini has since been found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder as well as first-degree burglary. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial, claiming he was partying with his wife, Erin, when the shooting took place.
Now Serafini is blaming his attorneys and the jurors themselves for his conviction, as he told Dateline.
Dan Serafini continued to plead his innocence during an interview with Dateline this week
Retired businessman Gary Spohr, 70, and his wife Wendy Wood, then 69, were shot at their luxury Lake Tahoe home in 2021. He died and she survived only to hang herself in 2023
‘They just didn’t like me,’ Serafini said of the jury. ‘They didn’t like my lifestyle. They didn’t like the way I acted in court. Which I didn’t act anyway. I sat there like I was supposed to because my lawyers told me to. “Don’t react. Don’t respond. Sit there like nothing’s bothering you.” And I did.
‘And I got crucified for it.’
The full interview will air Friday on NBC.
Prosecutors alleged Serafini executed the 2021 hit to secure his wife’s share of a massive $23 million inheritance. Serafini hated his in-laws and was heard telling friends he would pay $20,000 to have them killed, according to prosecutors.
Spohr and Wood were loving grandparents and the shooting greatly impacted their family members and friends, Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said in a February statement.
‘The impact of this attack has extended far beyond the immediate victims, deeply affecting family members and the broader community, and highlighting the lasting harm caused by deliberate violence,’ Gire said.
Serafini was said to be having an affair with his children’s nanny Samantha Scott (pictured), but prosecutors claimed that affair only began after the 2021 shooting. Scott pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the crime for driving him to his in-laws house that day
Adrienne Spohr, Serafini’s former sister-in-law and the daughter of the victims, spoke out against the Defendant at the trial.
‘Daniel is true evil,’ she said. ‘I’m left with the lasting image of my dad shot in the back of the head and my mom lying on her back bleeding out. Dan destroyed the lives of my parents and all four of their children.
‘Danny Serafini should never see the outside of a prison ever again.’
For his part, Serafini described himself at trial as a ‘broken, imperfect man that makes mistakes.’
Erin filed for divorce a week after his conviction. During the trial, prosecutors had questioned her about Serafini’s years-long affair with her friend and occasional babysitter, Samantha Scott, who was accused of driving the pitcher to his in-laws’ home before the 2021 shooting.
According to prosecutors, that affair began only after the shooting.
Serafini played for six Major League Baseball teams including the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds
Scott was sentenced to two years of probation last month, much to the dismay of Adrienne Spohr, the couple’s other daughter.
‘Samantha Scott’s deceit and chosen silence destroyed my family,’ Adrienne said at Scott’s sentencing. ‘We have seen that she will look the other way in the face of the most unimaginable and heinous act possible.
‘Less than two years in prison is not enough,’ she continued. ‘House arrest to travel, with the ability to travel within 150 miles, is not accountability. That radius allows vacations, leisure, and freedom. My parents have none of that. They have no movement, they have no future, and they have no second chances.’
Scott made her own statement at trial.
‘I let fear and misplaced loyalty cloud my judgment, and instead of doing the right thing, I made a choice that interfered with the truth and the investigation,’ she said. ‘That is something I regret every single day.’
It now seems that Serafini’s relationship with his in-laws had been fraught from the beginning – and tensions only grew worse as the former pitcher and his wife found themselves partially reliant on handouts from her wealthy parents.
Her parents forced Serafini to sign a post-nuptial agreement one year after their wedding, thereby denying him any money if their marriage were to end, Erin testified in court.
