Ex-MLB pitcher Daniel Serafini sentenced to life in prison for 2021 murder
Former Major League Baseball pitcher Daniel Serafini has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2021 murder of his father-in-law and the attempted murder of his mother-in-law at their Homewood residence near Lake Tahoe.
The sentence was handed down Friday in Placer Superior Court. In July, jurors found the 51-year-old guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 70-year-old Gary Spohr, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
He was also convicted of attempted murder for the shooting of 68-year-old Wendy Wood, who survived despite sustaining severe injuries.
Prosecutors said Serafini harbored deep resentment toward his wife’s affluent parents and had previously told friends he would pay $20,000 to have them killed.
Authorities stated that he ultimately carried out the attack himself.
Spohr died from a single shot to the head from Serafini during the June 5, 2021, burglary at the home on Lake Tahoe’s west shore. Wood survived the shooting, but needed extensive rehabilitation in its aftermath and died a year later.
“Dan Serafini executed my dad and left my mom to die,” daughter Adrienne Spohr told reporters outside the Historic Auburn Courthouse following Serafini’s sentencing Friday afternoon. “My mom fought with everything she could and did not let Dan Serafini win. Dan Serafini is finally being held accountable and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
Friends of Wendy and Gary Spohr filed one after another before Judge Garen Horst to describe a loving couple who thrived on adventure and travel, whether skiing their beloved Sierra or diving in the waters of the South Pacific, but whose lives were cut down out of Serafini’s greed.
The couple’s generosity was exploited, their trust repaid with murder, one friend said, by a man whose evil hid in plain sight.
Gary Spohr’s killing and the attempt on his wife’s life, said another, was “a senseless act of violence and hate.” For that, another family friend said. “Daniel’s evilness deserves no sympathy.”
News.Az
By Nijat Babayev
