Ex-MLB & NPB Pitcher Dan Serafini Found Guilty of Murder in Family Shooting

July 16, 2025: Former Major League Baseball and NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) pitcher Dan Serafini has been convicted of first-degree murder in connection with the 2021 shooting death of his father-in-law and the attempted murder of his mother-in-law in North Lake Tahoe, California.

On June 5, 2021, 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr was found dead of a gunshot wound inside his home. His wife, Wendy Wood, 68 at the time, was also shot but survived the attack—only to die by suicide a year later. Her family attributed her death to the emotional trauma she endured from the shooting.

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Authorities pointed to a dispute over a $1.3 million ranch renovation as the motive behind the crime. Text messages presented during the trial showed signs of premeditation, including one ominous message that read, “I’m going to kill them one day.” Serafini’s co-defendant, Samantha Scott, pleaded guilty earlier this year to being an accessory. She was described as a close friend of one of the Spohrs’ daughters, Erin Spohr, who was Serafini’s wife and testified during the trial.

Despite Erin’s belief that her husband did not commit the crime, video surveillance placed a hooded figure—allegedly Serafini—at the scene hours before the attack. After a two-year investigation, Serafini was arrested and charged in connection with the crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 18 in Placer County, California.

Serafini, drafted 26th overall by the Minnesota Twins in 1992, played for several MLB teams over his career, ending with a 15-16 record and a 6.04 ERA. He also played four seasons in Japan, where he helped the Chiba Lotte Marines win the Japan Series in 2005 under manager Bobby Valentine.