Ex-MLB pitcher Dan Serafini, friend heading to trial in Tahoe murder case. Here’s when

The trial for a former Major League Baseball player and a family friend accused of killing his wife’s parents in Lake Tahoe is set for next year, a Placer Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Daniel Serafini, 49, and Samantha Scott, 33, pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder and burglary during an arraignment Monday after a judge bound them for trial following a preliminary hearing last month. Both are accused of killing Robert Gary Spohr, 70, and Wendy Wood, 68, at the couple’s Homewood property in 2021.

Serafini, who is married to the victim’s daughter, and Scott had no reaction to the brief proceedings at Placer Superior Court in which attorneys agreed to come back Sept. 16 for trial preparation. The jury trial could begin as early as March 17 and is estimated to take about six to eight weeks, lawyers said.

Serafini faces an additional charge of child endangerment, with prosecutors also adding allegations he murdered his father-in-law while lying in wait.

Spohr died at the scene, but Wood regained consciousness to call authorities. Wood died a year later despite extensive rehabilitation, according to previous Bee reporting.

The Placer County Sheriff’s Office published a video soon after the incident of a man walking up the driveway of Spohr’s home hours before the shooting. Prosecutors allege the man was Serafini, who had struggled with finances and keeping his bar in Nevada afloat.

Detectives later learned that the suspect was lying in wait inside the home for more than four hours before attacking the couple, according to previous Bee reporting. Two years after the couple’s death, Spohr and Scott were arrested separately in Nevada and extradited to Placer County.

This story was originally published June 3, 2024 at 11:45 AM.