Why an ex-MLB player convicted of murder in Placer County wants a new trial
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- Daniel Serafini has a new attorney who is asking the court for a new trial.
- The retired Major League Baseball pitcher faces life in prison without parole.
- A jury found Serafini guilty of shooting his wife’s parents at their Lake Tahoe-area home.
A former Major League Baseball player convicted of shooting his wife’s parents in their Lake Tahoe-area home now has a new attorney who is seeking a new trial for his client.
Daniel Serafini, the retired MLB pitcher convicted of murder and attempted murder, believes he should get a new trial because he received “ineffective assistance” from his attorneys during the trial, according to a motion filed Aug. 22 in Placer Superior Court by his new attorney Barry Zimmerman.
Zimmerman argued in his motion that if the court fails to allow him “adequate time to prepare for this part of the process in effect deprives the accused of his right to (legal) counsel.”
Serafini also claims there was juror misconduct in the trial, the guilty verdict was contrary to evidence presented and that he was denied due process and a fair trial as a result of excluded evidence, limits on cross-examination of witnesses and the right to present evidence that could potentially clear him of wrongdoing.
Zimmerman replaced David Dratman and David Fischer, the attorneys who represented Serafini in his trial.
“The claims being made necessitate a continuance for investigation, review of transcripts, juror litigation and review of the files maintained by Mr. Dratman and Mr. Fischer,” Zimmerman said in his motion for a new trial.
Setencing rescheduled again
Last month, a jury of 10 women and two men found Serafini guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the shooting at his in-laws’ home near Lake Tahoe. The jury also found Serafini guilty of first-degree burglary for the break-in at the couple’s West Lake Boulevard home.
Serafini had been scheduled on Aug. 18 to be sentenced for the June 5, 2021, shooting that killed his father-in-law Gary Spohr, 70, and severely wounded his mother-in-law, Wendy Wood, 68. Serafini faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
However, Judge Garen J. Horst postponed Serafini’s sentencing until Oct. 28, when Serafini’s attorney will have an opportunity to argue in court for a new trial.
There’s still a possibility Serafini’s sentencing could be further delayed if Zimmerman asks for more time to prepare. In a hearing Friday, the judge denied Zimmerman’s request for a postponement “without prejudice,” which means the defense attorney can make the same request at a later date.
For now, the sentencing is still scheduled for Oct. 28, and the criminal case will return to court Sept. 15 for a status conference.
Spohr died after being shot once in the head during the burglary at the couple’s Homewood residence on the west shore of Lake Tahoe, the victims’ family has said. Wood suffered two gunshot wounds to the head but regained consciousness and called authorities for help. Wood received extensive rehabilitation but died a year after the shooting.
Serafini married Erin Spohr, the shooting victims’ eldest daughter, in 2011. She testified in the trial that her relationship with her late parents “was always a little tumultuous,” and she and her husband had heated arguments with them over money. The former MLB pitcher’s wife said that she and her parents always made up, and she doesn’t believe her husband shot her parents.
Lawsuits between Erin Spohr and her sister, Adrienne Spohr, allege money played a role in the June 2021 deadly shooting.
In a letter attached to an Aug. 13 filed prosecution motion opposing delaying the sentencing, Adrienne Spohr said she has no doubt that Serafini shot her parents. She said Serafini is seen in security camera video at her parents’ home as he “arrogantly swaggered from the scene of his crimes, leaving my father dead and my mom fighting for her life.”
“The defense’s motion is a baseless attempt to delay justice and shield Mr. Serafini from accountability,” Adrienne Spohr wrote in her letter to the court. “He has shown no remorse.”
In the trial, Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Miller, who prosecuted Serafini, told the jury that the former MLB pitcher hated his wife’s wealthy parents and told others he was willing to pay $20,000 to have them killed. The prosecutor said Serafini entered the couple’s home while nobody was there and waited for hours before shooting them as they watched TV in their living room.
Dratman argued in the trial that the prosecution does not have any physical evidence linking his client to the crime scene, noting that security camera video showed a masked intruder entering the couple’s home who appeared to be younger with a smaller and thinner body frame than the retired professional baseball player.
Authorities arrested Serafini and family friend Samantha Scott in October 2023 in connection with the deadly shooting. The initial charges indicated that prosecutors have always believed Serafini was the person who shot his wife’s parents, not Scott.
Scott has since agreed to a plea deal with the Placer County District Attorney’s Office and testified as a key witness for the prosecution in Serafini’s trial. Scott told the jury she drove Serafini and dropped him off a few miles from his in-laws’ home that day, before he returned hours later and got rid of his clothing, a backpack and a handgun while returning to Nevada.
Juror misconduct alleged
In an Aug. 18 filed motion, Dratman and Fischer argued that interviews with KCRA after the verdict showed that some of the jurors gauged Serafini’s reaction in court to testimony and evidence presented in the trial to determine whether the ex-MLB player was guilty of the alleged crimes.
The defense attorneys also argued in their motion that the KCRA interviews revealed jurors used unknown devices during deliberations to create still-images of the security video admitted as evidence and compared the suspect’s shoes. The attorneys said the issue of “matching shoes” was not discussed by either side during the trial, and no evidence was submitted on this subject.
“They considered his ‘reactions’ to the testimony as evidence of his guilt,” Dratman and Fischer argued. “The interview also exposed the fact that the jurors manipulated the admitted videos, created their own still shots and used the still shots to decide Mr. Serafini’s guilt based on a comparison of shoes.”
Dratman and Fischer said a witness, someone sitting in the courtroom and watching the trial, saw one of the jurors falling asleep during the defense’s closing argument. The woman who saw the juror falling asleep worked with Serafini and has known him since 2016, according to her declaration filed in court.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 3:04 PM.
