Prosecutor cross-examines former MLB pitcher convicted of Placer County murder
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Daniel Serafini continued his testimony while seeking a new trial in his murder case.
- Serafini, a retired MLB pitcher, was convicted of shooting his wife’s parents.
- The judge must decide on the new trial motion before the Feb. 20 sentencing.
Daniel Serafini, a former Major League Baseball player convicted of shooting his wife’s parents in Placer County, sat in court on Monday and listened to an audio recording of his late mother-in-law identifying him as the shooter.
The retired MLB pitcher, who was found guilty of murder seven months ago, is testifying in Placer Superior Court in support of his motion to get a new trial.
A jury in July found Serafini guilty of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the shooting that killed his father-in-law Gary Spohr, 70, and severely wounded his mother-in-law, Wendy Wood, 68, at their home. The jury also found Serafini guilty of first-degree burglary for the break-in at the couple’s West Lake Boulevard home.
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.
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Miller, who prosecuted Serafini, had his first opportunity on Monday afternoon to cross-examine the former professional baseball player. The prosecutor played for Serafini a recording of an April 1, 2022, phone call of his mother-in-law telling a Placer County sheriff’s detective that she saw Serafini of the top of the stairs when he shot her husband before turning the gun on her.
“Seeing him shooting Gary then pointing it at me,” Wood said in during the phone conversation with the sheriff’s detective.
Security camera video captured a masked intruder on June 5, 2021, enter the couple’s home during daylight and leave hours later after sunset. During the April 2022 phone call with the sheriff’s detectives, Wood said nothing was stolen from her home when the intruder broke into their home and shot her and her husband.
Serafini testified that his trial attorneys told him about that phone conversation, and in court Monday he called his mother-in-law’s statement “rehearsed.”
“He told me that (Wood) changed her story,” Serafini said on the witness stand at the historic Auburn courthouse. “He told me that she was influenced by others to change her story.”
A voicemail to Serafini
Barry Zimmerman, Serafini’s attorney, has played in court a recording of a 2-minute-42-second voicemail message from his mother-in-law. In the message, Wood reminded Serafini how she was receiving some type of electric therapy to help recall what she saw in her home on the night of the shooting.
“I had a vision of the shooter, and it’s not you,” Wood said in the message before telling her son-in-law that she would really like to see her two grandsons.
Serafini’s trial attorneys, David Dratman and David Fischer, did not introduce Wood’s voicemail message as evidence in Serafini’s murder trial. Zimmerman is arguing that Serafini should get a new trial because Serafini received ineffective assistance from Dratman and Fischer.
Serafini did not testify in his trial. He said he told his attorneys he wanted to testify on different occasions, but they advised him not to.
Video from a former teammate
The prosecutor showed in court a video sent to the Placer County District Attorney’s Office in the middle of Serafini’s trial. Miller asked Serafini if he was aware of the video sent in by one of his former professional teammates who was now a retired police officer who felt compelled to send in the video.
The video shown in court had a split-screen with security camera video of the Lake Tahoe-area intruder at the top. On the bottom was video of Serafini pitching for the Italian national team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
The former teammate who sent in the video believed the video of Serafini running to retrieve a ground ball matches the stride of the masked intruder seen outside his in-law’s home on the day they were shot.
Character in question
Serafini has testified that he had a stack of letters from people who knew him and were willing to testify that he would never do the acts of which he’s accused . But he said his trial attorneys refused to call these character witnesses.
Through a series of questions, the prosecutor asked Serafini did his attorneys inform him that calling up character witnesses would give the prosecution a chance to call up witnesses who would contradict their testimony?
Miller asked Serafini if his character witnesses knew about him buying and selling drugs, participating in insurance fraud schemes, being accused of violating temporary restraining orders at his ex-wife’s home and assaulting his former tenant?
“He skipped town and owed me $9,000,” Serafini testified about the man he hit and knocked to the ground. “He’s taking food off my table by taking money from me for a job he never did.”
Testimony is expected to resume Friday morning with the defense calling Serafini’s trial attorneys to the witnesses stand. Judge Garen J. Horst has to decide whether Serafini should get a new trial in his murder case before proceeding to sentencing.
The former MLB player, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 20, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
