Placer judge says no new trial for ex-MLB player convicted of shooting in-laws
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- A judge denied a new trial for retired Major League Baseball pitcher Daniel Serafini.
- Serafini was convicted of shooting his wife’s parents at their Lake Tahoe-area home.
- Serafini faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
A Placer Superior Court judge on Friday denied a motion seeking a new trial for Daniel Serafini, a former Major League Baseball pitcher convicted of murder in the shooting of his wife’s parents in their Lake Tahoe-area home.
Judge Garen J. Horst’s ruling clears the path for Serafini’s sentencing hearing scheduled next Friday afternoon in the Auburn historic courthouse. The retired MLB player faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Horst has reluctantly postponed Serafini’s sentencing three times in the past several months, because the judge had to first hear testimony and arguments to determine whether to grant Serafini a new trial.
The victims’ family will have an opportunity to speak in court at next week’s hearing about the impact of the shooting before Serafini is sentenced.
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.
Serafini, who remains in custody at the Placer County Jail, initially was scheduled to be sentenced in August. But that’s when Serafini fired his trial attorneys, David Dratman and David Fischer. Serafini later hired attorney Barry Zimmerman to help him seek a new trial.
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.
Security camera video captured a masked intruder on June 5, 2021, enter the couple’s home during daylight and leave hours later after sunset. The couple was shot as they watched TV in their living room.
Attorneys in the murder trial
Zimmerman has argued in court that his client received ineffective assistance from his trial attorneys, Dratman and Fischer.
The defense attorney has told the judge that Dratman and Fischer failed to call up a witness who gave investigators an alibi for Serafini on the day his wife’s parents were shot. Zimmerman also argued that the trial attorneys failed to hire experts to testify on Serafini’s behalf in the trial, and that Dratman did not provide much of a defense in his closing argument.
“That’s bad. That’s huge,” Zimmerman told the judge on Friday. “They were not ready to go to trial.”
In his closing argument in July, Dratman told the jury the prosecution did not have any physical evidence that linked Serafini 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, thinner body frame than the former MLB player.
Serafini, who wanted to testify in his trial but was advised not to, concluded his testimony Friday morning in the evidentiary hearing.
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Miller, who prosecuted Serafini, has said in court that Serafini’s trial attorneys decided not introduce at trial a flimsy alibi from a woman who initially said she saw Serafini on the day his wife’s parents were shot but later clarified she saw Serafini on the day after the shooting.
Samantha Scott, a co-defendant who received a plea deal from prosecutors, testified that she drove Serafini from Nevada and dropped him off a few miles away from his in-laws’ home before he returned hours later with a gun she had seen him with earlier in the day. She told the jury Serafini threw out the gun, his clothing and other items as the two headed back to Nevada that night.
Serafini’s testimony in court
On Friday, the prosecutor told the judge that Zimmerman and Serafini “completely ignored” evidence in the trial. Miller said they ignored evidence that included security camera video and telephone records that corroborated Scott’s testimony and placed her in the Lake Tahoe-area on the day of the shooting waiting for more than two hours a few miles from where Serafini’s in-laws lived.
Miller also argued that Serafini’s testimony showed the defendant’s “very loose relationship with the truth.”
In his ruling Friday afternoon, the judge agreed with the prosecutor’s assessment of Serafini’s testimony. Horst also said Serafini’s testimony in court clearly illustrated why his trial attorneys advised him not to testify in front of the jury.
The judge said Serafini, on the witness stand, revealed how he lied to investigators, was involved in fraud schemes, was under a restraining order obtained by his ex-wife, sold drugs and had become a shot-caller in jail who disciplined other white inmates while awaiting trial.
Horst said Serafini’s testimony caused him to lose “any aura” he might have had in front of the jury as a retired professional baseball player and a husband and father who could’ve been wrongfully accused.
The judge said competent attorneys need to adhere to court evidence rules and be skilled tacticians. He said attorneys can’t simply throw out evidence in front of a jury to see what sticks.
“From my vantage point, (Serafini) was represented by two competent attorneys,” Horst said.
