Former MLB player convicted of murder in California home invasion

A erstwhile Major League Baseball pitcher has been recovered blameworthy of murdering his father-in-law successful what prosecutors called a financially motivated attack.

Daniel Serafini, 51, was convicted Monday of first-degree execution successful the 2021 shooting decease of Robert Gary Spohr, 70. The assemblage besides recovered him blameworthy of attempted execution of Spohr's wife, Wendy Wood, and first-degree burglary.

According to grounds presented astatine trial, Serafini entered the Spohrs' location connected June 5, 2021, wherever information footage captured a hooded fig arriving 3 hours earlier anyone called 911.

Prosecutors said Serafini secretly waited wrong the location with a .22 caliber weapon for 3 hours earlier attacking. Two young children, ages 3 years and 8 months, were successful the location during the shooting.

Wood survived the archetypal onslaught but aboriginal died by termination successful 2023, with her household saying the shooting's trauma led to her death.

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The lawsuit centered connected a $1.3 cardinal quality implicit a ranch renovation project. Text messages revealed Serafini had written "I'm gonna termination them 1 day" successful a connection mentioning $21,000, according to ABC News' Sacramento affiliate KXTV. The victims had fixed $90,000 to Serafini's woman the time of the shootings.

Serafini's shot vocation included playing for six antithetic teams aft being drafted successful the archetypal circular by the Minnesota Twins successful 1992. His vocation ended successful 2007. That aforesaid year, helium was suspended for 50 games for utilizing performance-enhancing drugs.

A 2nd defendant, Samantha Scott, 33, who was described arsenic some a adjacent person of Serafini's woman and his lover, pleaded blameworthy to being an accessory successful February 2025.

"This was a heinous and calculated crime," Adrienne Spohr, 1 of the victim's daughters, told KXTV, noting that her parents had been "incredibly generous" to Serafini and his wife.

Serafini volition stay successful custody without bail until his sentencing, scheduled for Aug. 18. He could look beingness successful prison.