Dan Serafini, a first-round pick in the 1992 MLB Draft at the age of 18, was convicted of his father-in-law’s murder and mother-in-law’s attempted murder

Dan Serafini.Credit : ABC10/YouTube

“He is a monster who knows no moral boundaries and has zero reservations about taking the lives of others to benefit himself.”

Those were the words used to describe Dan Serafini by Adrienne Spohr, the daughter of Serafini’s victims and his estranged sister-in-law, at his sentencing hearing in a California courtroom on Friday, Feb. 27.

The former Major League Baseball player was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday after a jury convicted him of murdering his father-in-law Gary Spohr.

Serafini, 52, also received a life sentence for the attempted murder of his mother-in-law Wendy Wood, who died by suicide two years after the incident.

On the third and count of burglary, Serafini was sentenced to 25 years to life.

The judge ordered that all three sentences be served consecutively, not concurrently — and said restitution would be determined at a later date.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Serafini killed his in-laws because he believed their deaths would allow him to get his hands on the couple’s $23 million fortune through his then-wife’s inheritance.

Dan Serafini at his sentencing.ABC10/YouTube

Serafini’s estranged wife Erin Spohr did not appear in court on Friday but had Serafini’s attorney read a statement of support for her husband that asked the judge for leniency in his sentencing.

Prior to that, Erin’s sister Adrienne delivered her impact statement, outlining how her parents had provided her sister and Serafini with approximately $2.5 million in just five years while Serafini worked at a mine making $28 an hour.

The couple continued to seek money even after the shooting, Adrienne said.

“Dan showed no remorse. He cashed a $200,000 check made out to him from my mom’s account, just weeks after holding a gun to her head and pulling the trigger,” Adrienne said in court.

She said the most “disturbing situation” occurred a few months later on a family trip to the Orcas Islands.

“Dan and Erin claimed it would benefit my mom’s recovery, but in reality, they were looking for a self-indulgent getaway at her expense,” Adrienne said, noting that her mother paid for their “first-class airfare” and that the two “made repeated cash withdrawals of $500 to $1,000 a day over multiple days to fund lavish meals and personal splurges.”

Serafini delivered his remarks last, using his time to proclaim his innocence, dispute parts of the case unrelated to his guilt or innocence, quote the Bible and explain why he believes segregation is crucial to maintaining order among incarcerated individuals in the American penal system.

The former athlete became emotional for a brief moment toward the end of his remarks before accusing the jurors in the court of being “dishonest” and “liars” who disregarded evidence in the case.

His sentencing had initially been scheduled for August 2025 but was delayed after he filed several motions seeking a retrial.

Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood.Placer County Sheriff

Judge Garen J. Horst not only dismissed Serafini’s final motion on the grounds of ineffective counsel in court last week but also delivered a strong rebuke to the convicted murderer.

Horst said that Serafini’s three days of testimony in support of his retrial motion made it clear why his attorney did not call him to the stand at trial, The Sacramento Bee reported.

In those three days, Serafini testified to committing insurance fraud, lying to investigators, frequent drug use, selling drugs, heading up a faction of White inmates in jail and having a restraining order placed against him by his first wife.

Horst said Serafini was also accused of ignoring crucial facts and details of the case while arguing for a retrial.

Serafini’s babysitter-turned-paramour Samantha Scott testified at his trial that she drove him to Lake Tahoe on June 5, 2021, dropping him off near his in-laws’ home and driving him home shortly after the time of the incident.

A security camera then captured an individual entering the home of Spohr and Wood while they were out on their boat that day with Serafini’s estranged wife and two sons.

Scott testified that the clothing worn by the person in that video is the same clothing Serafini disposed of later that night along with a gun as the two drove back to Nevada from California.

According to prosecutors, Serafini hid inside the residence for approximately five hours before emerging to attack.

Spohr died from a single gunshot to the head while Wood was shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder, however, she managed to survive.

Wood spent the next two years undergoing intensive physical therapy and rehabilitation to relearn how to walk, talk, eat and perform other everyday tasks.

She died by suicide in 2023.

In his motion citing ineffective counsel, Serafini had introduced a voicemail, which was later played in court, of Wood saying: “I had restoration of my visions due to electric therapy and I know who the shooter was and it wasn’t you.”

Prosecutors responded with their own recording of Wood in an interview she had with detectives after the shooting, in which she identified her son-in-law as the gunman.

“I remember him walking over and seeing him shooting Gary and then pointing the gun at me,” Wood said in the recording.

Scott also testified that Serafini confessed to shooting his mother-in-law.