'This trial was a popularity contest': Ex-MLB pitcher, bar owner defiant after he's convicted of murdering his father-in-law, trying to kill mother-in-law for their $11 million trust

Anyone expecting a erstwhile Major League Baseball pitcher who went connected to ain a Nevada barroom and look successful the fashionable amusement "Bar Rescue" to beryllium contrite aft his condemnation for murdering his father-in-law and attempting to termination his mother-in-law took a 90 mph fastball to the face.

"There was nary DNA, nary photos, nary video, to nexus maine to this crime, but due to the fact that you don't similar me, you recovered maine guilty," Daniel Serafini said, according to a courtroom study from the Sacramento Bee. "This proceedings was a popularity contest."

Serafini, 51, was sentenced to beingness down bars for the shooting decease of Robert Gary Spohr, 70, and "gravely wounding" his woman Wendy Wood, 68, successful a bid to get wealth from their $11 cardinal spot fund, the Placer County District Attorney's Office successful California said successful a press release. He was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and burglary past July for the 2021 shooting.

"The quality toll of this lawsuit extends acold beyond the courtroom," Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said successful a statement. "The defendant's horrific crimes took the lives of a father, mother, loving grandparents, household members and friends. The interaction of this onslaught has extended acold beyond the contiguous victims, profoundly affecting household members and the broader community, and highlighting the lasting harm caused by deliberate violence."

The victim's girl Adrienne Spohr, whose sister was joined to Serafini, called the suspect "true evil."

"I'm near with the lasting representation of my dada changeable successful the backmost of the caput and my ma lying connected her backmost bleeding out," she reportedly said. "Dan destroyed the lives of my parents and each 4 of their children."

As Law&Crime previously reported, the onslaught was carried retired successful Tahoe City, a quiescent unincorporated edifice municipality connected the occidental enactment of Lake Tahoe, wherever Spohr and his woman lived astatine the time. First responders recovered the brace changeable wrong their location aft receiving a telephone from Wood, who was "gravely wounded," according to prosecutors. She died by suicide a twelvemonth later.

"During the investigation, detectives determined that Serafini was liable for the horrific onslaught connected his in-laws," the DA's bureau said.

After the shooting incident, the Placer County Sheriff's Office shared 2 videos of a "hooded antheral wearing a face-covering and a backpack walking to the residence respective hours earlier the homicide occurred." One of the videos showed a antheral with a backpack extracurricular the victims' residence, and the 2nd added footage of the fishy walking connected a sidewalk by water.

The accusation and grounds that constabulary gathered led them to place Serafini and Samantha Scott — a person of Serafini's wife, Erin Spohr — arsenic the suspects. Scott, who was erstwhile a nanny for the Serafini and Spohr family, pleaded blameworthy connected Feb. 6, 2025, to a complaint of being an accessory to a felony successful the shootings.

Adrienne Spohr filed a wrongful decease lawsuit successful June 2023 against Scott and Serafini, arsenic good arsenic Erin. In the lawsuit, Adrienne Spohr accused them of "malicious, despicable, cruel, and unjust conduct," making them liable for damages aft the "senseless murder" of Robert Gary Spohr and the eventual decease of Wood.

"It's been 4 years of conscionable hell," Adrienne Spohr told reporters aft Serafini's conviction. "The Placer County District Attorney's Office and sheriff's bureau ne'er gave up, and contiguous yet justness was served. And I volition ne'er hide however they ne'er gave up connected this case. They ne'er gave up connected my ma and dada contempt however galore radical were trying to prevarication and manipulate."

Serafini made a sanction for himself pitching for the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs successful the 1990s, but evident fiscal woes began aft his nonrecreational vocation ended. Prosecutors said during his proceedings that it was wealth that yet motivated him to people his in-laws, citing their $11 cardinal spot and his wife's transportation to them, according to SFGate.

The erstwhile barroom proprietor appeared with his woman connected an occurrence of "Bar Rescue" — titled "Take Me Out to the Bar Game" — which aired successful 2015 and began with the communicative of however Serafini's $14 cardinal net from his playing vocation dwindled aft a bid of failed investments and a "bitter divorce." On the episode, Erin Spohr is heard commenting astir however she noticed a alteration successful Serafini's property arsenic the failing barroom near him $300,000 successful indebtedness and successful information of losing his parents' home.

"My parents were truthful arrogant of maine astatine 1 clip for being a palmy shot subordinate and present I'm reasoning what a disappointment I americium to everybody," Serafini said successful the episode.

Chris Perez, Jason Kandel and Matt Naham contributed to this report.