Disgraced former MLB pitcher Dan Serafini was having an affair with his family nanny who is set to testify against him as he faces charges of murdering of his wealthy father-in-law, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The 51-year-old is on trial in Auburn, California, accused of the 2021 slaying of retired businessman Gary Spohr, 70, and the attempted killing of his wife Wendy Wood, then 69.
Samantha Scott, 35, admitted to what is coyly described as ‘a flirtatious, romantic relationship’ with Serafini in court papers obtained by DailyMail.com – with cops saying she spent the night before the murder with him at a seedy casino hotel in Elko, Nevada, where the pair enjoyed a lengthy boozing session.
But while Scott, admitted the fling and to driving Serafini to the scene of the slaying in Tahoe City, California, prosecutors say the real reason for the brutal murder was a family feud over money that had dragged on for more than a decade.
Along with flirty texts exchanged by Serafini and Scott, jurors will also see the string of furious emails – characterized by Judge Garen Horst as ‘intense, verbally violent interactions’ during a motions hearing last week – he barraged his in-law with.
Serafini played for six Major League teams most notably the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs in a journeyman 12-year career between 1996 and 2007.
The trial will see his wife Erin, 36, come face-to-face with the former nanny testifying for the prosecution following a February plea deal. Erin, an equestrian, will speak in defense of her husband.
And while it has previously been reported that Wood had no memory of the attack, DailyMail.com can reveal that she had in fact recovered her memory – a twist revealed during a hearing last week when the prosecution and defense made arguments over whether to put that information to the jury.
Former MLB pitcher Dan Serafini, 51, was having an affair with family nanny Samantha Scott who is now set to testify against him as he faces charges of murdering of his wealthy father-in-law
Retired businessman Gary Spohr, 70, and his wife Wendy Wood, then 69, were shot at their luxury Lake Tahoe home in 2021. He died and she miraculously survived only to hang herself two years later
That led to her dramatically cutting Erin and Serafini out of her will in favor of her other daughter Adrienne, 39.
Wood hanged herself in 2023 and her revised will is now the subject of a separate legal battle between her daughters.
The trial marks a steep fall from grace for Serafini who is now residing in South Placer County Jail’s cell 176.
Even before his October 2023 arrest he had fallen to the point where he was living part time in a trailer and working as a miner in Nevada’s remote Crescent Valley.
Most of the money he had earned during his MLB career had been sunk into a bar in Sparks, Nevada, named the Bullpen – later the Oak Tavern – that struggled and saw him appear on a 2015 episode of Paramount’s Bar Rescue.
When it failed, the former pitcher and his wife found themselves partly reliant on handouts from her wealthy parents, with Wood handing Erin a check for $90,000 shortly before she and her husband were shot.
Despite the financial largesse, prosecutors say Serafini’s relationship with his in-laws had been fractious from the moment he met Erin in 2010.
Nonetheless, the pair went on to marry in 2012 and set up home in a sprawling $1.1million five-bedroom property in Reno, Nevada, that they share with their two children aged four and seven.
Serafini’s wife Erin, 36, will come face-to-face with the former nanny testifying for the prosecution. Erin, an equestrian, will speak in defense of her husband
The Lake Tahoe home where Robert Gary Spohr and Wendy Wood were killed in 2021
Spohr died instantly of a bullet to the brain. Wood survived two gunshots to the head and dialed 911, but she took her own life one year later while still in recovery
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Wealthy Lake Tahoe family's life torn apart by masked intruder…now ex-MLB star is on trial
According to prosecution documents, Serafini was heard offering to pony up $20,000 to have his in-laws murdered the same year he and Erin married, while in 2016, he was heard describing them as ‘wealthy pieces of s***’.
And, just three months before the murder in June 2021, he was overheard by mine foreman Eric Bunner saying he wanted to kill them following a furious phone call.
That bad blood, says the prosecution, came to a head when a masked man was caught on camera sneaking into Spohr’s Tahoe City home on June 5 2021 at shortly after 5pm.
Erin had been visiting her parents that day with their children and was seen saying goodbye to them outside at 7:45pm that night. It was the last time her father would be seen alive.
Just over an hour later, five gunshots were heard in rapid succession from inside the property with the masked killer caught leaving the home a few minutes before 9pm.
When police arrived an hour later, they found Spohr dying on the couch from a gunshot wound to the head while his wife was found in an upstairs bathroom, shot twice in the head but miraculously still alive.
Police and the prosecution say the man captured on camera was Serafini who had been driven to Tahoe City by his lover Scott.
In initial interviews, Scott claimed to have been in Elko on the day of the murder and said Serafini had spent the previous night with her there at the Red Lion Casino before leaving to return to his Crescent Valley trailer.
According to prosecution documents obtained by DailyMail.com Serafini was heard offering to pony up $20,000 to have his in-laws murdered
Serafini played for six MLB teams including the Cincinnati Reds in a journeyman 12-year career between 1996 and 2007
Wearing a backpack and black hoodie, the man thought to be the killer carried a concealed .22-caliber gun as he strolled iaround Lake Tahoe on the day of the murder
Police caught a masked intruder entering the Spohrs’ Hurricane Bay home on surveillance footage
But Scott’s tale changed when police confronted her with cellphone pings that placed her first in Crescent Valley, then Reno and next crossing into California where her phone pinged near Truckee – a border town close to Tahoe City.
In Tahoe City, her tan Subaru was captured on home surveillance footage parking close to the Spohr residence at 6:42pm that night.
The car was repeatedly seen moving from parking spot to parking spot before driving off at 9:22pm that night allegedly with Serafini also inside.
According to court papers, Scott admitted to driving the former big-leaguer to Tahoe City that day but insisted she had left him there by the Fat Cat Bar and Grill after he said he needed ‘to pick up a package’ before collecting him a few hours later for the drive back to Crescent Valley.
Police say it was during that time that Serafini snuck into the house and attacked his in-laws, emerging from a hiding spot after his wife and children left.
Despite Scott turning witness for the prosecution, Serafini’s defense lawyers David Dratman and David Fischer will argue that there were plenty of other people with reason to want to kill Spohr and Wood who had been nightmare neighbors and the subject of restraining orders at the time of the attack.
Court papers seen by DailyMail.com bear that out.
Wood was convicted of attacking a man with a paddle board paddle for fishing outside her home in 2018 while Spohr had been involved in a laundry list of court cases dating back to 2011.
Dratman and Fischer also say the Spohrs’ other daughter Adrienne benefitted financially from her parents’ deaths. She is currently dating a convicted bank robber named in court papers as ‘T.H’.
Serafini was detained in Winnemucca, Nevada, and accused of murder, along with lying in wait and child endangerment because his two children were in the home shortly before the shooting
Serafini is being held in the South Placer Adult Correctional Facility in Roseville, California
DailyMail.com can reveal ‘T.H’ is Taylor Hatton, 39, who was convicted of robbing the First Community Bank in Taos, New Mexico, in 2008 and brandishing a firearm during the heist.
He was eventually arrested in Albuquerque, convicted and released from jail in 2014 according to Bureau of Prisons records.
They say the man caught on camera could have been Hatton, although Richard Miller – who is leading the prosecution – noted in court last week that Hatton is just 5ft 9 while the masked man is closer to Serafini’s 6ft 1 height.
The trial is due to run for at least two weeks and will see Serafini face life in prison if he is convicted.
Scott will be sentenced at a later date.