The trial of a former Major League Baseball player and family friend accused of killing his wife’s parents in Lake Tahoe is scheduled for next year, a Placer Superior Court judge ruled Monday.
Daniel Serafini, 49, and Samantha Scott, 33, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Monday to murder, attempted murder and burglary after a judge bound them for trial following a preliminary hearing last month. Both are accused of killing 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr and 68-year-old Wendy Wood in 2021 at the couple’s home in Homewood.
Serafini, who is married to the victim’s daughter, and Scott did not respond to the brief proceeding in Placer Superior Court, during which attorneys agreed to return Sept. 16 for trial preparation. The jury trial could start as soon as March 17 and is estimated to last six to eight weeks, attorneys said.
Serafini faces an additional charge of child endangerment, with prosecutors also adding allegations that he killed his father-in-law while lying in wait.
Spohr died at the scene, but Wood regained consciousness to call authorities. Wood died a year later despite extensive rehabilitation, according to previous Bee reporting.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office released a video shortly after the incident in which a man walked into the driveway of Spohr’s home hours before the shooting. Prosecutors allege the man was Serafini, who was struggling with finances and keeping his bar in Nevada afloat.
Detectives later learned that the suspect lurked in the home for more than four hours before attacking the couple, according to previous Bee reporting. Two years after the couple’s deaths, Spohr and Scott were arrested separately in Nevada and extradited to Placer County.
