John Jefferson
Left, center: Samantha Scott, Danny Serafini (Placer County Jail). Right: Serafini pictured exiting a plane in handcuffs following his extradition from Nevada to California (Placer County Sheriff’s Office).
The co-defendant of a former MLB player has admitted to her role in the deadly shooting of the baseball player’s in-laws in their California home.
Samantha Maria Scott, 34, pleaded guilty on Feb. 6 to a charge of being an accessory to a felony in the shootings of Robert Gary Spohr, 70, and Wendy Louise Wood, 68. Scott’s co-defendant, former MLB pitcher Daniel “Danny” Joseph Serafini, 51, is set for a jury trial in the case in March.
Robert Spohr was the father of Erin Spohr, Serafini’s wife. Scott was reportedly a friend of Erin Spohr’s and the family’s former nanny.
Spohr was fatally shot on June 5, 2021, at his Lake Tahoe-area residence. Deputies found him dead from a single gunshot wound. His wife had also been shot but was taken to a hospital, where she recovered from her injuries. She died by suicide a year later.
After the initial shooting incident, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office shared two videos of a “hooded male wearing a face-covering and a backpack walking to the residence several hours before the homicide occurred,” Law&Crime reported. One of the videos showed a man with a backpack outside the Spohrs’ residence, and the second added footage of the suspect walking on a sidewalk by water.
“The information and evidence detectives gathered led them to identify Serafini and Scott as the suspects; both suspects are known to each other and to the victims,” authorities said.
Serafini and Scott, described as a close friend of Serafini’s wife, were eventually arrested.
Serafini made a name for himself as an MLB pitcher, but after his professional career ended, his apparent financial woes began. The former bar owner appeared with his wife on the show Bar Rescue. One episode, “Take Me Out to the Bar Game,” which aired in 2015, began with the story of how Serafini’s $14 million earnings from his playing career dwindled after a series of failed investments and a “bitter divorce,” a situation only made worse by the nosedive in the success of what was then known as The Bullpen at Aspen Glen, located in Sparks, Nevada.
On the episode, Erin Spohr is heard commenting about how she noticed a change in Serafini’s personality and missed her old husband, as the failing bar left him $300,000 in debt and in danger of losing his parents’ home.
“My parents were so proud of me at one time for being a successful baseball player and now I’m thinking what a disappointment I am to everybody,” Danny Serafini is also heard saying on the episode, his voice quivering.
After the bar’s makeover, the establishment was renamed Oak Tavern, but it has since closed. A 2016 tweet from the Oak Tavern’s account on X claimed the show “screwed the pooch big time lol.”
Adrienne Spohr, Erin Spohr’s sister and the daughter of Robert Spohr and Wendy Wood, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in June 2023 against the defendants and her sister. In the lawsuit, Adrienne Spohr accused them of “malicious, despicable, cruel, and unjust conduct” making them liable for damages after the “senseless murder” of Robert Gary Spohr and the eventual death of Wood.
“My parents had been incredibly generous to Daniel Serafini and Erin Spohr throughout their marriage,” she said. “Despite being pressed for my opinion, I cannot comment on my sister’s level of involvement at this time.”
In a countersuit, Erin Spohr, who has not been charged in the murders, alleges her sister manipulated their mother to cut her out of the inheritance.
Scott’s sentencing date has not been set.
Matt Naham contributed to this report.
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