Ex-MLB pitcher convicted in Lake Tahoe ambush attack

Ex MLB pitcher convicted in Lake Tahoe ambush

A former Major League Baseball pitcher was convicted of murdering his father-in-law and attempting to murder his mother-in-law after sneaking into their Lake Tahoe home in 2021.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Former Major League Baseball player Daniel Serafini, who grew up in the Bay Area, was convicted of murdering his father-in-law and attempting to kill his mother-in-law in a 2021 ambush attack in Lake Tahoe.

A Placer County jury also convicted Serafini of residential burglary in addition to the murder of Gary Spohr and attempted murder of Wendy Wood, the Placer County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.

Video surveillance from the Spohr and Wood home at the time showed a man wearing a gray hoodie, face covering and backpack approaching it hours before the attack, police said. Another video shows the same man walking up the driveway.

Deputies responded to the home after receiving a 911 call. They discovered Spohr had been shot once, and Wood was shot at least twice. Wood recovered from the injuries but died a year later.

The guilty verdicts come after a 6-week trial.

Serafini, born in San Francisco, was the 26th overall draft pick by the Minnesota Twins in 1992. 

He also played for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies. In 2007, the MLB punished him with a 50-game suspension for failing a test for using performance-enhancing drugs.