Tragic Lake Tahoe Murder Trial Takes Surprising Turn After Bombshell Confession Names Ex-MLB Star

The serene setting of Lake Tahoe was shattered on June 5, 2021, when a brutal shooting left Gary Spohr dead and his wife, Wendy Wood, severely injured. Two suspects fled into the Nevada desert in a Subaru, leaving a cold case in their wake.

Two years later, on the anniversary of her father’s slaying, Adrienne Spohr filed a lawsuit in Placer Superior Court, claiming she knew the perpetrators.

This was swiftly followed, two months later, by Erin Spohr’s lawsuit against Adrienne, alleging manipulation over a $10 million inheritance and complicity in their mother’s suicide, as Yahoo.com reported in October, 2023.

Nearly five months after that, Placer County detectives made a breakthrough, arresting two suspects in Nevada, one of whom was Erin Spohr’s husband, Daniel Serafini. The complexities of the case, however, were far from resolved.

In the murder trial of former MLB pitcher Daniel Serafini, the woman arrested alongside him, Samantha Scott, provided new information during her testimony on Thursday.

Scott, who was a close friend of Erin’s, alleged that the car was driven that day by her. On her side was Serafini, who is married to Spohr and Wood’s daughter, Erin.

Scott testified that she witnessed Serafini discarding items from his backpack through the car window while the vehicle was in motion. She identified “clicking noises” which she associated with a gun being disassembled, a sound she recognized from movies and television. According to Scott, Serafini then threw the gun pieces, a white PVC pipe, clothing, and a pair of gloves out of the car.

“As you’re driving down the road, all these things are going out the window?” David Dratman, Serafini’s defense lawyer, asked. “Yes,” Scott replied. When further asked if she tried to question why Serafini was getting rid of things, Scott answered a clear “No”.

Some time later, she stopped the car at a highway exit. There Serafini allegedly got rid of his shoes and backpack. “How long did you stop your car, according to what you’re telling us?” Dratman then asked. “A minute or two,” Scott replied. She stated that they re-entered the car, with Serafini now driving, and returned to his trailer in Crescent Valley, where they both spent the night.

Dratman then pressed on why Scott didn’t approach law enforcement. To which she confessed that the suspicion of Serafini’s involvement in the case didn’t bother her until after a few weeks of the incident. Moreover, she was trying to protect Serafini and herself.

However, later that summer, in what Scott alleged was a bombshell revelation, Serafini confessed to her that he had shot Wood twice in the head and once in the hand. Serafini did not, however, mention shooting Spohr to Scott. When asked by Dratman if she “wanted to avoid being convicted of murder…” she responded with a clear, “Yes”. With this, Scott wrapped up her third testimony and could get a call back to the witness stand.

However, on a different note, it makes us wonder how Samantha Scott and Daniel Serafini even crossed paths in the first place.

When Scott admitted her relation with Serafini

Samantha Scott’s meetup with former MLB player Daniel Serafini began in 2018, and it didn’t start on a secret note. But with horseback riding sessions. The irony is, Serafini was married to Erin Sophr, and through her, he met Scott. Reportedly, Scott boarded her horse at stables that were owned by Erin and learned horseback riding from her.

In a form of return, she would at times help the couple with everyday chores. For example, deep cleaning stables, picking up horse trailers and other usual stuff. It all seemed innocent until Serafini and Scott were reportedly sharing an emotional and romantic connection.

During Thursday’s testimony, she recounted the details of the night drive to investigators from January, prior to pleading guilty to a lesser charge. It was during this disclosure that she informed them about her alleged affair with Serafini. In fact, during her third court appearance for the case, Scott avoided eye contact with Serafini, who sat next to Dratman.

It’s simply a twisted tale that keeps unraveling until the entire truth is out.