AUBURN, Calif. — Speaking in a Placer County courtroom, Adrienne Spohr said Samantha Scott’s “deceit and chosen silence” destroyed her family. Scott admitted to lying to police to protect Daniel Serafini, the man who shot Spohr’s parents in an ambush five years ago as the couple watched TV in their living room.

“She allowed a killer to roam free,” Spohr told the judge. “It was reckless, and it was intentional.”

On Monday, Placer Superior Court Judge Garen J. Horst sentenced Scott, 35, two years of probation for her role in aiding former Major League Baseball pitcher Daniel Serafini, who was convicted of shooting his wife’s parents in their Lake Tahoe-area home.

Horst sentenced Scott in accordance with the plea deal she made with prosecutors in exchange for testimony against Serafini. Scott was the prosecution’s key witness, describing for the jury how she drove Serafini from Nevada to the Lake Tahoe area on the day his in-laws were shot.

The jury found Serafini guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder and burglary in connection with the break-in and the shooting at the West Lake Boulevard home. The retired MLB pitcher was convicted of killing his father-in-law, Gary Spohr, 70, and severely wounding his mother-in-law Wendy Wood, 68.

In Serafini’s trial last summer, Scott testified that Serafini convinced her to drive him from Nevada in her Subaru Outback and drop him off a few miles from his wife’s parents’ home. She said she didn’t know at the time that Serafini’s in-laws lived nearby.

Scott told the jury she assumed Serafini was heading to Lake Tahoe to pick up cocaine, and she saw him earlier that day test-fire a handgun with an attached PVC pipe to act as a makeshift silencer. She said she drove him back to Nevada with Serafini getting rid of his clothing, a backpack and the handgun by throwing the items out of the moving vehicle along the highway.

“No reasonable person would believe these events were innocent,” Adrienne Spohr said in court.

Scott apologizes in court

Scott stood up in court Monday and read from a written statement, telling the judge that she was “deeply sorry” for lying to investigators in the murder case. She called it “a terrible decision,” and the court process has allowed her to confront her mistakes.

“Looking back now, I’m ashamed of that decision,” Scott said. “I take full responsibility for my actions.”

In October 2023, Scott and Serafini were arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the June 5, 2021, shooting. The initial charges indicated that prosecutors have always believed that Serafini was the person who shot his wife’s parents, not Scott.

Gary Spohr died after being shot once in the head, the victims’ family has said. Wood suffered two gunshot wounds to the head but regained consciousness and called authorities for help. Wood received extensive rehabilitation but died a year after the shooting. Wood took her own life after struggling with grief and the emotional trauma of witnessing her husband’s murder, her daughter explained to the judge.

Adrienne Spohr spoke in court Monday afternoon before Scott was formally sentenced, a hearing that was postponed several months until after Serafini was sentenced last month to life in prison without parole. He was serving his sentence on Monday in Wasco State Prison in Kern County.

The victims’ daughter told the judge that “my mom would still be alive” had Scott told investigators the truth about Serafini early in the investigation instead of waiting a few months before she and Serafini were scheduled to stand trial. She said her mother never had the chance to see justice for her husband or herself.

“My mom’s blood is on Samantha Scott’s hands,” Adrienne Spohr said in court.

Placer County murder trial

In Serafini’s trial, Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Miller told the jury that the ex-MLB player hated his wife’s wealthy parents because of an ongoing dispute over a $1.3 million loan. Miller said Serafini told others he was willing to pay $20,000 to have them killed.

The prosecutor said Serafini snuck into his in-laws’ Homewood residence on the west shore of Lake Tahoe while nobody was home. Miller told the jurors that Serafini hid inside the home and waited a few hours, before he ambushed the married couple and shot them as they watched TV.

Serafini then left the home on foot to meet with Scott, who had been waiting for him in the getaway car to drive back to Nevada.

In February 2025, Scott pleaded guilty to a felony charge of being an accessory after the fact in the crime as part of the plea deal with the Placer County District Attorney’s Office. After entering her guilty plea, Scott was released from jail as she awaited to testify in Serafini’s trial.

The maximum sentence for the accessory charge is three years in jail. She had already served most of the sentence, including credits for good behavior in jail, while awaiting trial.

On Monday, Horst said Scott would need about 170 additional days in jail to complete that maximum sentence. He said Scott would then be released from jail without having to serve any probation time. The judge agreed with the prosecutor and Scott’s defense attorney, Thomas Viloria, to order Scott to serve two years of probation.

Serafini’s marriage

Serafini married Erin Spohr, the shooting victims’ eldest daughter, in 2011. Erin Spohr testified in the trial this past summer that her parents forced Serafini to sign a post-nuptial agreement a year after the wedding, an agreement that means he wouldn’t get any of his wife’s money if the marriage were to end.

Erin Spohr testified that her relationship with her late parents “was always a little tumultuous,” and she and her husband had heated arguments with her parents over money. The former MLB pitcher’s wife said that she and her parents always made up.

Scott and Erin Spohr were friends after meeting at Spohr’s horse ranch business, which was in part funded by the $1.3 million loan from her parents. Scott worked odd jobs for Serafini and his wife, including working as a nanny for the couple’s two small children.

Scott testified that she began an affair with Serafini in October 2021, about five months after the deadly shooting. She said the affair continued up until their arrest two years later. She said they continued to communicate while in custody via “jail kites,” hand-written messages in which he would offer emotional support and she would express her devotion to him.

In court, Spohr said she and her husband had an open marriage. She told the jury her husband told her he had sex with Scott. Spohr testified she now feels “deceived” by Scott for not revealing the true nature of the relationship she had with Serafini. She said she doesn’t feel as deceived by her husband over his affair with Scott, and she still trusts him “100 percent.”

Serafini was drafted in 1992 by the Minnesota Twins. A left-handed pitcher, he also played for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies, according to Baseball Reference. He played his last professional game in 2007 before being suspended for 50 games after failing a drug test, according to an ESPN report. Two years later, he played for Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

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