In 2025, a jury convicted former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini, the Minnesota Twins’ first-round pick in 1992, of murdering his father-in-law and attempting to murder his mother-in-law. On Friday, NBC will air his first-ever interview since being sent to prison in a special called Deadly Swagger.
In the interview with Keith Morrison, Dan Serafini maintains that he is innocent and that “the justice system failed.”
A jury found Dan Serafini guilty of murder and attempted murder
In 2025, a jury found Serafini guilty of the 2021 shooting of 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr and the attempted murder of Spohr’s wife, Wendy Wood. An assailant shot Wood twice in the head, and she would later commit suicide. The jury also convicted Serafini of first-degree burglary.
The murder was allegedly related to a $1.3 million investment dispute over a ranch renovation project.
Prosecutors also claimed the former MLB pitcher waited with a gun for three hours before ambushing the couple on June 5, 2021. That same month, prosecutors claimed, someone allegedly overheard him saying he wanted to kill them.
Surveillance footage from the crime scene, shell casings, and a blood drop found in the garage were other key pieces of evidence that led to Dan Serafini’s convictions. The footage showed a masked man entering the couple’s home around 5 p.m., someone firing five gunshots inside the house, and the perpetrator leaving the property around 9 p.m.
The former MLB pitcher calls his case ‘circumstantial’
“I believe the circumstantial stuff that they had was just making up a story. They had no proof, no anything,” he said, adding that his trial attorneys didn’t mount a strong defense and the jury “just didn’t like me.”
“They didn’t like my lifestyle. They didn’t like, uh, the way I acted in court, which I didn’t act anyway. So, I was sat there like I was supposed to because my lawyers told me to. Don’t react. Don’t respond. Sit there like nothing is bothering you. And I did. And I got crucified for it.”
Dan Serafini pitched for seven seasons with the Twins, Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and Colorado Rockies. MLB suspended him for 50 games for performance-enhancing drugs in the off-season following his final season in 2007. He returned to pitch for Italy in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.