Prosecutors and the defense give their closing arguments Tuesday in the high-profile home ambush murder trial of former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini.
www.kcra.com
July 8, 2024
Both attorneys presented their closing arguments for hours on Tuesday before the case went to the jury.
The jury began deliberations just after 4:15 p.m. by choosing a foreperson. The jury will return to begin full deliberations on Thursday at the historic courthouse in Auburn.
Deputy DA Rick Miller began his closing arguments by showing bloody crime scene photos of the couple, calling it "an awful crime."
He laid out a timeline using maps, cell phone records and security video on the day of the murder, June 5, 2021, and the day before and after. Miller told the jury the evidence shows where Serafini, his former lover and codefendant, Samantha Scott, and the victims were on those days.
Miller pointed at Serafini, saying, "There is a murderer in this room. He is sitting right there."
Serafini's defense attorney, David W. Dratman, struck back at the start of his closing argument.
"He is not a murderer. Danny Serafini did not shoot his in-laws," he said.
Both attorneys also discussed the testimony of Serafini's wife, Erin Spohr, and Scott. They asked, 'Who do you believe?'
Scott testified in the trial that she drove Serafini to his in-laws' neighborhood, waited for hours, then watched him throw gun parts, a silencer and clothes out the car window when they returned to Nevada.
