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No death penalty for Poker Player / Murderer

October 27, 2009

ernest-schererOnline poker news this week has it that the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has not inflicted the death penalty to Ernest Scherer III. The 31 year old poker player was accused of killing his parents; Ernest Scherer Jr. aged 60 / former San Ramon Valley schools trustee and Charlene Abendroth, aged 57 / a longtime Cal State East Bay accounting lecturer. Both the dead father and son were well known on the professional poker circuit.

Both parents were found last year in their Pleasanton home after they were brutally stabbed and beaten to death. During the first investigations, the Police involved had determined Ernest Scherer III as the prime suspect in his parents murder. At that time he also owed substantial amounts of money in gambling debts and many realised the murder was most probably done in order or him to inherit the $1 million at stake.

During the preliminary hearing Scherer was depicted as enjoying the Las Vegas lifestyle of gambling but also one of heavy debt, including a $616,000 short-term mortgage from his father.

The Authorities accused him of turning off his phone on the said day, driving from Las Vegas to Pleasanton, killing his parents and then driving south to the Brea house he shared with his now ex-wife and young son. The Police then followed to arrest Scherer III in Las Vegas last February, 11 months after the murder committed. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson has said the trial date would be in late spring or summer.

The no-death penalty ruling was taken by Prosecutor David Stein who announced the decision last Friday in the Oakland courtroom.

Written by Maria · Filed Under Poker News 

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