Poker Pro Convicted of Killing Parents

Professional Poker Pro – Ernest Scherer III was convicted for killing his parents, Ernest Scherer Jr., 60 and Charlene Abendroth, 57, two days after killing his parents in their Castlewood Country Club Home in Pleasanton, California, USA three years ago on March, 2008.

    After debating for a couple of days, jurors also declared Scherer guilty of the three special circumstances charge: two counts of murder for financial gain and one count of committing multiple murders.

    The motive behind the murder is said to be the $1 million plus the inheritance that Scherer III hoped to gain in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts in Las Vegas and from purchasing his $880,000 home in Brea, California, USA. The prosecutor, Michael Nieto said Scherer also spent huge amount of money on different girlfriends that he had around the country. Nieto also said that Scherer needed a $616,000 loan from his parents, as well as a smaller loan from the home’s former owners, to be able to own the house.

    Ernest Scherer (Sherer's father) is a sixty years of age man at the time of his death. He is a real state investor while Charlene Abendroth is fifty – seven and an accounting lecturer at California State University, East Bay. Their decayed body were found at their home on March 14, 2008. According to their bio – autopsy, they had been savagely beaten and stabbed. Prosecutor Michael Nieto told the members of the jury that he believes that they were murdered a week earlier than March 7, 2008.      

    Evidence relay heavily on a vehicle that was seen on the surveillance video the night of the  murder that closely matched the description of Scherer's car. Moreover, they convicted him of a use of deadly weapon clause for using a sharp instrument to murder his parent.

    However, Scherer's lawyer, Richard Foxall appealed to the jurors saying that they should see Scherer not guilty due tot the fact that he doesn't think the proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Schere murdered his parents. He also added that jurors shouldn't be swinged by prejudgment against Scherer even though “you may not like his occupation or his social relationships.”

    Robyn Scherer - Scherer’s ex-wife, Catherine Scherer - his sister, and Ernest Scherer Sr. - his grandfather, all testified against him during the trial. The jury arrived in this decision last Monday in a Courthouse outside San Jose, California. Scherer is now facing a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of having a parole when he's sentenced by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner on May 20.

     Ernest Scherer Jr. and Charlene Abendroth's family members released a statement sending their gratefulness to the jurors “for all their time and effort in arriving at the correct verdict” at the end of trial, which ended for about three months. They also thanked Nieto for “working day and night to put together a case involving more than 80 witnesses from eight states.”

    * This article is summarized and some phrases are excerpted from the articles featuring the professional poker pro, Ernest Scherer III's conviction for killing his parents that can be found at the official website of gambling911.com and sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com