Poker Player Who Killed Parents Wont Get Death Penalty
Written by Roger S | Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Professional poker player, Ernest Scherer III, who is accused of killing his parents last year, will not face the death penalty if found guilty.
Scherer III, and his father Ernest Scherer Junior, were both well known on the professional poker circuit in the United States and enjoyed reasonable success in their pastime.
When the sixty year old father and his wife, Charlene Abendroth, 57, were found brutally murdered in their Pleasanton home last year, the poker world was shocked, to say the least. The couple had been stabbed and beaten to death, and police first directed the case to its criminal division.
But after examining the motives of those close to the couple, focus was turned to their thirty year old son, Ernest Scherer III.
After digging up more information, the police found that the younger Scherer was heavy in debt, owing tens of thousands of dollars. He also owned his father over $600,000 in a short term mortgage loan.
Scherer and his wife had recently been turned down for a bank loan.
Scherer the son stood to inherit $1.5 million on his parents’ death, it was learned.
According to the prosecution, the accused drove from his home in Las Vegas to Pleasanton, returning after the murder to his wife and sons.
After a thorough investigation, the police issued a murder warrant for Scherer and he was arrested in February of this year.
His wife has since sought a divorce from the suspected murderer and is not linked to the murder investigation at all.
Investigators contended that money was Scherer’s main motive for killing his parents, whose bodies were discovered by their daughter.
This week it was learned that the prosecution has decided not to seek the death penalty in the murder case. A gag order on the case means that no other information is available regarding the reasons.
Scherer III earned himself around $340,000 playing poker on the professional circuit. His biggest poker achievement came when he finished 7th place in the Festa Al Lago IV Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship in 2005.
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· Written by Roger S · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
