Ernest Scherer III, a professional poker player with over $313,000 in lifetime tournament winnings, lost his appeal of a 2011 murder conviction for killing his parents. Sentenced to life in prison without parole, Scherer will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Once known on the poker circuit for his high-rolling, Playboy lifestyle, those days ended with his 2009 arrest. Now, his only games are behind prison walls, far from the glitz of the poker tables where he once sought fame and fortune.
Murder, He Wrote
Scherer's case was profiled on "48 Hours" under the title of "The Country Club Murders" and viewers watched in horror as it was proven that the poker pro was living beyond his means and in dire need of money. He hatched a plan to murder mom and dad in their Pleasanton, California home and make it look like the culprit was an intruder in order to collect over $2 million in inheritance money.
The scheme went awry, in part, when Scherer staged the scene to look like a robbery, complete with bloody footprints in a shoe size (12) that was larger than his own size 10. But investigators were able to show that Scherer purchased the shoes, gloves and a baseball bat at a Nike outlet store after finding a bloody warranty card for the bat at the murder scene.
That murder scene found Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and his wife Charlene, 57, brutally bludgeoned and stabbed to death. The elder Scherer had roughly $9,000 sticking out of his pants pocket in plain sight, another clue that pointed detectives away from a robbery.
Debts Pile Up
Despite nearly 30 cashes in live poker tournaments, including two titles won just five days apart at the 2004 Legends of Poker in Los Angeles, Ernie Scherer was drowning in debt, owing his parents more than $600,000 and another $100,000 in gambling and credit card bills.
His mother, a devout Mormon, reportedly disapproved of his poker career and opposed the $616,000 loan his father provided for a lavish home. Though Scherer had a wife and infant son to support, prosecutors said he preferred the Playboy lifestyle.
Testimony revealed that he met women across the country through Craigslist ads, many drawn to his image as a high-rolling poker pro.
Appeal
The issues raised by Scherer's attorneys on appeal included the questions asked (or not permitted to ask) to potential jurors before panel selection; allowing the defendant's extramarital affairs to be admitted into evidence; prosecutorial misconduct for, among other things, referring to Scherer as a “narcissistic, sociopathic killer”; ineffective assistance of his own counsel for failing to object to the simulated driving test done by the prosecution in order to prove that Scherer was fully capable of driving to his parents home and committing the murders in the timeframe in question; and a $10,000 fine for parole revocation.
The Court of Appeals for the state of California tossed out all of Scherer's claims, except for the last one. Scherer, who was eligible for the death penalty had the prosection wanted to seek punishment to that extent, will not have to pay the $10,000 fine but will remain imprisoned under two consecutive life terms for the murder of his parents in 2008.