Poker Pro Ernie Scherer Loses Appeal on Murder Conviction

8 years ago
Appeals court not swayed
19:42
17 Nov

Ernest Scherer III, a poker pro with more than $313,000 in lifetime tournament winnings who was convicted in 2011 of murdering his parents and sentenced to life in prison with no chance at parole, lost his appeal and will likely remain behind bars until he takes his last breath.

His poker playing days appear to be over, unless Scherer can scrounge up a game with fellow convicts and play for cigarettes or candy bars, or whatever it is that inmates covet in prison. Trial testimony showed that Scherer previously coveted a high roller, adulterous lifestyle while competing on the live poker circuit, but those days ended with his arrest in 2009.


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

The younger Scherer, despite almost 30 cashes in live poker events that included two championships just five days apart at the 2004 Legends of Poker in Los Angeles, was in hock to his parents for more than $600,000 and also owed over $100K in gambling and credit card debts. His mother was reportedly a devout Mormon and was vehemently against Scherer's chosen profession as a poker player.

She was also opposed to the $616,000 loan for a lavish home given by the father to Scherer, who had a wife and infant son to support. The family man persona apparently didn't appeal to Scherer, as testimony at his trial focused on his playboy ways. He met women all over the country through Craigslist ads, some of the ladies apparently attracted to Scherer's high roller lifestyle.


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.


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Charles is a Chicago native and long time poker player who dusted off his journalism degree and began writing about poker following the events of Black Friday in 2011. He has written for a number of leading poker websites, offering his insights and expertise on subjects ranging from online poker leg...Read more

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