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Defense attorney Richard Foxall has requested from the Alameda County Superior Court that evidence of his client Ernie Scherer III’s skirmishes with the law be excluded from an upcoming trial. Scherer III is accused of bludgeoning his parents back in 2008.
Scherer III and his father were both known in the poker community. The elder Scherer, Ernest Jr., was active locally in politics. His wife, Charlene Abendroth, was a professor at a local college.
Scherer III is alleged to have killed his parents for their six figure inheritance as he owed significant debts from gambling. It is believed he made the murder scene appear as if a home invasion had taken place.
A jury is likely to be selected at the start of December and witnesses will be heard starting in January. Motions are currently being heard with approximately three weeks worth of breaks taking place for the holidays.
Judge Jeffrey Horner has ruled that two prior brushes with the law could not be brought up during the trial unless Scherer III contradicts earlier statements. Public record indicated that a woman had filed battery charges against the defendant back in July 2008, after the murders. However, those charges were dropped. Scherer was also taken into custody in Biloxi, Miss around the same time after chips from a gaming table disappeared. He was not charged.
Foxall also asked the court to have Scherer's debts excluded from evidence.
"Evidence of the wealth or poverty of a defendant is not admissible," he told Horner.
Shortly after the murder, the Alameda County Sherriff’s Office had asked Gambling911.com to profile the case in hopes of finding witnesses outside of the immediate county and across the US through the website’s more wider reach. Scherer III was believed to have owed debts to various individuals and the Sherriff’s office was hopeful those owed might step forward.
- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
