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Poker player Ernie Scherer III concluded an intensive 6 days of testimony in his own murder trial exactly three years to the day his parents were likely bludgeoned and stabbed to death.
Prosecutors claim that the defendant brutally beat and stabbed to death his father Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and mother Charlene Abendroth, 57, in their Castlewood Country Club, California home. Deep in debt, Scherer II’s motive is said to have been a million dollar-plus inheritance. The elder Scherer had recently insisted his son pay back a five figure loan.
The defendant insisted that he tried to cooperate with authorities following the double murders.
"I hoped that they would be able to verify my alibi, that I was in fact in Brea. I believed they would be able to do that," he said.
The prosecution also questioned Scherer III over Internet searches he conducted for countries that do not have extradition treaties with the US.
"Were you planning a trip?" prosecutor Michael Nieto asked him repeatedly.
"No," he replied.
“At no time did I try to hide from the Alameda County sheriff's department," he said. "I'll look up anything that pops to mind. "... I might look up great wineries of the world. It doesn't mean I plan on buying one."
And then there was this damning evidence as reported by the San Jose Mercury:
Nieto closed out his cross-examination by asking Scherer III about a letter he sent to a friend, telling him "it would probably be best if you didn't volunteer anything on letters I've sent you on shoes."
That letter, from May, came before investigators discovered the cash purchase of a pair of Nike Impax Tomahawk sneakers and a youth baseball bat from an outlet store in Primm, Nev., about the time bank records show Scherer III made charges at a nearby McDonald's and a Chevron.
Sheriff's deputies found a warranty slip from a Nike youth bat at the crime scene, and according to testimony. Bloody shoe prints from the tile floor of the home matched Nike Impax Tomahawks.
The trial is expected to conclude some time this month. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
