Poker Player Who Killed Parents Won’t Get Death Penalty

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office will not seek the death penalty for Ernest Scherer III, now 31, who is accused of killing both his parents. former San Ramon Valley schools trustee Ernest Scherer Jr., 60 and Charlene Abendroth, 57, a longtime Cal State East Bay accounting lecturer, were both found brutally stabbed and beaten to death in their Pleasanton home last year.  Both the father and son were well known on the professional poker circuit.

Police contacted Gambling911.com last year in an effort to help with the investigation.  They had determined the younger Scherer to be a prime suspect in his parents murder and believed at the time he owed substantial amounts of money in gambling debts.  It was later determined that Scherer stood to inherit more than a $1 million.

Prosecutor David Stein announced the decision not to seek the death penalty on Friday in an Oakland courtroom, but declined later to explain it, citing a gag order in the case.

Testimony at a preliminary hearing described a high-flying Las Vegas lifestyle of gambling and women for Scherer III, and heavy debt, including a $616,000 short-term mortgage from his father. Authorities say he turned off his phone and drove from Las Vegas to Pleasanton, killed his parents and then drove south to the Brea house he shared with his wife and young son. She has since filed for divorce.

When police contacted Gambling911.com last year, they were under the assumption he was attending the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Police arrested Scherer III in Las Vegas in February, 11 months after the murders.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson pegged a trial date for late spring or summer.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher