Poker Pro Accused of Killing Parents Enjoyed Success Pre-2007

The California man accused of killing his parents owed substantial amounts of money to his financier who helped secure him seats at various poker tournaments.

Ernie Scherer III is standing trial for the murder of his parents.  Ernie Scherer Jr., a poker player himself, and his wife, Charlene Abendroth, were found brutally murdered in their Castlewood Country Club home in 2008.  Both had been beaten and stabbed.

On Monday, Tanner Scadden testified that in 2004 he was the primary financier Scherer’s poker tournaments, often spending tens of thousands to enter Scherer III into events such as the World Series of Poker.

And the effort paid off…..at least until 2007.

“I told him he was getting sidetracked,” Scadden testified. “He had other things going on at the time like juggling women and he was spending more and more time in the pit playing craps.”

Scadden also claims the defendant still owes him $25,000 in bail, rent, other costs.

Scherer III owed significant debts from his gambling habit and was about to lose his home.

Prosecutors allege that the younger Scherer killed his parents as a means of obtaining their million dollar-plus inheritance.

- Ace King, Gambling911.com