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Ernest Scherer III pleads not guilty
Public defender for Scherer requests video showing Camaro driving through Castlewood on night of killings

by Janet Pelletier

Accused murderer Ernest Scherer III plead not guilty to an Alameda County Superior Court judge this week for the deaths of his parents in their Castlewood Country Club home.

Judge Morris Jacobson set a court date for June 8 for a motion to compel discovery. Attorney Richard Foxall, a public defender representing 30-year-old Scherer III, said he is requesting all electronic evidence in the case from the district attorney's office, and specifically a security video that shows a red Chevrolet Camaro in the country club neighborhood.

Department of Motor Vehicle records show a 2001 red Chevrolet Camaro registered to Scherer III. According to an arrest affadavit filed by the Alameda County Sheriff's Department, a deputy reviewed video footage from the lower clubhouse at Castlewood Country Club and observed what appeared to be a red Camaro with a black top driving towards the home of Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and Charlene Abendroth, 58, who lived on Castlewood Drive.

The time on that video clip was about 8:30 p.m. March 7, 2008 with the car approaching the home, and driving away at about 12:40 a.m. the next morning. Investigators have said they believe the pair were killed sometime after leaving a country club dinner March 7. Their bodies, which investigators say were badly beaten and stabbed repeatedly, were discovered March 14 after their daughter asked a country club worker to check on them.

The sheriff's department, in the same affadavit, details other evidence it says it has against Scherer III, whom they say was motivated to kill his parents for financial gain.

Upon turning 30, the professional poker player stood to collect upwards of $2 million in inheritance should his parents be deceased. Scherer III and his wife were on shaky financial ground, according to the affadavit, close to falling into foreclosure on their Brea, Calif. home and $40,000 in debt from credit cards. Investigators say Scherer Jr. lent his son $616,000 as financial assistance for a home. Just days before investigators believe the couple were killed, Scherer Jr. was seeking to get back the funds he loaned. Scherer Jr.'s father, Ernest Scherer Sr. told investigators that a few weeks prior to the couples' deaths that his son told him he believed Scherer III had a gambling problem, was not acting like himself and that it wouldn't be wise to leave him inheritance money.

Sgt. Scott Dudek continued in the affadavit that two days after the pair were killed, Scherer III bought new tires for his car and had it detailed in Brea, Calif. Detectives investigating in Las Vegas, where Scherer III often spent a lot of time playing poker, spoke to a couple of his friends who said Scherer III had asked them to purchase a gun for him on March 4 and March 6. The affadavit says a forensic search of Scherer III's cell phone revealed Internet searches for gun stores.

While the nearly year-long investigation was going on leading up to his arrest in February, Scherer III appeared to be paranoid that he would be charged with his parents' deaths, the affadavit states. Robyn Scherer said her husband told her he was a "sitting duck" and told her he was researching countries "where he could go and be safe and wouldn't have to come back."

A preliminary hearing for Scherer III has been set by Judge Jacobson for July 13 at the Renee C. Davidson Courthouse in Oakland.