📰 Poker Pro Ernie Scherer Loses Court Appeal Over Murder Case

Ernest Scherer III, a professional poker player with over $313,000 in lifetime tournament winnings, lost his appeal of a 2011 murder conviction for killing his parents. Sentenced to life in prison without parole, Scherer will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. 

Once known on the poker circuit for his high-rolling, Playboy lifestyle, those days ended with his 2009 arrest. Now, his only games are behind prison walls, far from the glitz of the poker tables where he once sought fame and fortune.

Murder, He Wrote

Scherer’s case was profiled on “48 Hours” under the title of “The Country Club Murders,” and viewers watched in horror as it was proven that the poker pro was living beyond his means and in dire need of money. He hatched a plan to murder mom and dad in their Pleasanton, California, home and make it look like the culprit was an intruder in order to collect over $2 million in inheritance money.

The scheme went awry, in part, when Scherer staged the scene to look like a robbery, complete with bloody footprints in a size 12 that was larger than his own size 10. But investigators were able to show that Scherer purchased the shoes, gloves, and a baseball bat at a Nike outlet store after finding a bloody warranty card for the bat at the murder scene.

That murder scene found Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and his wife, Charlene, 57, brutally bludgeoned and stabbed to death. The elder Scherer had roughly $9,000 sticking out of his pants pocket in plain sight, another clue that pointed detectives away from a robbery.

Debts Pile Up

Despite nearly 30 cashes in live poker tournaments, including two titles won just five days apart at the 2004 Legends of Poker in Los Angeles, Ernie Scherer was drowning in debt, owing his parents more than $600,000 and another $100,000 in gambling and credit card bills. 

His mother, a devout Mormon, reportedly disapproved of his poker career and opposed the $616,000 loan his father provided for a lavish home. Though Scherer had a wife and infant son to support, prosecutors said he preferred the Playboy lifestyle. 

Testimony revealed that he met women across the country through Craigslist ads, many drawn to his image as a high-rolling poker pro.

Appeal

The issues raised by Scherer’s attorneys on appeal included the questions asked (or not permitted to ask) to potential jurors before panel selection; allowing the defendant’s extramarital affairs to be admitted into evidence; prosecutorial misconduct for, among other things, referring to Scherer as a “narcissistic, sociopathic killer”; ineffective assistance of his own counsel for failing to object to the simulated driving test done by the prosecution in order to prove that Scherer was fully capable of driving to his parents home and committing the murders in the timeframe in question; and a $10,000 fine for parole revocation.

The California Court of Appeal rejected all of Scherer’s arguments except one. Although he had originally been eligible for the death penalty, the only relief he received was the removal of a $10,000 fine. His convictions stand, and he will continue to serve two consecutive life sentences for the 2008 murders of his parents.

With the Court of Appeal rejecting every argument raised by his attorneys except a minor fines issue, Scherer has exhausted another legal avenue. 

Where Is Ernie Scherer Now?

Scherer is currently housed at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California, a high-security state facility operated by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It is here, behind razor wire and concrete walls, that the former poker pro will likely spend the rest of his life.

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