Written by :
Published on :
The attorney for a man accused of murdering his parents at their Pleasanton home in March 2008 for monetary gain hinted in his line of questioning Tuesday that someone other than the defendant may have had a motive to kill the couple.
Ernest Scherer III, 31, a professional gambler, is accused of two counts of murder for the deaths of Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and his wife, Charlene Abendroth, 57, an accounting lecturer who taught for more than 30 years at California State University, East Bay in Hayward.
The decomposed bodies of Scherer's parents were found inside their Castlewood Country Club home on March 14, 2008, but authorities believe they were killed late the night of March 7, 2008, or early on March 8, 2008.
Scherer III also faces two special-circumstance allegations that could bring him the death penalty: multiple murder and murder for financial gain. In addition, he's charged with two use-of-a-deadly weapon clauses for allegedly using a sharp instrument to kill his parents.
In cross-examining Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Norton in the last day of Scherer III's preliminary hearing Tuesday, defense attorney Richard Foxhall got Norton to say that Scherer's father had problems with a property manager in Las Vegas and also was upset with another man because of a business deal.
Norton also said under cross examination that a Comcast employee had installed a new phone line at Scherer's parents' home shortly before they were killed and that a person who watched the parents' home while they were on vacation a month earlier knew where they stored gold in a safe.
According to Alameda County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek, Scherer III was a professional gambler whose sole source of income was gambling. He also said Scherer III was known to have debts.
Dudek said in a statement of probable cause that, "It is believed that Scherer III killed his parents for monetary gain" and he attempted to obtain their money "almost immediately after their deaths."
Scherer III was arrested and charged in late February, about 11 months after his parents were killed. A forensic pathologist testified last month that Scherer's parents died from multiple blunt-force injuries and stab wounds.
The purpose of the preliminary hearing, which stretched over several days last month and will conclude later Tuesday, is to determine if there's enough evidence to have Scherer III stand trial.
Source: CBS News
