Professional Poker Player Who Killed Parents Profiled in Dateline NBC

As first broke by Gambling911.com, Dateline NBC produced a segment on professional poker player Ernie Scherer III who was sentenced for the double homicide of his parents, Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and Charlene Abendroth, 57, in their Castlewood Country Club, California home.  The showed aired this past Friday.

The couple was found brutally beaten and stabbed to death in their Pleasanton home in March 2008.   Scherer III had attempted to make the crime scene appear as if it were a home invasion. 

Prior to sentencing, the accused killer issued a rambling statement insisting that he loved his parents.  The judge did not appear swayed by the statement.

Gambling911.com had covered the trial extensively at the start of this year.  It was among the first websites to report on the murders outside of local San Francisco Bay area news sites.  Law enforcement had reached out to Gambling911 in an effort to reach a more broader audience with hopes that more witnesses would come forward prior to Scherer III’s arrest.

The Dateline NBC segment was entitled “Meet the Player” and approached the double homicide through the eyes of Adrian Solomon, a woman Scherer III befriended at a Las Vegas casino.

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher