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Crime & Safety

On Witness Stand, Scherer III Describes Family, Marital, Gambling Life

Defendant and wife lived 'parallel lives'; father was his 'confidante.'

Christmas 2007 was the last holiday that several generations of Scherers would celebrate at Ernest Scherer Jr.’s home in the Castlewood neighborhood.  Months later, Scherer Jr. and his wife Charlene Abendroth would be found beaten and stabbed to death in that home.  Thursday, Ernest Scherer III took the witness stand, a defendant in his parent’s double-murder trial.

In a family photo taken during that holiday celebration and shown in court Thursday, a beaming Scherer III posed with family members that included aunt Carolyn Ostrele and then-wife Robyn Scherer, who both testified against him earlier in the trial. 

The wide smile on Scherer III’s face in that photo returned many times during his testimony, which saw him commenting on interfamily relationships that, although sometimes strained, were “overall wonderful, especially during that get-together.”

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“My father was my confidant,” said Scherer III, who wore a tan dress shirt, blue tie and khakis in court.  “I respected his advice.”

Scherer III said that although he lacked that same closeness with his sister Catherine and mother, the family members patched over their differences at the Christmas celebration and enjoyed their time together.  In 2003, Scherer III’s mother took issue with his decision to pursue poker as a profession.  At around the same time, Scherer III said, he and Catherine had a “falling-out."

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There were also fundamental differences, according to Scherer III, whose mother was a devout Mormon.

“Me leaving the church was hard to take,” he said. “We did not see eye-to-eye on religion.”

At the same time, Scherer III, his father and grandfather grew closer as they played cards and entered bridge tournaments more often together. 

Scherer III said his relationship with his father and grandfather grew along with his gambling career, which led to him and Robyn moving to Southern California.

“My grandfather was in Laguna Nigel, the poker’s better in L.A., the weather’s better,” said Scherer III, who was free with grins and hand gestures during his often-expressive testimony.

Scherer III said the move to Los Angeles was for a “fresh start” for him and Robyn.  While living in Utah, a pregnant Robyn had discovered an extra-marital affair and confronted Scherer III about it, he said.

“We discussed divorce,” he said. “I told her if she wanted to go down that road I’d seriously consider it but she was very, very opposed to it.  In the end we didn’t want to split up given that she was pregnant.”

Scherer III said he stayed at home more often to “work on the marriage” immediately after moving to their two-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.  Instead of his interstate travels to casinos and tournaments, Scherer III said he looked for cash games in the city and played poker online. 

But husband and wife grew distant again, according to Scherer III, because of a lack of common interests.

“Once [Ernest Scherer IV] was born, her whole life revolved around TV, reality TV, soap operas, Passions, Days of Our Lives,” said Scherer III, adding that he tried sharing her television interests as part of their agreement to stay married. “I tried to get into Desperate Housewives, but after a while it was hard. I liked news and sports. ”

Robyn, he said, did not make similar efforts.

“I couldn’t even get her to watch the Super Bowl with me,” he said.

Scherer III also said he tried to involve Robyn in his profession, asking her to join him on trips to games and tournaments.  She refused, he said, because many of the trips took him to Las Vegas.  After about a year, the couple began living ‘parallel lives.’

“She hated Las Vegas,” he said. “She said the city was fake, all the people were fake and phony.  She always had a reason to not go with me.”

It was in Las Vegas in 2006 that Scherer III met Adrian Solomon, with whom he would carry on a two-year relationship.  During his testimony, Scherer III said outings with Robyn were a far cry from those with Adrian.

“With Robyn, for about 10 to 15 minutes we’d talk about our son because we both loved him very much,” he said. “After that, we just sat there in silence; it was awkward.  With Adrian, we never ran out of things to talk about, we could be out for two hours and be talking the entire time.”

It was also in Las Vegas that Scherer III began exploring other games of chance besides poker.  Prosecutors have highlighted Scherer III’s life preceding the murders as a steep progression into several kinds of betting and escalating gambling debts. Scherer III said the progression was more natural and not as costly as previous witnesses have testified.

Scherer III said he was successful at playing blackjack but was banned from the game at several casinos because he was counting cards.  The ban led to playing more craps, where he said he began a systematic way of betting that won him more “comps,” or prizes and gifts offered by the casino.  To avoid obvious detection, according to Scherer III, the system required him to inflate his loss total at tables.

Scherer III said he discussed sports with friends but rarely made any bets above $5,000 on a single regular-season game.

Prosecutors have also focused on Scherer III’s Internet activity, which saw him researching gun-related material handfuls of times in the months before the murders.  Some search terms included “buying a gun in Mexico.”

Scherer III shrugged off the significance of his research, saying, “I’ll Google anything” and that he and his father shared conservative views on gun rights.

“We were small government people who believed in the right to keep and bear arms,” he said.

Scherer III said his father, also a gun-owner, even encouraged him to purchase a firearm, warning him about “follow-home” criminals that trailed poker players after games and robbed them of their winnings.  Scherer III said Robyn was equally supportive.

“She said ‘your dad has a gun, my dad has a gun,’” said Scherer III. “As the man of the house if you want to get one I’d be fine with it.”

The trial continues with Patch coverage on Monday.

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