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Ernest Francis Scherer III asked for a public defender this afternoon at his arraignment for charges of double homicide with special circumstances.
Scherer III, 30, was read the charges against him by Judge Robert McGuiness at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland. Wearing a red jumpsuit and standing behind a glass enclosure, he appeared stoic.
At one point, when the judge read the second murder charge, naming his mother Charlene Abendroth, he appeared to shake his head. When the judge asked him if he had retained a layer, Scherer III said no and answered yes when asked if he would like a public defender.
If convicted of killing his mother and father, he could face the death penalty. The special circumstances are multiple murder and murder for financial gain.
Scherer III, who was having financial problems, would have been eligible to receive an inheritance valued at $1.5 million upon turning 30 if his parents were deceased. He turned 30 on July 3, nearly three months after he allegedly killed Ernest Scherer Jr., 60, and Abendroth, 57, March 7 after they arrived home from a dinner at the Castlewood Country Club.
Scherer III will be back in court at 9 a.m. Friday at the Oakland courthouse, 661 Washington St. He is being held on a no-bail warrant at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
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