00:00:11
Castlewood Country Club is located in Pleasanton California it's an upper middle class Community it's a beautiful
00:00:17
place to raise a family for lack of a better word um very hoyy toyy most crime we have is a out of hand cocktail
00:00:26
party my mom and dad were wonderful adventurers they love to travel in March 2008 we were planning to go to Hawaii my
00:00:35
husband my two children and myself with my two parents I had been calling my mother
00:00:43
several times a day for four five six 7 Days continues to go to voicemail every [Music]
00:00:52
day and so I call my brother hey have you heard from Mom or Dad we're supposed to be going to Hawaii on Saturday and he
00:01:01
says to me no I haven't heard from Dad I finally called The Country Club to see if all was well at the home but it
00:01:09
was not an exclusive address did not stop murder there was blood spatter on the ceilings of the home on the walls of
00:01:18
the home on the doors of the home that Truly Spoke of the violent nature of this crime the shearers were inside the
00:01:26
house both of them were in their pajamas and they were brutally murdered Ernest I believe was the first victim he
00:01:33
suffered multiple blunt force trauma wounds to his head Charlene's injuries were much more dramatic she suffered 20
00:01:40
blunt force trauma injuries to her head cut wounds to her wrists her cored arteries and her jugular vein Mr Shear
00:01:48
fought so hard that his wedding ring flew off his hand I mean he fought until he could fight no
00:01:57
more I sat there with tears just coming down my face what do I do now called my brother
00:02:06
you need a plan to drive to Northern California I just found out that Mom and Dad are
00:02:11
dead and there was pause and he said oh my God what are we going to do this was not a burglary this was not
00:02:21
a robbery there was something else a foot here there's money there's women there's
00:02:28
greed there's lies there's deceptions there is poker when you can't imagine in your wildest dreams that someone could
00:02:36
do this it becomes clear that really anyone could do it I'm Peter vanand tonight on 48 Hours
00:02:51
the country club murders [Music] [Music] [Music] it was March 22nd 2008 when the sheerer
00:03:20
family gathered to say goodbye to their parents Charlene and Earnest it's horrible I hope that no one ever has to
00:03:28
endure it it's horrible Catherine watched as her brother Ernie helped carry their father's casket his wife
00:03:36
Robin offered support Ernie and my son and I were all standing holding the flower and I'm just sitting there crying
00:03:43
and crying my son is like sitting there right with me and he doesn't know why we're
00:03:48
there I'll know someday I'm going to make sure he knows who they were there was a point in which someone
00:03:55
told you how they died oh oh boy that was a hard moment I kept seeing it in my head while no
00:04:04
weapons were found at the scene police told Catherine her parents were bludgeon to death the killer then used another
00:04:12
weapon to cut their throats and wrists to make sure they were gone her mother suffered the worst damage her face was
00:04:20
unrecognizable it was it was horrific I remember closing my eyes and and crying and wishing that I could have taken it
00:04:29
from her her so she didn't have to suffer and who could do something like that I don't
00:04:36
know word of the murders rocked the quiet upscale Castlewood Country Club Community in Pleasanton California we
00:04:44
have our homicide detectives here and they're meticulously going through the home and the surrounding area and
00:04:49
neighborhood to find any clues in this uh case before they moved to Castlewood Charlene and Ernest sheerer raised their
00:05:00
family in San Ramone not far from San Francisco they had a passion for traveling we had family vacations we
00:05:08
would go to big sir we would go to Yus and one of my mom's favorite things I used to say why do you put in all of
00:05:14
this effort and tolerate all of the whining and the complaining from us kids you know why bother and she said because
00:05:20
you don't understand history until you can live in it till you can see it and touch it and experience
00:05:26
it Charlene was an accounting professor for 31 years she was also a devout Mormon who expected hard work and tried
00:05:35
to instill ethical values in her son and daughter she wanted us to do the best that we could 100% of the time and it
00:05:43
wasn't that she was harsh or critical just that she wanted us to achieve our biggest
00:05:50
potential Ernest sheer had made his fortune in real estate he also got involved in politics becoming a member
00:05:57
of the San Ramone School Board in the late ' 80s mayor Abram Wilson says Ernest could rub people the wrong way a
00:06:06
lot of people were very uncomfortable around erest he was the one that was always the one that voted against Ernest
00:06:15
confrontational style eventually got him ousted from the board an event that led
00:06:21
him to carry a grudge against his opponents for almost 20 years they recalled him and as it turned out he can
00:06:29
continued to fight them in fact Ernest was scheduled to have a meeting with Wilson to reveal
00:06:36
what he thought was corruption on the school board just days before that meeting he was found beaten to death the
00:06:45
first thing that came to my mind was that Ernie ticked off the wrong person Ernie was digging too
00:06:53
deep do you believe that Ernest and Charlene knew their attack that they open the door and let that person in
00:07:01
there's no doubt in my mind that they knew who the person was inside their house detective Scott Dudek spearheaded
00:07:11
the investigation for the Alama County Sheriff's Department when we arrived at the scene it was March 14 2008 based on
00:07:20
the decomposition of the bodies we felt that the murder had occurred several days before and it appeared to us that
00:07:28
the last newspaper paper that was picked up was March 7th the last time the shearers were seen was on the night of
00:07:36
March 7th they had gone out to dinner around 6:30 p.m. at the Castlewood Country Club restaurant before heading
00:07:43
home when their bodies were found by police a week later they were in their pajamas and their home was turned upside
00:07:52
down as I walked through the house it looked like a person had watched the TV show to say well this is what a burglary
00:07:59
supposed to look like it wasn't ransacked it was just okay I'm going to take a piece of linen out and throw it
00:08:04
on the thing so it looks like it's ransacked but the home showed no signs of forced entry and even though Ernest
00:08:12
was a bit of a gambler who just that day won a large sum of money this burglar wasn't interested in any of it there was
00:08:20
$100 bills sticking out of the jeans that you could see from 50 ft away looking into the bedroom what burglar is
00:08:27
going to leave ultimately it was over 9,000 sticking out of somebody's jeans and police discover another odd
00:08:35
clue one they think the killer wanted them to find oh wow wow that looks like it happened uh
00:08:46
yesterday this is the entryway floor to the Castlewood home we took the whole floor not only the tile but we took the
00:08:52
entire floor Detective Mike Norton believes these bloody Footprints were intentionally made the night of March
00:09:01
7th 2008 as part of a staged crime scene these Footprints were made maybe slow and methodically where the suspect
00:09:09
wanted us to know what kind of shoe made this and how big the shoe size was we were able to determine that there's a
00:09:15
Nike uh swoosh you can make out a swoosh right here correct there's no way that a
00:09:21
professional killer would have left that type of evidence at the scene unless it
00:09:25
was an attempt to sort of throw authorities off the track prosecutor Michael Neo was assigned to the case
00:09:33
where must you turn next you go inside you look at everybody and the family and in this case who are you looking at in
00:09:40
this case they looked at Katherine shear and Ernest Shear II police were quickly able to eliminate
00:09:49
Catherine as a suspect she'd been at her home in Utah the night of the murders I
00:09:54
was at the alamina County Sheriff's Office for questioning and I said so where are you going with this and he
00:10:01
said well there's only one person we can't rule out oh who you know he said well your your
00:10:09
brother my my brother [Music] really we were able to eliminate close circle of friends we were able to
00:10:28
eliminate political enemies it just constantly would come back to we couldn't eliminate their son
00:10:36
investigators began to focus in on Ernest and Charlene sherer's son Ernie who traveled the country as a
00:10:43
professional poker player why would my brother do it there's nothing to gain from
00:10:50
that killing my parents that's ridiculous but there was something to gain Ernie stood to inherit more than $2
00:10:57
million from his parents estate cops say he was desperate to see the will who asked to see your parents will
00:11:05
on day two of a murder if you see it right there for me you got it um just 4 days after his
00:11:12
parents' bodies are discovered Ernie agrees to be questioned by police once we can either rule you in or
00:11:20
rule you out as a suspect then we can move on to other people and that's Ernie tells police that on the
00:11:27
night of March 7th the date cops believe his parents were murdered he was fast asleep at his home in Brea California
00:11:35
hundreds of miles south of the crime scene drive time from my house to my parents house was roughly 6 and 1 half 7
00:11:43
hours so it's kind of unrealistic for me to have driven from my house all the way
00:11:47
up to their house killed them ransacked the house drive all the way back Ernie tells police he was home alone his wife
00:11:55
Robin was away visiting family but he assures cops they can easily verify his story what car were you driving in my
00:12:03
Camaro your Camaro my Camaro and you you'll be able to you'll be able to track me almost all the way to my door
00:12:08
on my cell phone I wanted to have him clear himself so they can move on and focus on what I
00:12:17
thought would be more important finding the real person who I thought was responsible Ernie sheer had been married
00:12:24
to Robin for 9 years and the two had a three-year-old son Ernest IV I'd like to think I've always been a good wife Robin
00:12:34
even supported her husband when the economics major she married decided to leave a promising career in business for
00:12:41
the unpredictable world of professional poker give me a sense of what life is like with a professional Gambler what
00:12:49
are the the highs what are the lows gosh all over all over the map you have good
00:12:55
days where there'll be wads of cash that come home and the next day you could lose 15 $220,000 and what's it like
00:13:02
living that roller coaster stressful very stressful at the height of his gambling
00:13:11
career Ernie made more than $100,000 in a single year and even played in the World Series of
00:13:19
Poker he was doing so well his father agreed to loan Ernie $616,000 to buy his dream home
00:13:29
what were the terms of this loan from Ernie's parents um the it was for a 5year loan and every month we owed them
00:13:37
a payment of $38.50 did this loan create tension between Ernie and your mom yes she didn't think that supporting him in
00:13:46
any way with his Boker was a good thing and would bring good things in any way Charlene was unrelenting in her
00:13:52
criticism of Ernie's chosen profession you can't be a professional Gambler that's like saying I'm a professional
00:13:59
nose picker at the time that she died what was their relationship like were they close no no when he became a
00:14:07
professional poker player it was like snip that relationship just severed and Charlene's intuition that
00:14:17
Ernie's gambling could lead to trouble came true we met at a craps table in the Rio in Las Vegas Adrien Solomon was
00:14:26
living in North Carolina in 20 6 when a business trip led her to a chance encounter with Ernie sheerer I like that
00:14:35
he was tall he had uh you beautiful blue eyes I do remember looking at his left hand to see if there's a ring and he
00:14:42
didn't have one so I said okay you this is a guy I can talk to for a little while Adrien was in the dark about
00:14:47
Ernie's wife and young son in California and Robin had no idea her husband was on
00:14:54
the prowl in Las Vegas how did the casinos treat Ernie was he comped things he was a High Roller Show tickets
00:15:03
restaurants everything he felt like a rockstar being able to treat me to to these things are you getting kind of
00:15:09
famous in the poker world or I'm very well known in the poker world did the two of you talk about a future together
00:15:14
we did I remember going into Tiffany's and looking at engagement rings he talked to my mother about marrying
00:15:22
me but Adrien soon saw a side to Ernie that made her think twice about getting serious
00:15:29
throughout Our Time dating his betting went from you know maybe $75 5075 for his initial bet up to like $500 for his
00:15:40
initial bet you he um increased his betting dramatically I routinely carry 5 to 10,000 in cash and then maybe another
00:15:49
40,000 in ships police wondered if Ernie's volatile risky lifestyle might have created a motive for murder
00:15:59
they confront him but let me ask you bluntly did you have any involvement in your parents death no okay did
00:16:07
you hire anybody or did you pay anybody no to kill your parents no investigators have their suspicions
00:16:17
but without solid evidence Ernie is free to go and thank you for doing your job guys you know but just one week later
00:16:24
they would unearth a chilling lead this building here here is called the lower Castlewood Country Club up there you can
00:16:33
see a surveillance camera that surveillance camera points the street out there after combing through hours of
00:16:42
video police spotted images of a red convertible with a black top entering Castlewood Country Club at 8:27 on the
00:16:51
night of the murders it left 4 hours later could this blurry image be Ernie's red command
00:17:01
Arrow armed with this new information cops want to confront Ernie but he has vanished he said
00:17:11
goodbye to me and I said when am I going to see you again and he said I don't know I'll be in
00:17:23
touch just 5 days after his interrogation Ernie sheer hit the open road for Parts
00:17:31
Unknown did he say where he was going no he just said he had to grieve Ernie took off in his dad's car
00:17:39
leaving behind the red Camaro cops believe is seen on this surveillance video when cops search Ernie's Camaro
00:17:47
for evidence they learn he is one step ahead of them he had a full detailing done of both the exterior and interior
00:17:55
of his Camaro Police discovered just days after the murder Ernie spent $140 having his car scrubbed at this car
00:18:04
wash even following it in on foot what a bizarre seat he's a bizarre individual and this was his way of sanitizing the
00:18:13
car with no trace of evidence left in the car cops pour over crime scene photos searching for Clues starting with
00:18:22
those bloody Footprints investigators conclude the size 12 Nike shoe prints left behind at
00:18:29
the crime scene were part of a grand deception there this isn't CSI Miami this is Ernie normally wears size 10 and
00:18:37
I believe that's why he left those Sho prints intact in an attempt to throw off investigators in the event that they did
00:18:44
come to him with questions about those bloody shoe prints he would simply be able to say I wear size 10 is this being
00:18:49
taped yeah it is and there was another intriguing blood trail that always troubled police there were footprints
00:18:57
that led from Charlene to Earnest and then continued on to a linen closet why would the attacker go
00:19:05
to a linen closet it was clearly somebody who had personal knowledge of the contents of that
00:19:13
closet someone like Ernie Ernie knew his dad stored his decorative sword collection in that closet after the
00:19:21
murders when family was allowed inside the Shearer home Ernie LED his wife Robin directly to the closet
00:19:29
he reaches in he pulls out this sword takes the sheath off the sword and he's looking at it and he said isn't
00:19:39
this a beautiful sword and he's putting it back in the closet under his breath he says I wonder where the second one
00:19:46
went remember both parents had been savagely slashed after Ernie fled Robin thought
00:19:54
about that missing sword and then just something clicked I thought oh my gosh there wasn't a doubt in my mind that he
00:20:03
had something to do with it as soon as I thought of that I first thing I did was
00:20:07
call the police Ernie is now the number one suspect but cops don't have the concrete forensic evidence they needed
00:20:15
to arrest him all they could do was watch Ernie and he made that easy he posted Craigslist ads all over the
00:20:24
country looking for women and I'm talking from Oregon all the way to Upstate New
00:20:30
York what was his typical ad like on Craig's List uh his typical ad 29-year-old man
00:20:38
looking for someone who can carry on a conversation is up for fun whenever the moment grabs you enjoys a good bottle of
00:20:46
wine and the nauseating comments went on from there how many women on the side do
00:20:51
you think he had over the years you know it would be difficult to say but I I would probably say it's
00:20:57
easily a 100 100 yeah Ernie met this woman who asked we not reveal her name in New
00:21:07
Orleans during the city's annual JazzFest celebration seemed like a nice guy he was a gentleman he was very
00:21:16
non-threatening Ernie now had a new identity he said his name was Bill Franks and he was writing a novel The
00:21:25
Plot was uh poker player in Vegas finds out that his parents are murdered and he
00:21:32
essentially ends up going on the run after telling her his work of fiction the two head to a casino near Bourbon
00:21:39
Street where Bill Franks suddenly became Ernie again we would walk up to the craft table and they would call him Mr
00:21:48
shear and I looked up and I'm like well what hello what Ernie explained that bill Frank's was just a pen name
00:21:59
and this isn't getting weird yet uh you know um no it wasn't I blonde Roots didn't ding at all so what did you start
00:22:17
calling him Ernie Ernie's Behavior then took an even stranger turn as the two walked into his
00:22:25
hotel room and then I turned back around and he had basically taken all of the furniture that was not bolted down and
00:22:34
he had it against the door with some bungy cords and it was like a ninja and I turned around and I looked at him and
00:22:40
I said what the is this he's basically barricaded the door to keep you in or keep someone out keep someone out she
00:22:49
then pointed at a second bungee cord and I said could you please explain and he said well it's for a
00:22:57
quick getaway out the window out the window and you're thinking what to yourself at this point I'm barricaded in
00:23:06
a room with a guy with a bungee cord whose name was Bill but now it's Ernie light don't didn't go off I felt
00:23:16
this guy had some kind of emotional BS going on with him that's how I explained it away but after Ernie left New Orleans
00:23:24
this woman decided to Google his name that's when I found out that he was indeed a professional Gambler and that
00:23:31
his parents murder had happened a month and a half before and the more I read the more I researched literally
00:23:39
physically the scker I got I met Ernie Sher on Craigslist Pamela Nichols who lived in
00:23:46
Las Vegas had already been on two dates with Ernie when he called the day his parents' bodies were found to cancel
00:23:54
their dinner plans for that night he had just gotten a call saying that that his
00:23:59
parents' house was broken into and burglarized and both of them were murdered if I had received that news I
00:24:05
wouldn't I wouldn't even be able to talk on the phone let alone make a phone call
00:24:09
to somebody I hardly knew phone records reveal Ernie told Pamela about the killings before he informed his own wife
00:24:18
this had to be a jaw-dropping moment when they gave you all this information about your husband's secret life oh
00:24:27
yeah he had had Secret credit cards secret PO Boxes secret everything secret lovers oh
00:24:37
[Music] yes it's sad not just for me but all the women who they have no idea they had no idea
00:24:48
that he was married that he had a son as they say there's nothing worse than a scorn woman you know and and once she
00:24:56
became that scorn person she was my third detective on this investigators laboring to build an
00:25:06
airtight case against Ernie sheerer weren't ready to arrest him evidence was still being gathered that's why I said
00:25:13
it's never too late to discover the truth but they would soon use Robin to turn the tables on her husband
00:25:21
I would just along to do what I needed to do to catch them and get them locked up either people loved your dad or they
00:25:26
hated [Music] Ernest Shear Jr six blows to the Head six stab wounds as your son is born you go oh God
00:25:45
I hope my son is just perfect Charlene 20 blows to the Head 12 stab wounds what this individual ended
00:25:56
up being was your worst nightmare as far as a son could be 3 months into Ernie Shearer's cross
00:26:07
country Joy Ride police get a tip he's gambling in Vegas a detective secretly places a GPS tracker on his car to keep
00:26:16
closer tabs on him his sister was a number one concern and she knew that if this person who is my brother could
00:26:24
willingly and knowingly walk into my parents' house and beat them and slice them until they were dead he'd have no
00:26:31
qualms walking into my house and doing that to my family Catherine sheer living in Utah
00:26:38
was now afraid of her brother it was a very tense time for me my family's hiding I'm
00:26:45
hiding she was warned every time Ernie was nearby it was horrible got to get out got to leave were you living in fear
00:26:56
of Ernie yeah I didn't know if he was going to come get me or my son or my family where I was
00:27:03
staying the blinds were shut doors were locked the alarm was on Ernie's movements were being tracked so too were
00:27:12
his finances giving cops a motive for murder he ran out of money just plain and simple you believe that he killed
00:27:20
his own parents just for some cash absolutely police learned Ernie had gambling debts approach
00:27:29
$90,000 and carried more than $40,000 in credit card debt did it get to a point where you couldn't pay the
00:27:36
bills yeah it did I kept saying I need you to give me some money cuz every month we owed his parents around that
00:27:43
same time in 2008 the real estate market was collapsing Ernie's Mom and Dad suddenly wanted their loan back now the
00:27:53
Noose was tiing around his neck he had no reliable stream of income and he side attacked investigators say Ernie wanted
00:28:02
a gun the day before his parents were murdered Ernie came here to the Master at Arms in parump Nevada owner Robert
00:28:12
brentlinger they were acting very strangely Ernie brought his friend piano player Billy Krauss to help one was very
00:28:20
stoic quiet didn't say much the other was bouncing off the walls all over the shop he made me very nervous
00:28:28
as a Nevada resident Billy could purchase the weapon and leave with it the same day did Krauss ever say why
00:28:36
Ernie wanted this gun he actually asked Ernie why he wanted the gun and Ernie said that he wanted it for self-
00:28:42
protection when brentlinger let Krauss know that buying a gun for Ernie an out ofate Resident was illegal Krauss told
00:28:50
Ernie the deal was off he wanted it right now and I wouldn't do it the failed gun purchase cop said
00:28:58
didn't deter Ernie the following day they believe he drove West out of Las Vegas with murder
00:29:06
in mind we have him at prin Nevada at a Chevron station based on gas receipts we have him at a McDonald's
00:29:14
where he charged $5 worth of hamburgers at McDonald's and mysteriously his cell phone records
00:29:21
stopped in the early afternoon of March 7th 2008 Ernie Sheriff's cell phone went
00:29:28
dead he was driving along this stretch of road Interstate 15 which runs from Vegas to Los Angeles 17 hours passed
00:29:37
before his cell phone came back to life his cell phone was off because he didn't want to be tracked to Pleasanton
00:29:45
when he was committing the murders of his parents Ernie's cell phone was off but the surveillance camera near his
00:29:52
parents' home was on police build a timeline we believe that he arrived in the evening of March 7th 2008 after 8:00
00:30:02
p.m. and that he entered the home sometime after that he's on the lower level of the home
00:30:12
and confronts his mother first and that she's able to run up the stairs and attempt to
00:30:19
flee and that he catches her at the very top of the stairs Neo believes Ernie then turns on his father inflicting six
00:30:28
fatal blows with an unknown weapon before grabbing a sword from the linen closet to complete his violence
00:30:37
vicious inhumane I can't come up with the words for this can you it's difficult to put
00:30:42
in the words at 12:42 a.m. police say that's Ernie's car leaving Castlewood country
00:30:51
club by the time Ernie's cell phone comes back on he is at his home in Brea 3 90 M away how long does it take to
00:31:00
drive from his parents house to his home in Brea members of the Alam County Sheriff's Department did exactly that
00:31:08
departing at the same time shown on the surveillance video and they arrived at the vicinity of his BR home at 2900
00:31:14
Primrose at exactly 6:36 a.m. the exact minute that his cell phone came back to life the exact minute correct is that
00:31:22
the closest thing for you in this case to a fingerprint it's close but investigators wanted to find a way
00:31:30
to get Ernie to admit it's his car on that surveillance tape Robin received a phone call from detectives asking for
00:31:39
her help he'd asked if I'd be willing to do a recorded phone conversation with Ernie and it was
00:31:48
arranged hello hi Hi how are you oh I'm so glad to be talking to you how are you you're not Robin had not
00:31:59
spoken to her husband for weeks since the day he disappeared she tries her best to act like nothing is wrong where
00:32:08
are you Northern California Northern cforia I'm not I'm not really trying to hide
00:32:14
myself they trying to hide I mean Robin was about to play one of the most important cards in this investigation
00:32:22
and Bluff her poker plane husband they're trying to build the circumstance her face against me because there is no
00:32:29
physical evidence that I committed this crime so I can the [ __ ] they have a police video with something that looks
00:32:35
like your car and you in it you can see the face of the driver yes were you there it was a lie you can't see a
00:32:45
driver on this surveillance tape but Ernie didn't know that were you there cuz I thought you were driving back home
00:32:52
and there's this video that they have and it clearly looks like it's your car hello what else you tell me about the
00:33:01
video I'm here I'm just thinking that long pause convinced cops it was Ernie's car and him in it what did that pause
00:33:11
tell you oh that was just the moment where I like he was there and on February 23rd 2009 nearly 1
00:33:23
year after the bodies were found Ernie sheerer is arrested in Las Vegas for the murder of his parents I want to advise
00:33:32
you you have the right to remain silent do you understand that yes dispite his arrest Ernie tells a friend in a
00:33:38
jailhouse conversation he'll soon be out I will never have to worry about this again for the rest of my life I can just
00:33:45
go on and live my life and never give it another thought [Music] awaiting his trial a confident Ernie
00:34:02
sheerer mocked the case against him that was one of his statements to me I Want to Be Free by Christmas hey come on
00:34:11
prosecutor Mike Neo admits his evidence is circumstantial I want you to tell me about the witness who saw Ernie enter
00:34:20
his parents home that night there is no witness that saw Ernie there is no witness are there any
00:34:25
fingerprints there were no fingerprints so no witness no fingerprints and you can't verify the car yes that's a strong
00:34:32
case it is when you consider everything together everything points to Ernie being responsible the defense counters
00:34:40
with solid forensic evidence saying foreign DNA found mixed in with the victim's blood does not match Ernie
00:34:49
that's your killer isn't it that's what the defense would have you believe just because someone's DNA is present doesn't
00:34:54
mean that they're the responsible party could have been one of the first responders at the scene it could have
00:34:59
been anyone that had been in the shear home prior to March 7th 2008 looking for anything to bolster his case Neo took a
00:35:07
second look at those crime scene photos something caught his eye I'm getting chills just telling you the story now he
00:35:14
made a startling Discovery this bloody piece of paper which turned out to be a warranty card from a Nike youth baseball
00:35:23
bat I called my investigator and I said you got to get up here we found the murder
00:35:29
weapon these two people 57 and 60 years old have no reason to have a youth baseball bat in their home never mind a
00:35:36
warranty cards a fixed to the barrel of the baseball bat with dad's blood on it you don't have a physical murder
00:35:44
weapon but you essentially have a murder weapon don't you with this little piece of paper yes
00:35:52
more than 2 years after the murders investigators finally knew the instrument used to kill Ernest and
00:36:00
Charlene now they needed to find a way to put the bat in Ernie's hands though I focused on Prim because he had used the
00:36:08
McDonald's and the Chevron station as the starting point for his Alibi so I said let's see what else is in Prim and
00:36:15
just like that The Dominoes started to fall into place standing just footsteps away from the McDonald's a Nike outlet
00:36:23
store that led us to a particular cash transaction in which an individual purchased three items the baseball bat a
00:36:32
pair of Nike Tomahawk impact shoes size 12 and a pair of youth soccer goalie gloves those three items might as well
00:36:41
be a 101 kit for how to commit murder they were purchased on March 7th 2008 and what are the chances on the day of
00:36:49
the homicide that a person buys a bat and buys the exact same size shoe that we find in the crime scene
00:36:58
the sage words of my grandmother one to many coincidences is not a coincidence on January 4th 2011 with
00:37:07
cameras banned from the courtroom the murder trial of Ernie sheerer would begin the prosecution would take the
00:37:14
jury through the surveillance video were are you there cuz I thought you were driving back home Robin's phone call
00:37:21
Ernie's lies I was not in Northern California and of course that Bloody warranty card Ernie Sher decides to take
00:37:29
the stand why do you think he's doing that I think it's consistent with his narcissistic personality I think he is
00:37:35
persuaded that he can convince at least one member of that jury to either find Reasonable Doubt or to find that he's
00:37:43
completely innocent and there was one female juror that gave prosecutor Neo cause for concern Ernie appeared to be
00:37:52
flirting with her exchanges of smiles glances and she is appeared to flirt back and then once the juror left the
00:38:01
courtroom he would look at me and laugh and make comments about essentially how he had this one juror uh in his
00:38:09
Corner as they await the verdict Robin and her son serve as a reminder of just what is at stake would he be willing to
00:38:18
hurt me or hurt Ernest is really scary but would this professional Gambler win his final
00:38:27
hand after an exhaustive 3-month trial Ernie sheerer is found guilty of murdering his
00:38:36
parents it is an overwhelming feeling to know that all of that hard work all that
00:38:42
sacrifice comes to that moment and knowing that the right thing happened there is no other feeling like it what
00:38:48
was it like for you to hear guilty emotional I was shaking and I wanted to make sure that I
00:38:57
looked at him and saw his reaction what'd you see he put his head down and then when he lifted it back up
00:39:04
at one point and I saw his eyes he had that look like I got caught robin lives each day
00:39:13
knowing she will eventually have to explain to her young son just how his father murdered his grandparents does he
00:39:22
have a living memory of his father he doesn't really know him he just remembers that we used to live with
00:39:30
somebody who had this red convertible it's horrible to look at your brother and say why would you do
00:39:41
that where is there any logic any love any anything and to feel like not only have
00:39:49
you lost your parents but you've just lost effectively your entire family [Music]
00:40:23
he [Music]