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1:27

hours. Castlewood

1:39

Country Club is located in Pleasanton, California.

1:42

It's an upper middle class community. It's a

1:44

beautiful place to raise a family. For

1:47

lack of a better word, very hoity-toity.

1:50

Most crime we have is an out of

1:52

hand cocktail party. My

1:56

mom and dad were wonderful adventurers. They love

1:58

to travel. In

2:00

March two thousand and eight we

2:02

were planning to go to Hawaii.

2:04

my husband, my two children, and

2:06

myself with my two parents. I

2:09

had been calling my mother several times

2:12

a day for four, five, six, seven

2:14

days. Can see a similar

2:16

voicemail every day. And.

2:21

So I call my brother take have

2:23

you heard from honored and we're supposed

2:25

to be going to Hawaii on Saturdays

2:28

and he says me no I haven't

2:30

heard from dad. I

2:33

finally called the country club to see it all

2:35

was well at the home. But.

2:37

It was not an excuse to to

2:40

dress. did not stop motors. There

2:42

was blood splatter on the ceilings of

2:44

the home, on the walls of the

2:46

home, on the doors of the

2:48

home of that truly spoke of the

2:51

violent nature. describe ushers or inside the

2:53

house both of them are in

2:55

your pajamas and they were brutally murdered.

2:58

Earnest I believe was the first

3:01

victim suffered multiple blunt force trauma

3:03

wound to his head. Shorelines injuries

3:05

were much more dramatic. She. Suffered

3:07

twenty blunt force trauma injuries to her

3:10

head, cut wounds, to the risk of

3:12

carotid arteries and her settlers and Mister

3:14

Scheer fought so hard that his wedding

3:16

ring flew off his hand and mean

3:19

he fought in two weeks is by

3:21

no more. Step

3:26

their tears to my

3:28

face. What

3:31

Do I do now? Called

3:33

my brother he needed planted tribes in

3:35

Northern California. I just found out that

3:37

mom and Dad are dead. And

3:40

there was pass. God.

3:47

Arbor. Lose

3:53

Money is women. Those

3:56

greens Those lies. Thursday

3:58

section use. In

4:00

you imagine in your wildest

4:02

dreams someone to do this.

4:05

Because food and really anyone

4:07

had to. Have

4:16

an eye on. March

4:47

Twenty Second, Two thousand Eight When

4:49

the sheer family gathered to say

4:51

goodbye to their parents Charlene and

4:54

Earnest, it's horrible. I hope that

4:56

no one ever has to endure

4:58

it. It's horrible. Catherine

5:01

watched as her brother Ernie

5:03

help carry their fathers casket.

5:05

His wife Robin offered support.

5:08

Barney. And my son and I are

5:10

all standing on the flower lambda sitting

5:12

there crying. And crying and my son was

5:14

like sitting there right with me that he

5:16

has no power. They are. Now

5:19

left them there are going to make sure he knows

5:21

who they were. There

5:24

was a point in which someone told

5:26

you how they died. Voice

5:29

that was a hard moments. I kept

5:31

seeing it in my head. While.

5:33

No weapons were found at the

5:36

scene. Police told Catherine her parents

5:38

were bludgeoned to death. The killer

5:40

then used another weapons to cut

5:42

their throats and risk to make

5:45

sure they were gone. Her.

5:47

Mother suffered the worst damage per

5:49

se, was unrecognizable. It was. It

5:52

was her a sick I remember closing my

5:54

eyes and. And. Crying and

5:57

missing that like just taken from

5:59

her. Out

6:01

a tougher. Could

6:03

do something like don't know.

6:07

Word. Of the murders rocked the

6:09

quiet upscale Council Would country club

6:12

community in Pleasanton, Calif. We have

6:14

our homicide detectives here and there

6:16

meticulously going through the home and

6:19

surrounding area neighborhoods to find any

6:21

clues in the services. Before.

6:25

They moved to Council would Charlene

6:28

and Earnest Shearer raise their families

6:30

in San Ramon, not far from

6:32

San Francisco. They. Had a

6:35

passion for travelling. We had

6:37

family vacations we would go to Big Sarah, we

6:39

would gonna Yosemite and one of my mom's favorite

6:41

thing. As I used to say why you put

6:43

an all of this effort. Intolerant all of

6:45

the whining and complaining from us kids. You

6:47

know, why bother And she said because you

6:49

don't understand history and so you can live

6:52

in it so you can see it and

6:54

touch it and experience it. Charlene.

6:58

Was an accounting professor for thirty

7:00

one years. She was also a

7:02

devout Mormon who expected hard work

7:04

and tried to instill ethical values

7:06

in her son and daughter. See

7:08

wanted us to do the best that we could.

7:11

One hundred percent of the time. And

7:13

it wasn't that she was harshly critical,

7:15

says that she wanted us to achieve

7:18

our biggest potential. Earnest.

7:21

Sheer had made his fortune in

7:23

real estate. The also got involved

7:25

in politics, becoming a member of

7:27

the San Ramon School Board in

7:30

the late eighties. me or a

7:32

broom Wilson says earnest could rub

7:34

people the wrong way. A

7:36

lot of people were very uncomfortable

7:38

around Earnest. He was the one

7:41

that was always the one that

7:43

voted against. Earnest.

7:45

Confrontational style eventually got him

7:47

ousted from the board and

7:49

event that led him to

7:51

carry a grudge against his

7:53

opponents for almost twenty years.

7:55

They recalled him and as

7:57

it turned out, he continued.

8:00

The fight them. In

8:02

fact, Earnest was scheduled to have

8:04

a meeting with Wilson to reveal

8:06

what he thought was corruption on

8:08

the school board just days before

8:11

that meeting. He was founded

8:13

beaten to death. The. First thing

8:15

that came to my mind was

8:17

said earning ticked off the wrong

8:19

person. Ernie was digging to

8:21

do. Do.

8:23

You that earnest and Charlene new

8:25

their attack or that they opened

8:28

the door and let that person

8:30

is There's no doubt my mind

8:32

that they knew. Who

8:34

the person was inside their house? Detective.

8:39

Scott Do Decked spearheaded the investigation

8:41

for the Alameda County Sheriff's Department.

8:43

When we arrived at the scene

8:46

it was March Fourteen, Two thousand

8:48

and eight. Based on the decomposition

8:50

of the bodies, we felt that

8:53

the murder has occurred several days

8:55

before, and it appeared to us

8:57

that the last newspaper that was

8:59

picked up was March seventh. The.

9:02

Last time this years were seen was

9:04

on the night of March seventh. They

9:07

had gone out to dinner around six

9:09

thirty pm at the Castle Would Country

9:11

Club restaurant before heading home. When.

9:14

Their bodies were found by police a week

9:16

later. They. Were in their

9:18

pajamas and their home was

9:20

turned upside down. As a

9:23

walk through the house it will look like. A.

9:25

Person had watch the tv show to say

9:27

it's well this is what a burglary supposed

9:29

to look like. It wasn't ransacked. that was

9:31

this ocala take a piece a linen out

9:33

thrown on the thing so it looks like

9:35

it's ransacked. But

9:37

the home shows no signs of forced

9:39

entry and even know Earnest was a

9:41

bit of a gambler who just that

9:43

day when a large sum of money.

9:46

This. Burglar wasn't interested in any

9:48

of it. There. was hundred dollar

9:50

bills sticking out of the genes that

9:52

you can see from fifty feet away

9:54

looking into the bedroom what burglar is

9:56

going to leave ultimately it was over

9:58

nine thousand dollars sticking out of

10:01

somebody's genes. And

10:03

police discover another odd clue,

10:06

one they think the killer wanted

10:08

them to find. Oh,

10:11

wow. Wow.

10:14

That looks like it happened yesterday.

10:16

This is the entryway floor to

10:18

the Caswood home. We took

10:21

the whole floor, not only the tile, but we took the entire

10:23

floor. Detective Mike

10:25

Norton believes these bloody footprints were

10:27

intentionally made the night of March

10:30

7, 2008, as

10:33

part of a staged crime scene. These

10:35

footprints were made maybe slow and methodically, where

10:37

the suspect wanted us to know what kind

10:39

of shoe made this and how

10:42

big the shoe size was. We were able

10:44

to determine that there's a Nike swoosh.

10:46

They got a swoosh right here. Correct. There's

10:50

no way that a professional killer would have left

10:52

that type of evidence at the scene unless it

10:54

was an attempt to sort of throw

10:57

authorities off the track. Prosecutor

10:59

Michael Niedo was assigned to the

11:01

case. Where must you turn next?

11:03

You go inside. You look

11:05

at everybody in the family. And in this case, who

11:07

are you looking at? In

11:10

this case, they looked at Catherine Shear and Ernest

11:12

Shear III. Police

11:16

were quickly able to eliminate Catherine

11:18

as a suspect. She'd

11:21

been at her home in Utah the night of the murders. I

11:24

was at the Alameda County Sheriff's office

11:27

for questioning, and I said, so where are

11:29

you going with this? I said, well, there's

11:31

only one person we can't rule out. Well,

11:34

who? You know? Well,

11:37

your brother. My

11:40

brother? Really? Some

11:49

of the facts I discovered while reporting for 48

11:51

hours are surprising. According

11:53

to FBI Data, most home break-ins

11:56

happen in broad daylight. So As

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the days get longer..., The

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were able to eliminate close

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circle of friends we were

13:42

able to eliminate political enemies

13:44

it's is constantly would come

13:47

back so we could eliminate

13:49

are some investigators began to

13:51

focus in on earnest and

13:53

shearling sure son ernie who

13:55

traveled the country as a

13:57

professional poker player Why

14:00

would my brother do it? There's nothing to gain from

14:03

that. Killing

14:05

my parents? That's ridiculous. But

14:07

there was something to gain. Ernie

14:09

stood to inherit more than $2 million

14:11

from his parents' estate. Cops

14:14

say he was desperate to see the

14:16

will. Who asked to see

14:18

your parents' will on day two of a murder?

14:22

If you sit right there for me? Just

14:24

four days after his parents' bodies

14:26

are discovered, Ernie agrees

14:29

to be questioned by police. Once

14:32

we can either rule you in or rule you out

14:34

as a suspect, then we can move on to other

14:36

people. Ernie

14:39

tells police that on the night of March 7th,

14:42

the date cops believe his parents were murdered,

14:45

he was fast asleep at his home

14:47

in Brea, California, hundreds of

14:49

miles south of the crime scene. Drive

14:52

time from my house to my parents'

14:54

house for roughly six and a half,

14:56

seven hours. So it's kind

14:58

of unrealistic for me to have driven from my

15:00

house all the way up to their house, killed

15:02

them, ransacked the house, drive all the way back.

15:06

Ernie tells police he was home alone. His

15:08

wife, Robin, was away visiting family.

15:11

But he assures cops they can easily

15:13

verify his story. What car were

15:16

you driving? My Camaro. Your

15:18

Camaro. My Camaro. And you'll be able to track

15:20

me almost all the way to my door on

15:22

my cell phone. I

15:26

wanted to have him clear himself so they

15:28

can move on and focus on what

15:31

I thought would be more important in finding

15:33

the real person who I thought was responsible.

15:37

Ernie Shearer had been married to Robin

15:39

for nine years, and the two

15:41

had a three-year-old son, Ernest IV.

15:44

I'd like to think I've always been a good wife.

15:47

Robin even supported her husband

15:49

when the economics major she

15:51

married decided to leave a

15:54

promising career in business for

15:56

the unpredictable world of professional

15:58

poker. of

16:00

what life is like with a professional gambler.

16:02

What are the highs, what are the lows?

16:05

Gosh, all over the map. You

16:08

have good days where there'll be

16:10

wads of cash to come home

16:12

and the next day you could lose $15,000, $20,000. And

16:16

what's it like living that roller coaster? Stressful,

16:19

very stressful. At

16:23

the height of his gambling career, Ernie made more

16:25

than $100,000 in a single year and

16:30

even played in the World Series of

16:32

Poker. He

16:34

was doing so well, his father agreed to

16:36

loan Ernie $616,000 to buy his dream home.

16:43

What were the terms of this loan from

16:45

Ernie's parents? It

16:48

was for a five-year loan and every month we

16:50

owed them a payment of $38.50. Did

16:53

this loan create tension between Ernie

16:55

and your mom? She

16:58

didn't think that supporting him in any

17:00

way with his poker was a good

17:03

thing and would bring good things in

17:05

any way. Charlene was unrelenting in her

17:07

criticism of Ernie's chosen profession. You can't

17:09

be a professional gambler. That's

17:11

like saying I'm a professional nose picker. At

17:14

the time that she died, what

17:16

was their relationship like? Were they close? No,

17:19

no. When he became a professional poker

17:21

player, it was like snip, that

17:24

relationship just severed. And

17:29

Charlene's intuition that Ernie's gambling

17:31

could lead to trouble came

17:33

true. We met at

17:36

a crops table in the Rio in Las Vegas.

17:39

Adrian Solomon was living in North Carolina

17:41

in 2006 when

17:44

a business trip led her to a chance

17:46

encounter with Ernie Shearer. I

17:49

liked that he was tall, he had beautiful

17:51

blue eyes. Do you remember looking at

17:53

his left hand to see if there's a ring then? He didn't have

17:55

one, so I said okay. This is a guy I can

17:57

talk to for a little while. Adrian. was

18:00

in the dark about Ernie's wife and

18:02

young son in California. And

18:05

Robin had no idea her husband

18:07

was on the prowl in Las

18:09

Vegas. How did the casinos

18:11

treat Ernie? Was he comped? Oh

18:14

yeah, he was a high roller. Show

18:16

tickets, restaurants, everything. He felt like a

18:18

rock star being able to treat me

18:20

to these things. Are you getting kind

18:22

of famous in the poker world or? I'm very well known in the poker

18:24

world. Did the two of you talk about

18:26

a future together? He did. I remember

18:29

going into Tiffany's and

18:32

looking at engagement rings. And he

18:34

talked to my mother about marrying me. But

18:37

Adrian soon saw a side to

18:39

Ernie that made her think twice

18:41

about getting serious. Throughout

18:43

our time dating, his betting went

18:46

from maybe $75, $50, $75 for his initial bet up

18:51

to $500 for his initial

18:53

bet. He increased

18:57

his betting dramatically. I routinely

18:59

carry $5,000 to $10,000 in cash and then

19:01

maybe another $40,000 in chips. Police

19:07

wondered if Ernie's volatile, risky

19:09

lifestyle might have created a

19:11

motive for murder. They

19:13

confronted. But let me ask you

19:15

bluntly. Did you have any involvement in your parents'

19:17

death? No. Hire

19:22

anybody or did you pay anybody to

19:25

kill your parents? Investigators

19:28

have their suspicions, but without

19:30

solid evidence, Ernie is free

19:33

to go. Thank you for doing

19:35

your job, guys. But just one

19:37

week later, they would unearth

19:39

a chilling lead. This

19:42

building here is called Lower Castlewood

19:44

Country Club. Up

19:46

there, you can see a surveillance camera.

19:48

That surveillance camera points to the street

19:51

out there. top

20:00

entering Castlewood Country Club at

20:02

827 on the night of

20:04

the murders. It left

20:07

four hours later. Could

20:09

this blurry image be Ernie's

20:12

red Camaro? Armed

20:16

with this new information, cops want

20:19

to confront Ernie. But

20:22

he has vanished. He

20:24

said goodbye to me and I said, when am I gonna

20:26

see you again? And he

20:28

said, I don't know, I'll be in touch. Just

20:40

five days after his interrogation,

20:42

Ernie Shearer hit the open

20:44

road for Parts Unknown. Did

20:49

he say where he was going? He just said he had

20:51

a grief. Ernie

20:53

took off in his dad's car,

20:55

leaving behind the red Camaro, cops

20:57

believe, is seen on this surveillance

20:59

video. When cops

21:02

search Ernie's Camaro for evidence, they

21:04

learn he is one step ahead

21:06

of them. He had

21:08

a full detailing done of both the exterior

21:10

and interior of his Camaro. Police

21:13

discovered just days after the

21:15

murder, Ernie spent $140 having

21:18

his car scrubbed at this

21:20

car wash, even following

21:22

it in on foot. What

21:25

a bizarre scene. He's a bizarre individual.

21:27

And this was his way of sanitizing

21:30

the car. With no trace of evidence

21:32

left in the car, cops pour over

21:34

crime scene photos searching for clues, starting

21:37

with those bloody footprints. Investigators

21:41

conclude the size 12 Nike shoe

21:43

prints left behind at the crime

21:45

scene were part of a grand

21:48

deception. This isn't CSI Miami. Ernie

21:50

normally wears size 10. And I

21:54

believe that's why he left those shoe prints intact

21:56

and attempt to throw off investigators in the event

21:58

that they did. Come to

22:00

him with questions about those bloody shoe prints, he would simply

22:02

be able to say, I wear size 10. Is

22:05

this being taped? Yeah, it is. And

22:07

there was another intriguing blood trail that

22:10

always troubled police. There

22:12

were footprints that led from Charlene

22:15

to Ernest and then continued on

22:17

to a linen closet. Why

22:19

would the attacker go to a

22:21

linen closet? It

22:24

was clearly somebody who had personal knowledge of

22:27

the contents of that closet. Someone

22:31

like Ernie. Ernie knew his dad

22:33

stored his decorative sword collection in

22:35

that closet. After

22:37

the murders, when family was allowed inside

22:39

the shearer home, Ernie led

22:42

his wife, Robin, directly to

22:44

the closet. He reaches

22:46

in, he pulls out

22:48

his sword, takes

22:50

the sheath off of the sword,

22:53

and he's looking at it, and

22:55

he said, isn't this a beautiful sword? And

22:57

he's putting it back in the closet. Under

22:59

his breath, he says, I wonder where the second

23:01

one went. Remember, both

23:04

parents had been savagely slashed.

23:08

After Ernie fled, Robin thought

23:10

about that missing sword. And

23:12

then just something clicked, I thought, oh

23:15

my gosh. There wasn't a

23:17

doubt in my mind that he had something

23:19

to do with it. As soon as I thought

23:21

of that, the first thing he did was call the police. Ernie

23:25

is now the number one suspect, but

23:28

cops don't have the concrete forensic evidence

23:30

they needed to arrest him. All

23:33

they could do was watch Ernie, and

23:35

he made that easy. He

23:38

posted Craigslist ads all over

23:40

the country, looking who won. And

23:42

I'm talking from Oregon all

23:44

the way to upstate New York. What

23:48

was his typical ad like on Craigslist?

23:52

His typical ad. A 29-year-old

23:54

man looking for someone who

23:56

can carry on a conversation is

23:58

up for fun whenever the moment is over. grabs

24:00

you, enjoys a good bottle of

24:02

wine, and the nauseating comments went

24:04

on from there. How many women on the side do

24:06

you think he had over the years? You

24:10

know, it would be difficult to say, but I

24:12

would probably say it's easily a hundred.

24:15

A hundred? Yeah. Ernie

24:19

met this woman who asked we not

24:21

reveal her name in New Orleans during

24:25

the city's annual Jazz Fest

24:27

celebration. He was

24:29

a nice guy. He was a gentleman.

24:31

He was very non-threatening. Ernie

24:34

now had a new identity. He said

24:36

his name was Bill Franks, and he

24:38

was writing a novel. The

24:41

plot was, the poker player in

24:43

Vegas finds out that his parents

24:45

are murdered. And he

24:48

essentially ends up going on the run. After

24:51

telling her his work of fiction,

24:53

the two head to a casino

24:55

near Bourbon Street, where Bill Franks

24:58

suddenly became Ernie again. We

25:01

would walk up to the crack table and they

25:03

would call him Mr. Shearer. And

25:06

I looked up and I'm like, well, what?

25:09

Hello? What? Ernie explained

25:11

that Bill Franks was just a pen

25:14

name. And this isn't getting

25:16

weird yet? Uh,

25:18

you know, um, no. It

25:22

wasn't. I mean, blonde

25:25

roots didn't,

25:29

didn't ding at all. So

25:32

why did you start calling him? Ernie?

25:36

Ernie's behavior then took an even

25:39

stranger turn as the two walked

25:41

into his hotel room. And

25:43

then I turned back around and he had

25:45

basically taken all of the furniture that was

25:48

not bolted down and he had it against

25:50

the door with some bungee cords and it

25:52

was like a ninja. And I turned around

25:54

and I looked at him and I said,

25:57

what the f*** is this? He's basically a

25:59

ninja. barricaded the door to

26:01

keep you in or keep someone out?

26:03

Keep someone out. She

26:05

then pointed out a second bungee

26:07

cord. And I said, could

26:10

you please explain? And he said,

26:12

well it's for a quick getaway. Out the

26:15

window? Out the window. And

26:17

you're thinking what to yourself

26:20

at this point? I'm barricaded in

26:22

a room with a guy with a

26:25

bungee cord whose name was Bill, but

26:27

now it's Ernie. Like,

26:30

don't even go off. I felt

26:32

this guy has some kind of emotional BS

26:34

going on with him. That's how I explained

26:37

it away. But after

26:39

Ernie left New Orleans, this woman

26:41

decided to Google his name. That's

26:44

when I found out he was indeed

26:46

a professional gambler and that his parents

26:48

murder had happened a month

26:50

and a half before. And

26:52

the more I read, the more I researched, literally

26:55

physically the cigar I got. I

26:58

met Ernie Sher on Craigslist. Pamela

27:01

Nichols, who lived in Las Vegas, had

27:03

already been on two dates with Ernie

27:05

when he called the day his parents'

27:08

bodies were found to cancel

27:10

their dinner plans for that night. He

27:12

had just gotten a call saying that

27:14

his parents' house was broken into and

27:17

burglarized and both of them were murdered.

27:19

If I had received that news, I

27:21

wouldn't, I wouldn't even be able to talk

27:23

on the phone, let alone make

27:25

a phone call to somebody I hardly knew.

27:27

Phone records reveal Ernie told

27:29

Pamela about the killings before

27:32

he informed his own wife. This had

27:34

to be a jaw-dropping moment when they

27:36

gave you all this information about

27:39

your husband's secret life. Oh

27:41

yeah. He

27:44

had secret credit cards,

27:47

secret PO boxes, secret

27:51

everything. Secret lovers. Oh yes.

28:00

for me, but all the women who,

28:03

they had no idea. They had no idea that he was

28:05

married, that he

28:07

had a son. As they

28:09

say, there's nothing worse than a scorned woman,

28:12

you know, and once she became that scorned

28:14

person, she

28:17

was my third detective on this.

28:21

Investigators laboring to build an airtight

28:23

case against Ernie Shearer weren't ready

28:25

to arrest him. This

28:27

was still being gathered. That's why I said it's

28:29

never too late to discover the truth. But

28:32

they would soon use Robin to

28:35

turn the tables on her husband. I

28:37

always so long to do what I needed to do to catch them

28:39

and get them locked up. Either people loved your

28:41

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30:57

Ernest Shearer Jr. Six blows to

30:59

the head. Six stab wounds. As

31:03

your son is born, you go, oh, God,

31:05

I hope my son is just perfect. Charlene,

31:10

20 blows to the head. 12

31:13

stab wounds. What this individual

31:16

ended up being was your worst

31:18

nightmare, as far as the same could be.

31:24

Three months into Ernest Shearer's

31:27

cross-country joyride, police get a

31:29

tip he's gambling in Vegas.

31:32

A detective secretly places a GPS

31:34

tracker on his car to keep

31:36

closer tabs on him. His

31:38

sister was a number one concern, and she

31:40

knew that. If this person, who

31:43

is my brother, could willingly and

31:45

knowingly walk into my parents' house

31:48

and beat them and slice them until they

31:50

were dead, he'd have no qualms walking into

31:52

my house and doing that to my family.

31:56

Catherine Shearer, living in Utah, was

31:58

now afraid of her brother.

32:00

It was a very tense time

32:02

for me. My family's hiding, I'm

32:04

hiding. She

32:07

was warned every time Ernie

32:09

was nearby. He was

32:11

horrible. Gotta get out. Gotta leave.

32:14

Were you living in fear of

32:16

Ernie? Yeah. I didn't know if he was going

32:18

to come get me or

32:21

my son or my family where

32:23

I was staying. The blinds were shut, doors

32:26

were locked, the alarm was on.

32:28

Ernie's movements were being tracked.

32:31

So too were his finances,

32:33

giving cops a motive for

32:36

murder. He ran out of money, just

32:38

plain and simple. You believe that he

32:40

killed his own parents just

32:42

for some cash? Absolutely. Police

32:46

learned Ernie had gambling debts approaching

32:48

$90,000 and

32:50

carried more than $40,000 in credit card

32:53

debt. Did he get to a point

32:55

where you couldn't pay the bills? Yeah,

32:57

I did. I kept saying, I need you to

32:59

give me some money because every month we owed his

33:02

parents. Around that same

33:04

time in 2008, the real

33:06

estate market was collapsing. Ernie's

33:09

mom and dad suddenly wanted their

33:11

loan back, now. The

33:14

noose was tidying around his neck. He

33:16

had no reliable stream of income and

33:18

he decided to act. Investigators

33:20

say Ernie wanted a

33:22

gun. The

33:24

day before his parents were murdered,

33:26

Ernie came here to the

33:29

Master at Arms in Perump, Nevada,

33:31

owner Robert Brintlinger. They were acting

33:34

very strangely. Ernie brought his

33:36

friend, piano player Billy Krause, to

33:38

help. One was very

33:40

stoic, quiet, didn't say much.

33:43

The other was bouncing off the walls all

33:45

over the shop. He made me very nervous.

33:49

As a Nevada resident, Billy could purchase

33:51

the weapon and leave with it the

33:53

same day. Did Krause ever

33:55

say why Ernie wanted this gun? He

33:58

actually asked Ernie why he wanted this and

34:00

Ernie said that he wanted it for self-protection.

34:03

When Brentlinger let Krauss know that

34:05

buying a gun for Ernie, an

34:07

out-of-state resident, was illegal, Krauss

34:10

told Ernie the deal was off.

34:13

He wanted it right now, and I

34:15

wouldn't do it. The failed gun

34:17

purchase cops say didn't deter

34:19

Ernie. The

34:21

following day, they believe he drove west

34:23

out of Las Vegas with

34:26

murder in mind. We have

34:28

him at Prinn, Nevada, at a Chevron

34:30

station, based on gas receipts. We

34:33

have him at a McDonald's, where he charged $5

34:35

worth of hamburgers at McDonald's,

34:38

and mysteriously, his cell phone

34:40

records stop. In

34:42

the early afternoon of March 7, 2008, Ernie

34:46

Sher's cell phone went dead.

34:49

He was driving along this stretch of road, Interstate

34:51

15, which runs from

34:53

Vegas to Los Angeles. 17

34:56

hours passed before his cell phone came

34:58

back to life. His

35:03

cell phone was off because he didn't want to be

35:05

tracked to Pleasanton when he was committing the murders of

35:07

his parents. Ernie's cell

35:09

phone was off, but the surveillance

35:11

camera near his parents' home was

35:13

on. Police

35:16

filled a timeline. We

35:18

believe that he arrived in the evening of March 7, 2008, after

35:22

8 p.m., and that he entered

35:24

the home. Sometime after that, he's

35:30

on the lower level of the home and

35:32

confronts his mother first. She's

35:34

able to run up the stairs and attempt to flee.

35:40

And then he catches her at the very top of the stairs. Niedo

35:43

believes Ernie then turns on

35:45

his father, inflicting six fatal

35:47

blows with an unknown weapon

35:49

before grabbing a sword from

35:52

the linen closet to

35:54

complete his violence. Vicious,

35:58

inhumane. I can't

36:00

come up with the words for this, can you? It's difficult to put

36:02

in the words. At

36:05

12.42 a.m., police say

36:07

that's Ernie's car leaving

36:10

Castlewood Country Club. By

36:12

the time Ernie's cell phone comes back on,

36:14

he is at his home in Brea, 390

36:16

miles away. How

36:20

long does it take to drive from his parents'

36:22

house to his home in Brea? Members

36:25

of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department did exactly

36:27

that, departing at the

36:29

same time shown on the surveillance video. And

36:31

they arrived at the vicinity of his Brea home at

36:34

2900 Primrose at

36:36

exactly 636 a.m. The

36:38

exact minute that his cell phone came back

36:40

to life. The exact minute? Correct. Is

36:42

that the closest thing for you in this case to

36:45

a fingerprint? It's close. But

36:48

investigators wanted to find a way

36:50

to get Ernie to admit it's

36:53

his car on that surveillance tape.

36:56

Robin received a phone call from

36:58

detectives asking for her help. He'd

37:02

asked if I'd be willing to do a

37:04

recorded phone conversation with Ernie, and it was

37:06

arranged. Hello.

37:10

Hi. Hi, how are

37:12

you? Oh,

37:15

I'm so glad to be talking to you. How

37:17

are you? I'm not. Robin had not

37:20

spoken to her husband for weeks since

37:22

the day he disappeared. She

37:24

tries her best to act like

37:26

nothing is wrong. Where are you?

37:29

I'm in California. You're

37:31

in California. I'm not really trying to hide myself. I

37:33

mean, I've been... The big thing

37:35

is trying to hide. Robin

37:37

was about to play one of the

37:40

most important cards in this investigation, and

37:43

bluff her poker-playing husband. We're

37:46

trying to build a circumstantial case against

37:48

me because there is no civic evidence that I committed

37:50

this crime. They're a thing that's with the court. They

37:53

have a police video with something

37:55

that looks like your car, and

37:57

you in it. You can see

37:59

the face of... It

38:03

was a lie. You can't see a

38:05

driver on this surveillance tape. But

38:08

Ernie didn't know that. Were you

38:10

there? Because I thought you were driving back home. And

38:13

there's this video that they have and it clearly looks

38:15

like it's your car. Hello?

38:20

Well, let me tell you about the video. I'm here. I'm just thinking.

38:24

That long pause convinced cops

38:26

it was Ernie's car and

38:29

him in it. What did that

38:31

pause tell you? Oh,

38:33

that was just the moment where I was

38:35

like, he was there. And

38:39

on February 23, 2009,

38:43

nearly one year after the bodies

38:45

were found, Ernie Shearer is arrested

38:47

in Las Vegas for the murder

38:49

of his parents. I

38:52

want to advise you of the right to remain silent. Do

38:54

you understand that? Yes. Despite

38:56

his arrest, Ernie tells a friend

38:58

in a jailhouse conversation, he'll

39:01

soon be out. I will never have

39:03

to worry about this again for the rest of my

39:05

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39:07

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39:32

Welcome to your next two crime obsession.

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Don't miss new Brit box original

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drama, The Sixth Commandment, which the

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Guardian calls as immaculate a piece

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of TV as you will ever see. You

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will hear evidence of extreme gaslighting. Help me,

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please. I am going to be waiting on

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Start streaming today. with a free trial

40:01

at britbox.com. Awaiting

40:11

his trial, a confident Ernie

40:13

Shearer mocked the case against

40:15

him. That was one of his

40:17

statements to me. I want to be free by Christmas.

40:20

Hey, come on. Prosecutor

40:22

Mike Nieto admits his

40:24

evidence is circumstantial. I

40:27

want you to tell me about the witness who saw

40:30

Ernie enter his parents' home that night. There

40:33

is no witness that saw Ernie. There is

40:35

no witness. Are there any fingerprints? There were

40:38

no fingerprints. So no witness, no fingerprints, and

40:40

you can't verify the car. Yes. That's

40:42

a strong case. It is. When

40:44

you consider everything together, everything

40:47

points to Ernie being responsible.

40:50

The defense counters with solid

40:52

forensic evidence saying foreign DNA

40:54

found mixed in with the

40:56

victim's blood does not

40:59

match Ernie. That's your killer, isn't

41:01

it? That's what the defense would have you

41:03

believe. Just because someone's DNA is present

41:05

doesn't mean that they're the responsible party. Could

41:07

have been one of the first responders at the scene. It

41:10

could have been anyone that had been in the Shearer home prior

41:12

to March 7th, 2008. Looking

41:14

for anything to bolster his case,

41:17

Nieto took a second look at those

41:19

crime scene photos. Something caught

41:21

his eye. I'm getting chills just telling you

41:23

the story now. He made

41:26

a startling discovery. This bloody piece

41:28

of paper, which turned out to

41:30

be a warranty card from a

41:32

Nike youth baseball bat. I

41:35

called my investigator and I said you got to get up here. We

41:38

found the murder weapon. These

41:41

two people, 57 and 60

41:43

years old, have no reason to have a

41:45

youth baseball bat in their own. Never mind

41:47

a warranty card to fix the barrel of

41:49

the baseball bat with dad's blood on it.

41:52

You don't have a physical

41:54

murder weapon, but

41:56

you essentially have a murder weapon, don't you?

42:00

with this little piece of paper. Yes.

42:03

More than two years after

42:05

the murders, investigators finally knew

42:08

the instrument used to kill

42:10

Ernest and Charlene. Now

42:12

they needed to find a way to put the bat

42:15

in Ernie's hands. So I

42:17

focused on Prim because he had used the

42:19

McDonald's and the Chevron station as the starting

42:21

point for his alibi. So I said, let's

42:23

see what else is in Prim. And

42:26

just like that, the Domino started

42:28

to fall into place. Standing

42:30

just footsteps away from the McDonald's,

42:33

a Nike outlet store. That

42:36

led us to a particular cash transaction

42:38

in which an individual purchased three items.

42:41

The baseball bat, a pair of

42:44

Nike Tomahawk, impact shoes, size 12,

42:47

and a pair of youth soccer goalie

42:49

gloves. Those three items might as

42:51

well be a 101 kit for how to

42:53

commit murder. They were purchased on

42:56

March 7, 2008. And

42:59

what are the chances on the day of the

43:01

homicide that a person buys a

43:03

bat and buys the

43:05

exact same size shoes that we find

43:07

in the crime scene? The sage

43:09

words of my grandmother, one

43:11

too many coincidences is not a coincidence. On

43:15

January 4, 2011,

43:18

with cameras banned from the courtroom, the

43:20

murder trial of Ernie Shearer would begin.

43:23

The prosecution would take the jury through

43:26

the surveillance video. I'm

43:28

reading there because I thought you

43:30

were driving back home. Robin's phone

43:32

call, Ernie's lies. I was not

43:34

in Ernie's California. And of course,

43:36

that bloody warranty card. Ernie

43:38

Shearer decides to take the stand. Why

43:40

do you think he's doing that? I

43:43

think it's consistent with his narcissistic personality.

43:45

I think he is persuaded that he can

43:48

convince at least one member of that jury

43:50

to either find a reasonable doubt or

43:53

to find that he's completely innocent. And

43:55

there was one female juror that

43:58

gave prosecutor Nieto... for

44:00

concern. Ernie appeared to

44:02

be flirting with her. Exchanges

44:05

of smiles, glances. And

44:07

she appeared to flirt

44:09

back. And then once the

44:11

juror left the courtroom he would look

44:13

at me and laugh and make comments about

44:16

essentially how he had this one juror in

44:19

his corner. As they

44:21

await the verdict, Robin and her son

44:23

serve as a reminder of just what

44:26

is at stake. Would

44:28

he be willing to hurt me or

44:31

her earnest? It's really

44:33

scary. But

44:35

would this professional gambler win his

44:38

final hand? After

44:40

an exhaustive three-month trial, Ernie

44:43

Shearer is found guilty of

44:45

murdering his parents. It

44:48

is an overwhelming feeling to know

44:50

that all of that hard work, all

44:52

that sacrifice comes to that moment and

44:55

knowing that the right thing happened, there

44:57

is no other feeling like it. What was it like

44:59

for you to hear guilty? Emotional.

45:04

I was shaking and

45:07

I wanted to make sure that I looked at

45:09

him and saw his reaction. What'd you

45:11

see? He put his head down and then

45:14

when he lifted it back up at one point and I saw his

45:16

eyes, he had that look

45:18

like I

45:21

got caught. Robin lives

45:23

each day knowing she will eventually

45:25

have to explain to her young

45:27

son just how his

45:30

father murdered his grandparents. Does

45:33

he have a living memory of his father?

45:37

He doesn't really know him,

45:39

he just remembers that we used to live

45:41

with somebody who had this red

45:43

convertible. It's

45:46

horrible to look at your brother

45:48

and say, why would you

45:51

do that? Where

45:53

is there any logic, any

45:56

love, any anything? And

45:59

to feel like no... Not only have you

46:01

lost your parents, but

46:03

you've just lost effectively your entire

46:05

family. Ernie

46:12

Scherer is serving two consecutive

46:15

life sentences without the possibility

46:17

of parole. If

46:24

you like 48 hours, you can listen

46:26

early and ad-free right now by

46:28

joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery

46:30

app. Prime members can

46:33

listen ad-free on Amazon Music.

46:35

Before you go, tell us

46:37

about yourself by filling out

46:39

a short survey at wondery.com/

46:41

survey. The

46:44

wait is over. So far you're

46:46

not losing. The only thing you're losing is

46:48

my patience. Quickly, I see that. Bing!

46:51

The queen of the courtroom

46:53

is back. I didn't do

46:55

anything. You wouldn't know the

46:57

truth if it came up and slapped you in the face. I

47:00

see he's not intimidated by anything. I

47:02

can fix this. New pieces. She

47:05

wanted to fight me? Leave

47:08

her alone. Okay, so, um... Not

47:11

this is not a soul. This

47:13

is a period. Classic duty. Did you sleep

47:16

with her? Yes, Your Honor. You married his

47:18

cousin. Good brother. That's not

47:20

him. Yes, ma'am. I

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would make a beeline for the door. The

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Emmy Award-winning series returns. How did I know

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that I have crystal ball in my head?

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It's an all-new season. It's dreaming. You can

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say anything. Judy Justice. Only

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on Freebie.