and kimberly olsen thought the whole world had gone crazy. he s a poker player and he had made his mistakes obviously with the women in his life. but that s a very far jump from being a poker player to murdering your parents. reporter: but back home in north carolina, when adrienne solomon heard about ernie s arrest did you believe he could have done such a thing? i believed he could have. and for me that was enough. reporter: a trial date set, even though the mystery dna at the crime scene was never identified, even though not one piece of direct evidence connected ernie to any murder weapon or those mysterious nike footprints. remember, they were consistent with a size 12, and ernie wore 9 1/2 or 10. and you knew one of the lines that was coming had to be a defense attorney couldn t resist it if those shoes don t fit, you must acquit. absolutely. and a jury might just look at that. and that went through my mind several times.
police are listening to this phone call, i m assuming. right? i guess. i have no idea. reporter: and in this game of poker, it was hard to say who was playing whom. in the end, there was no smoking gun, but was ernie spooked a little? was that why he reached out again to adrienne solomon with this request? i m really hoping we can end up back together. reporter: he told her, said adrienne, he was thinking of changing his lifestyle, quitting poker if only she d take him back. but she was a different adrienne now. i think i kind of felt more powerful in that conversation than i had with him in a long time because i know that i don t trust a single word that he says. reporter: meanwhile, back in vegas, detectives learn days before the murders ernie scherer had made an unusual request of this man, david mock. he asked me if i would do
doesn t work. reporter: and so ernest scherer iii was found guilty. two counts of first-degree murder, two consecutive life sentences, no parole. his sister katherine, daughter of the victims, spoke publicly for the first time outside the courtroom. hard to have to talk about my parents and the loss. they re no longer with me at all. it does tear me up. do you feel justice was served? i don t know. it s hard. it s hard to admit that anybody could do something like that. reporter: and adrienne solomon, the one-time teacher of the flying trapeze, the woman who thought she had learned a thing or two about reading people, still wonders why she just didn t see it. i don t trust my judgment and i don t trust other people are telling the truth. and that s hard. i wonder if you ll ever get that back. i don t know. i m sure over time everything s been getting better.
reporter: here was her friend from the mormon church. her confidence, her command, her good heart, her ability to reach out and help people. reporter: which she had also been doing professionally for decades as an accounting teacher, said this colleague at cal state east bay. she not only wanted to help students with the particular subject area and the class, she also wanted to help the students with their career and their life. reporter: so who was responsible? who knew? not a suspect in sight. i instantly got my phone out and sent him a text message. reporter: the minute adrienne solomon heard what happened, she reached out for her ernie. they decided to meet in san francisco for dinner that very night. even though we weren t in a relationship anymore, we d been friends for a long time. i felt good that i could be there for him. he got really upset during dinner. i was there to be a listening board for him. reporter: and that was that. until a few days later when
he came over and said he needed a pretty girl to blow on his dice at the craps table. he was a smooth talker. that s a line. it is. i fell for it. reporter: from day one, their relationship was based on honesty, she said, full disclosure, all the dirty laundry. he would tell me the stories about his wife and his girlfriend and going back and forth. i told him he was a jerk. i think he knew he had made a lot of mistakes. of course he also told her about his parents murder. he missed his parents. he would tell stories about him and his father. he d get teary-eyed about it. kimberly got to know ernie, she said, very, very well. if you can drive to texas with someone and not want to strangle them in the middle of texas you get to know someone really well. he was really sweet. reporter: she eventually moved in with him. did you love him? i did. but that other woman, adrienne solomon, was struggling.