MONROE, WA -- A Spokane County crime is what put Byron Scherf behind bars for life without the possibility of parole. His 1995 conviction for kidnapping and rape of a Spokane real estate agent was his third violent offense. He has a history of violence against women that stretches back to 1978.
Scherf has been in and out of prison ever since that first conviction. Saturday night’s murder of Monroe corrections officer, Jayme Biendle, is the first time he’s been accused of killing somebody.
In 1995, Scherf lured a Spokane real estate agent to a south Spokane County home under the premise he was interested in the house. He then forced her into the trunk of his car at gunpoint, drover her to the Spangle area and raped her. The Spokane victim says Scherf told her he was going to kidnap her, take her out into the woods, rape and then kill her before he buried her body out there.
In 1978, Scherf assaulted a woman and served two years of a ten year prison sentence. Then, in 1981, he kidnapped and raped a Western Washington woman, tied her up, and lit her on fire. She survived, but Scherf only served 12 years of a life sentence. His Spokane victim sued the state claiming parole officers failed to properly supervise a convicted felon on parole.
Her lawyer says the prisons are bulging and that they are too lenient on men like Scherf. A court disagreed and the victim had to pay some of Scherf’s court costs.
Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies say when Scherf was released the second time, many ministers testified that Scherf started studying religion and that he was a changed man.
The Spokane victim says she knows what he did in 1978 and in 1981 and it shocks and horrifies her that he was ever let out of prison.
Scherf is one of the first convicts in Spokane County to be locked away under the three strikes law. He is now isolated in a cell at the Monroe Corrections Complex.
