Strohmeyer case to open amid high-powered legal wrangling

In court hearings leading up to the start of his trial Monday, Jeremy Strohmeyer sat placidly detached, his drooping hair allowing only glimpses of a face that betrayed no emotion -- despite proceedings that eventually would determine whether he lives or dies.

Strohmeyer, 19, stands accused of raping and killing 7-year-old Los Angeles second-grader Sherrice Iverson. The crime, which has attracted national attention, took place Memorial Day weekend in 1997 in a women's restroom at a casino in Primm, southwest of Las Vegas on the California border.

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell is the lead prosecutor. He's going up against nationally known Los Angeles defense attorney Leslie Abramson, who gained fame as attorney for the Menendez brothers.

When the trial begins in the courtroom of Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt, attention will turn to legal strategies and issues. Attention in the weeks leading up to the trial has also centered on the racial, social and economic contrasts of the defendant and victim.

The white teenage defendant, although adopted, comes from an affluent and privileged upbringing, while the young black victim was the product of a modest Los Angeles environment. Iverson's parents live separately and, in fact, don't get along and will be seated at opposite sides of the courtroom for the trial. Strohmeyer's parents have been together throughout his life.

In addition, the case has spotlighted the issue of parents letting their minor children run relatively free in casinos -- no matter what time of the day or night -- while the parents gamble. The Clark County Commission responded to the slaying by passing an ordinance setting curfews at the casino video arcades that have become surrogate child-care facilities.

The legal battle, however, has puzzled many outside the legal community who openly wonder why there is a need for a trial because the 19-year-old defendant has confessed to family, friends and police that he was responsible for Iverson's death.

They ask why Strohmeyer doesn't just plead guilty and be done with it.

It isn't that simple because prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

If Strohmeyer is convicted of first-degree murder at his trial, the jury will decide whether the punishment is death or life in prison. To plead guilty to first-degree murder in Nevada would be to send the case to a three-judge panel for that decision. Such panels invariably hand down the death penalty.

At the same time, defense attorneys suggest Strohmeyer is innocent -- despite his admissions -- because he couldn't form the legally necessary "intent to kill." The defense has indicated that if he is guilty of something, it isn't first-degree murder.

The final decision ultimately will be in the hands of 12 jurors plus six alternates who will be picked beginning Monday.

Inside the legal community, there are those who believe the case should and could have been settled through a plea bargain -- the way 98 percent of cases, including most murder cases, are resolved.

Bell has said simply, "There have been no negotiations."

Insiders say that Bell, who has chosen this as one of a handful of cases to personally prosecute, has made no offers to the defense, but prosecutors with strong murder cases virtually never do.

Likewise, Abramson has made no overtures to plea-bargain the case in an effort to guarantee that the former Long Beach High School honor-roll student would escape the death penalty.

Any deal acceptable to prosecutors would require a guilty plea by Strohmeyer to first-degree murder. In such cases, prosecutors generally reciprocate by dropping their bid for the death penalty in favor of a life prison sentence. What usually is negotiable is whether the sentence is with or without the possibility of parole and whether any other charges will be tacked on.

Attorney Robert Langford, who recently left the district attorney's office for private practice, said that because of the state of the law and the justice system, "The only way a case has true closure is through negotiation."

If Strohmeyer is convicted with evidence that has been strongly challenged, Langford predicted "the case will be litigated and appealed ad nauseum."

But by this point, according to attorneys who asked not to be named, the case probably has progressed too far to turn back. One said that Bell is "too boxed in by the publicity the case has garnered" to plea bargain.

Ironically, when Bell was a private attorney, he often espoused a philosophy that any case can result in a plea bargain if lawyers are reasonable.

In this case, however, the case has revolved around hard-fought court sessions over pretrial legal issues as each side wrangles for the advantage.

There have been the inevitable battles of wills and personalities between the sides, sometimes degenerating into personal attacks. Barbed exchanges have prompted the judge to warn the lawyers that such conduct during trial would result in "sanctions," such as fines.

The scene

As the lawyers dig in for what is expected to be a five- to six-week trial, the local, regional and national media have been gearing up for a spectacle that on occasion could rival that of the O.J. Simpson trial.

As many as 20 satellite trucks are expected to crowd the streets around the courthouse. Television news magazines such as ABC's 20-20 and Hard Copy have planned to be present for at least part of the trial. Los Angeles and Long Beach newspapers probably will have a regular presence.

In addition to reporters, the 97-seat courtroom should be crowded with spectators and the families of the victim and the defendant. Those who can't come to Las Vegas can still watch the show live on Court TV broadcasts. In Las Vegas, the 24-hour cable news station Las Vegas One, channels 1 and 39, will provide live coverage and commentary.

Only a limited number of courtroom seats are going to be available for the general public.

Assistant District Court Administrator Rick Loop said that courthouse security will be heightened and a second metal detector and X-ray scanner will be installed outside Leavitt's courtroom for those attending the trial.

Outside the courthouse, Metro Police and bailiffs are preparing for anticipated demonstrations organized by supporters of Iverson's mother, Yolanda Manuel. She has been unyieldingly critical because prosecutors chose not to file criminal charges against David Cash Jr., Strohmeyer's friend who was with him at the Primm Valley hotel-casino on the night of the murder.

Manuel and her friends have been urging Nevada legislators to pass a law -- dubbed the "Sherrice Iverson law" -- to force people who witness violent crimes against children to report them or render assistance to the victims.

Cash, a 19-year-old second-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, has been the object of protests there because of his admission that he had learned of Iverson's death within minutes but kept it secret until police started to close in.

He has been targeted because of a Los Angeles talk-radio interview, during which he showed no remorse over the girl's slaying and said his notoriety, if anything, has helped him get dates.

The evidence

Since Strohmeyer's arrest three days after the May 25, 1997, rape and murder of Iverson, the evidence against him has mounted.

A security video at the Primm Valley hotel-casino showed images of Strohmeyer and Iverson playfully tossing wet pieces of paper at each other near the casino's video arcade. Eventually Strohmeyer is seen following Iverson into the women's restroom.

Cash, Strohmeyer's buddy since his high-school days, is seen entering the restroom and exiting less than two minutes later. Strohmeyer, who was in the restroom for nearly 25 minutes, eventually is seen leaving. The camera captured no one else entering or exiting the restroom until 47 minutes later when an employee went in to look for the missing girl and found the body.

Cash testified before a Clark County grand jury that he had witnessed Strohmeyer struggling with the girl in the stall for handicapped people, but that he left when his attempts to intercede were ignored.

Cash recalled that when Strohmeyer finally came out alone, Cash asked his friend, "What happened? I mean you were in there a long time."

"He looked at me very directly and said, 'I killed her,'" Cash said.

Strohmeyer's ex-girlfriend, Agnes Lee, revealed to the grand jury that Strohmeyer had a penchant for young girls -- a penchant prosecutors say is confirmed in Internet chat-room conversations and hundreds of pictures of child pornography recovered by police from Strohmeyer's personal computer.

Lee testified that Strohmeyer once had asked her to dress in a schoolgirl uniform and braid her hair in pigtails, but that she had refused.

Lee said she recognized Strohmeyer and Cash from news broadcasts of the security videotapes from the casino a couple of days after the slaying as police were scrambling to solve the crime.

Her call to police resulted in Strohmeyer's arrest, but Cash was not charged after authorities questioned him and concluded he had broken no laws.

In his grand jury testimony, which he is expected to repeat when the trial gets under way, Cash said the game Strohmeyer and Iverson were playing changed after the girl threw a plastic "wet floor" sign at him.

Strohmeyer grabbed her, putting a hand across her mouth to muffle her cries, and took her into a toilet stall, the witness said.

Cash explained that he told Strohmeyer to let her go but "he didn't care what I was saying."

"I knew at that point that the little game they were playing kind of crossed the line," he said.

In addition to the video and Cash's story, the jury also will hear that Strohmeyer's DNA was on a cigarette butt found under the girl's body. It indicates that at some point during the incident he paused to smoke.

The confessions

After his arrest outside his parents' posh Long Beach home, Strohmeyer was taken to a hospital where his stomach was pumped because of the numerous amphetamine pills he had taken in an apparent suicide attempt.

As he was recovering, he gave Long Beach police the first of two confessions. He later gave a third to Las Vegas detectives.

According to Long Beach police documents, Strohmeyer confirmed Cash's version of events and also admitted molesting the girl.

The report filed by Detective Walter Turley indicated Strohmeyer admitted that he "placed the victim on the floor in front of him and placed both of his hands around the victim's neck ... and continued to squeeze her neck for about 10 minutes until she stopped struggling."

When some women came into the restroom, Strohmeyer said, he placed the girl's feet into the toilet and sat back against her, giving the impression to someone outside that the stall was in use by a single person.

The police report indicated Strohmeyer said that when he was once again alone with the unconscious girl, "he looked at the victim and thought to himself that he could not let the victim possibly survive and be a vegetable for the rest of her life so he decided to put her out of her misery."

While the defense contended that police coerced Strohmeyer into giving the confessions and denied his right to an attorney, the statements were declared legal and admissible by District Judge Don Chairez, the original trial judge.

The defense

Although defense attorneys have not declared their strategy for the trial, the pretrial hearings have offered some hints at the direction the case may take.

Nevada law does not provide the opportunity for criminals to escape punishment by using an insanity plea, and defense attorneys maintained from the beginning that Strohmeyer's mental competence to stand trial was not an issue.

But the defense seems poised to contend that Strohmeyer was mentally incapable at Primm of forming the intent to commit murder. Abramson has indicated in court that psychological examinations of Strohmeyer by defense-hired experts have supported that position.

Specific intent to kill is a prerequisite for Strohmeyer to be convicted of premeditated first-degree murder. Yet there are other ways of being convicted of first-degree murder.

If a death occurs -- even unintended -- during the commission of some felony crimes, such as robbery, kidnapping or sexual assault, the law regards that death as first-degree murder. In addition to the murder count, Strohmeyer is charged with two counts of sexual assault and one of kidnapping.

The defense also is expected to raise the issue of Strohmeyer's birth parents as part of its case.

Abramson has said that after an arduous and expensive investigation, Strohmeyer's birth parents finally were located and that genetic factors may have been at work during the murder. Strohmeyer's mother is in a mental institution and his father is in prison, the defense lawyer said.

That issue and other evidence of Strohmeyer's character may not surface unless there is a penalty hearing that would occur only if the jury votes for a first-degree murder conviction.

The jurors

Four hundred people in a jury pool completed questionnaires for use in the selection process.

Judge Leavitt's intent with the questionnaires was to circumvent a defense request that every prospective juror be individually questioned -- a process that Abramson indicated could take a couple of months. The defense concern was that panelists with biases or too much information about the case would taint other panelists during group questioning sessions.

Last week, prosecution and defense attorneys solved part of that problem by agreeing to excuse 128 prospective jurors. Some had indicated on their questionnaires that they had biases or already had formed an opinion about the case. Others indicated they couldn't serve on a sequestered jury during the five or six weeks the trial probably will take.

Leavitt and his staff already had excused 81 panelists because of hardships, conflicting plans or other issues. The availability of some of those prospective jurors was compromised when the Nevada Supreme Court postponed the trial for two weeks.

A major problem has been that the jury will be sequestered in a downtown hotel room during the trial, not able to have free communication even with their families. There will be no televisions or radios in their rooms and no newspapers or magazines that might carry Strohmeyer stories.

Bailiffs or court staff will be patrolling the hallways outside their rooms to ensure that no one tries to make improper contact with the jurors.

Leavitt also ordered that the names of the jurors not be made public to further protect them and their families.

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