Trial scheduled to begin Tuesday for teen accused of killing young girl

LAS VEGAS - A California teen-ager accused of killing a 7-year-old girl in a Nevada casino restroom was scheduled to go on trial for his life Tuesday.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Jeremy Strohmeyer, 19, of Long Beach, is convicted of sexually molesting and strangling Sherrice Iverson.

He allegedly confessed to Long Beach police that he killed the girl on May 25, 1997 at the Primm Valley casino "to experience death."

However, he has pleaded innocent to the charges of sexual assault and first-degree murder.

A jury of seven men and five women will be given two views of Strohmeyer. The prosecution says he is a killer who had a hoard of pornography and admitted fantasizing about sex with young girls.

The defense likely will portray the former high school honors student as a troubled youth whose father is in prison and whose biological mother is in a mental hospital.

Defense attorney Leslie Abramson has obtained $50,000 in state funds to hire experts to testify about Strohmeyer's mental state.

The jurors who will decide Strohmeyer's guilt must recommend a penalty if they convict him. Options on a first-degree murder conviction include death; life with or without parole, or 50 years in state prison.

Jurors have been questioned at length about their feelings on the death penalty, racism and issues such as adoption. Strohmeyer was adopted when he was young. He is white and the victim is black.

The case has drawn national attention by focusing on the safety of children in casinos and the fact that Strohmeyer's friend saw the crime in progress but did nothing to stop it.

David Cash Jr. has not been charged because Nevada has no "Good Samaritan" law dictating that a person witnessing a crime must take action to stop it. Sherrice's death has prompted activists to seek such a law on both the state and federal level.

Cash is expected to be a key witness against Strohmeyer. He told investigators he entered the restroom and found Strohmeyer holding the child in a stall, muffling her screams.

Cash said he told Strohmeyer to let the girl go and left the restroom. When the teen-agers met up a short time later, Strohmeyer told Cash he had killed the girl, authorities claim.

The Los Angeles girl had been left in the casino arcade with her older brother while their father, LeRoy Iverson, gambled in the casino.

Casino surveillance tapes show Strohmeyer and Cash playing hide-and-seek with the girl. Later, Strohmeyer said he followed the girl into the women's restroom after she threw a janitorial sign at him.

Prosecutors alleged last week that, 30 hours before he allegedly molested and strangled the girl, Strohmeyer admitted in a message to an Internet chat room that "I fantasize about having sex with 5- and 6-year-old girls all the time."

"You don't need an expert to tell you what that means," Chief Deputy Clark County District Attorney Peggy Leen told state District Judge Myron Leavitt during a motions hearing Thursday.

Abramson said it could not be proven the message came from her client.

Prosecutors reportedly found hundreds of pornographic pictures on Strohmeyer's computer, although the defense claims the pictures were sent to him unsolicited.

"Looking at pictures does not produce pedophilia or child molesters," Abramson said.

Leavitt has ruled that evidence on Strohmeyer's computer can be introduced by the prosecution in rebuttal only.

archive