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Thursday, February 10, 2000
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Justice unchanged for killer
A district judge decides Jeremy Strohmeyer must live with his guilty plea and the murder he committed.
By Peter O'Connell
Review-Journal
One day after child killer Jeremy Strohmeyer demanded truth and justice, a judge slapped him in the face with the former and told him he already received the latter.
District Judge Joseph Bonaventure made the pointed comments Wednesday evening in denying Strohmeyer's effort to withdraw his guilty plea in the May 1997 rape and murder of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in a Primm casino restroom stall.
Strohmeyer testified Tuesday that he launched his latest legal effort because he was no longer sure he committed the crime to which he confessed in extraordinary detail.
"I want to know the truth. I want justice," the 21-year-old former California resident said.
Bonaventure told Strohmeyer, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, that the truth is Strohmeyer killed Sherrice. The judge added that justice already is being served.
"With the passage of time, the reality of being behind bars for the rest of one's life must become more and more disheartening," Bonaventure said. "But to poor little Sherrice Iverson, the unfairness is that no matter what consolation the justice system may achieve, she will never again be able to walk upon this earth."
Strohmeyer now will return to Ely State Prison, where he has been housed in protective custody. He showed some disappointment upon hearing the judge's ruling, but largely maintained his usual stoicism.
Outside court, his father, John Strohmeyer, said the family would consider mounting additional legal challenges in hopes that the truth will be revealed.
"I think it will ultimately unfold, but maybe today is not the day," said John Strohmeyer, who added he is not sure if his son killed Sherrice.
Defense attorney Robert Preuss of New York, who is a cousin of John Strohmeyer's, said additional state and federal appeals are a possibility.
Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said the judge's decision means Strohmeyer must serve the lifetime in prison he accepted in the September 1998 plea agreement that spared him from a possible death sentence.
"Justice was done a year ago, and it was done today," Bell said outside court.
The two-day evidentiary hearing rekindled much of the public and media attention that accompanied Strohmeyer's guilty plea and sentencing in 1998.
Courtroom security was tight throughout, and officers were quick to respond Wednesday afternoon when a ruckus erupted in the hallway and a woman was heard to scream, "Stop him."
A corrections officer grabbed Strohmeyer and led him from court so quickly that the defendant's shoes were left on the floor beneath the defense table.
Court resumed within five minutes after bailiffs determined the commotion did not involve a possible attack on Strohmeyer, but rather a successful attempt to apprehend a fleeing prisoner.
Strohmeyer and his new attorneys employed several arguments in seeking to overturn the guilty plea and secure a trial, at which the defendant would have faced a possible death sentence. Bonaventure found the arguments to be unsupported by the evidence.
One argument critical to Strohmeyer's contention that he wants to know the truth about Sherrice's death collapsed so completely that Preuss all but abandoned it in his closing argument.
Camille Abate of New York, one of Strohmeyer's new attorneys and the wife of Preuss, had said Leroy Iverson, the father of the victim, had confirmed to her that he saw Strohmeyer friend David Cash Jr. exit the casino ladies restroom as Iverson entered to find the body of his daughter.
Cash told police he witnessed the initial moments of Strohmeyer's attack on Sherrice but quickly left. He did not report the assault and was charged with no crime.
In unsworn testimony delivered by telephone Tuesday, Leroy Iverson denied ever telling Abate he saw Cash leaving the restroom. "All I remember was calling you a Yankee," he said.
In addition, Las Vegas Homicide Detective James Vaccaro said surveillance video showed that Cash spent two minutes in the restroom, while Strohmeyer was inside for 22 minutes.
He said Cash left the arcade area near the restroom about 45 minutes before Leroy Iverson entered to find his daughter.
Defense attorneys had hoped to use Leroy Iverson's testimony to argue that Cash might have committed the murder. They suggested Cash then fed the inebriated Strohmeyer the copious detail contained in his confession to police.
But Bell noted that Strohmeyer's confession contained facts to which Cash was not privy.
For instance, the defendant described several women who entered the restroom while he was inside the stall with Sherrice. He told police he placed the girl on the toilet and sat on her so it appeared that someone was using the stall.
Yet video surveillance showed Cash was not even in the arcade area at the time the women were in the restroom.
"The only person who could have known was the person who was sitting in the stall on top of Sherrice," Bell said.
Another defense argument involved the quality of representation Strohmeyer received from his prior attorneys, Leslie Abramson of California and Richard Wright of Las Vegas.
Strohmeyer said his decision to plead guilty was the product of bad legal advice from both attorneys and bullying tactics on the part of Abramson.
Strohmeyer and his mother, Winifred, said the two attorneys failed to adequately explain the possible appeals that could have been pursued had the case gone to trial. They also said the attorneys inaccurately said the best Strohmeyer could hope for was 75 years in prison.
Wright and Abramson said they told the Strohmeyers there were appeals that could be filed. But they said they didn't believe any of these would be likely to reverse a conviction.
They acknowledged telling the family that 75 years was the best possible result, and stood by this appraisal. Abramson said the minimum prison term could have been shorter only if a judge decided not to order the sentences served consecutively, a scenario she described as "dangerous fantasy."
Bonaventure praised the performance of the two attorneys.
"Mr. Strohmeyer was afforded what this court characterizes as the A-Team of defense counsel," he said.
The judge also dismissed the argument that Strohmeyer did not enter his plea freely and voluntarily.
He said he was convinced that Abramson used a heavy hand in advocating the plea as a means to avoid a likely death sentence. But he found nothing improper in her actions.
"Abramson clearly left the decision to plea up to the defendant," he said.
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Printable version of this story
Jeremy Strohmeyer leaps over the defense table following a disturbance Wednesday in the Clark County Courthouse hallway.
Photo by Jim Laurie.
Strohmeyer sits stone-faced as he listens to District Judge Joseph Bonaventure refuse his request for a trial in the May 1997 slaying of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson. Strohmeyer, 21, is represented by attorneys Robert Preuss and Camille Abate.
Photo by Jim Laurie.
District Judge Joseph Bonaventure admonishes one of Jeremy Strohmeyer's attorneys during Wednesday's evidentiary hearing.
Photo by Jim Laurie.
Jeremy Strohmeyer's attorney Camille Abate hugs her client's mother, Winifred Strohmeyer, on Wednesday following a two-day evidentiary hearing. At left is Strohmeyer's father, John.
Photo by Jim Laurie.
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