Tiny court to be site of big case

Cathy Scott

Wednesday, June 4, 1997 | 10:33 a.m.

JEAN -- If Jeremy Strohmeyer appears in Goodsprings Township Justice Court for his arraignment on charges of raping and killing 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson at a Primm resort, officials at the tiny courthouse say they're prepared for the media onslaught.

Posted daily on the women's restroom door, just next to the postage-stamp sized waiting area, is a docket of that day's cases, most of which are DUI charges, speeding or other moving violations such as driving a commercial truck without a license.

The case against Strohmeyer will be the biggest the court has heard. A court clerk said Tuesday the biggest case previously involved a drunken driver who had slammed into a car on Interstate 15, killing an entire family.

The clerk said extra security officers will be on hand for Strohmeyer's arraignment. It could take up to 90 days to extradite him from California.

Once Strohmeyer is extradited for his first court appearance, cameras won't be allowed in the single courtroom across the highway from the Nevada Landing hotel-casino and inside a portable building in which Justice of the Peace Jan Smith presides.

Strohmeyer, arrested a week ago at his Long Beach home where he lived with his parents, will be charged with murder, first-degree kidnapping and four counts of sexual assault with substantial bodily harm, according to a criminal complaint filed with the Goodsprings court.

The complaint contends the Memorial Day weekend killing was "deliberate and premeditated."

In Long Beach on Tuesday, Strohmeyer's lawyer, Leslie Abramson, asked for a gag order and a ban on TV coverage of the extradition hearing, saying death threats have been made against Strohmeyer.

"I don't see the need to expose any of us to danger ... just so the media can have more pictures," Abramson told Judge Michael Kellogg.

Kellogg ordered the media not to photograph any parties in the case until he rules on that request.

Richard Wright has been retained to defend Strohmeyer in Las Vegas. Abramson could continue to defend Strohmeyer with Wright's law firm if a judge were to approve it.

Abramson also sought a gag order preventing anyone connected to the case from talking to the media.

Iverson's body was found May 25 in a women's restroom at the Primm Valley hotel-casino, formerly called Primmadonna, on the Nevada-California state line 43 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

Strohmeyer was seen on surveillance videotape in the arcade playing with Iverson before she was found murdered.

In an affidavit filed with the Goodsprings Justice Court, Strohmeyer told detectives he had been playing hide-and-seek with the girl and that they were throwing spitballs at each other. While they were playing, according to the affidavit, the girl threw a "Caution Wet Floor" sign at Strohmeyer and hit him with it.

Strohmeyer said that angered him, so he followed her into the women's restroom. The child was sexually assaulted and murdered in the restroom's handicapped stall.

Police say Strohmeyer's friend David Cash, who had also been playing hide-and-seek with Strohmeyer and the girl, went into the restroom and saw Strohmeyer struggling with Sherrice but left without stopping the assault. In an interview with detectives, Cash said he had asked Strohmeyer what happened in the restroom that Strohmeyer had told him that he had "killed the girl."

Cash has not been charged with a crime.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.