Death penalty still possible for teen accused of killing 7-year-old

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 1997 | 9:34 a.m.

Despite aggressive efforts by one of his defense attorneys, the death penalty still looms over the teenager accused of killing 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson at a Primm casino.

The attorney, Richard Wright, argued that District Attorney Stewart Bell violated a gag order when he announced his intent to seek the death penalty against 18-year-old Jeremy Strohmeyer, who is charged with raping and murdering the girl in a women's restroom at the Primm Valley hotel-casino.

District Judge Don Chairez ruled Monday, however, that Bell's statements did not violate the gag order. The ruling nullifies Wright's argument that because of Bell's statements the death penalty should not be sought if a jury convicts the Long Beach, Calif., teenager of first-degree murder.

Wright had called Bell's Aug. 7 statements a "blatant, intentional violation" of the order prohibiting any public comments on the evidence or merits of the case.

Bell snapped that Wright's move was "the most frivolous motion I've ever seen."

He counter-charged that defense attorneys are actually the ones generating publicity that they will later use to seek postponement of the April 20 trial date.

Wright responded that prosecutors want him to sit quietly by while they "lynch my client."

Chairez concluded that Bell's statements were "more comment on procedure rather than substance."

The gag order, originally handed down by Goodsprings Justice of the Peace Jan Smith and extended for a few days by Chairez, permitted comment on the procedural and scheduling aspects of the case but not on the evidence.

The order, however, has been lifted and court documents unsealed, with the exception of Strohmeyer's alleged confession to Metro Police homicide detectives. Strohmeyer's attorneys have said they will challenge the admissibility of the statement the teenager allegedly made without having an attorney present.

Wright predicted that because of Bell's statements and other publicity, "We're going to have a problem (in the jury selection process) rooting out the insidious infection" and getting an impartial jury.

Wright contended that the filing of the notice to seek the death penalty was an "orchestrated ... media opportunity that allowed prosecutors to respond to the media" with an explanation of how the decision was reached.

Bell told how a committee of veteran prosecutors weighs the facts in a case and makes a determination if the killer deserves the death sentence and the likelihood of a jury actually handing down the punishment.

Bell said a general explanation of his office's practices "wasn't a violation of the order because we didn't tell what we discussed in the committee."

Strohmeyer has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he raped and murdered Sherrice Iverson in the early-morning hours of May 25 at the Primm Valley off Interstate 15 at the California-Nevada border.

A security videotape showing a body-pierced attacker was broadcast on Los Angeles television stations and led to Strohmeyer's arrest at his parents' Long Beach home just days later.

The father of the victim had stopped at the Primm casino to gamble while she and her 14-year-old brother played video games.