Petition drive seeks charges against alleged killer’s friend

Saturday, Aug. 22, 1998 | 10:33 a.m.

The petition drive obtained more than twice the signatures expected, Najee Ali said Friday.

"With this particular crime, everyone is outraged," said the Muslim clergyman, who led the effort on behalf of Yolanda Manuel, mother of victim Sherrice Iverson.

Ms. Iverson has called for Nevada authorities to charge David Cash Jr., 20, of La Palma as an accessory to the May 1997 sexual assault and murder of her daughter.

Jeremy Strohmeyer of Long Beach has pleaded innocent in the slaying and is scheduled to go to trial in Las Vegas at the end of the month.

Cash, a friend of Strohmeyer's, has said he walked away as Strohmeyer began to attack the girl, and kept quiet after Strohmeyer allegedly confessed to Cash that he had killed her.

In interviews, Cash has said he hasn't lost any sleep over the killing in a bathroom at the Primm, Nev., casino, 40 miles outside Las Vegas. If anything, the University of California, Berkeley, student said, the notoriety has helped him get dates.

Prosecutors have said there isn't enough evidence to charge Cash in connection with the slaying.

Nevada also has no law under which to punish people for failing to report a crime.

Ali and other organizers said they have started a second petition drive to urge Nevada lawmakers to adopt such a "good Samaritan" law.