Strohmeyer prepares for formal sentencing

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1998 | 10:54 a.m.

Jeremy Strohmeyer spent Sunday, his 20th birthday, in his cell at the Clark County Detention Center, knowing that Wednesday he will be sentenced formally for the sexual assault and murder of Los Angeles second-grader Sherrice Iverson.

Iverson would have turned 9 on Oct. 20.

For his crime, Strohmeyer will be shipped off within a matter of days to a state prison where he will spend the rest of his life with no hope of parole.

Therefore, his sentencing hearing at 9 a.m. could be his last public appearance --- other than media interviews -- and defense attorney Richard Wright said he expects Strohmeyer to make a statement even though it can have no affect on his fate.

Also expected to speak in Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt's courtroom are the girl's parents, Yolanda Manuel and Leroy Iverson, and her teenage brother, Harold Iverson. Under Nevada law, the families of crime victims are permitted to give what are called "victim-impact statements" to a sentencing judge. Such statements detail how their lives have been affected by a crime.

In a deal to avoid the possibility of the death penalty, Strohmeyer pleaded guilty on Sept. 8 to murder, sexual assault and kidnapping, just before opening statements were scheduled to begin in his much-anticipated trial.

He admitted following Sherrice Iverson into the women's restroom at the Primm Valley hotel-casino on May 25, 1997, and strangling her after sexually assaulting her. His Los Angeles attorney, Leslie Abramson, said he still had little recollection of the sexual attack.

Strohmeyer's guilty plea was not much of an issue because he had given three confessions to police and made similar admissions to friends and family.

District Attorney Stewart Bell said at the time of the plea bargain that the victim's family supported the deal and that "we can look the public in the eye and say (Strohmeyer) will never hurt another person again."

He noted that there was no guarantee the jury would have given Strohmeyer the death sentence and that a negotiated end to the case saves taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in trial and appeals costs.

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