Strohmeyer’s plea saves $1 million in trial costs

Bill Gang

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 1998 | 10:48 a.m.

The plea bargain that abruptly ended the Jeremy Strohmeyer murder trial has saved taxpayers perhaps $1 million, including what was estimated to be $20,000 a day in extra court costs, according to county officials.

Strohmeyer, 19, pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual-assault charges in the rape and strangulation of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in a Primm casino restroom on May 25, 1997.

The adopted son of a well-to-do Long Beach, Calif., family agreed to a sentence of four consecutive terms of life in prison, three of which are without the possibility of parole. In exchange, prosecutors dropped their bid for the death penalty.

"We can't help but have a sense of relief with the case being over and justice being served," District Court Administrator Chuck Short said. "We think this is a day taxpayers should be proud of the court system."

At the same time, Short said people should be "mindful of the tragic loss, and that we can't replace that loss ever again."

Clark County spokesman Tom Warden said the extraordinary costs from the Strohmeyer case included overtime for court staff, corrections officers from the jail and bailiffs who supervise the courtroom and secure the rest of the building.

The last-minute plea bargain has drawn generally supportive comments from local defense attorneys.

Robert Langford, who left the district attorney's office recently to go into private practice as a defense attorney, said the negotiated end to the case "benefits everyone, even though there are those in the public who may not like it.

"The plea bargain provides closure to the case, which is the most important thing for the families involved and the people of the state."

Langford predicted that without the plea bargain, "this case was going to drag on for a month and be revisited at the Nevada Supreme Court on appeal, especially if there were a death sentence. Everybody did the right thing."

He continued that had the case been in a California courtroom, it would have taken two months to pick a jury and two to three months for a trial.

Longtime defense attorney Steve Wolfson said the plea bargain "is a victory for the defense since it saved their client from the death penalty."

At the same time, he said the prosecution received through the plea bargain what may well have been the verdict at a trial.

"I think justice was served both ways," Wolfson said.

But one defense attorney, who asked not to be named, said, "I don't know why either side dealt it.

"There was no way the kid would have done worse," the lawyer said, noting that because of Strohmeyer's looks and background, it was unlikely a jury would have handed down the death penalty.

"And even if he got death, it's better than what he got," he continued.

He chastised the prosecution for agreeing to the deal without an agreement that Strohmeyer provide evidence against David Cash Jr., his friend who accompanied him to the Primm hotel-casino. Cash, who has never been charged in connection with the crime, has been criticized for failing to stop the killing or report it to authorities.

Strohmeyer's defense attorney, Leslie Abramson of Los Angeles, said at a news conference Tuesday that Cash was not just a witness to the slaying "but a co-perpetrator."

Perhaps those who benefited most from the plea bargain were the 12 jurors and six alternate jurors who now won't have to be sequestered in a hotel when not in court, isolated from their families, friends and jobs.

The 18 were brought in Monday afternoon by the judge to begin their service and spent the night at the Texas Station hotel-casino before Tuesday's scheduled opening statements in the murder trial.

With the plea bargain, their appearance in court became unnecessary.