Iverson to testify at Strohmeyer hearing

Bill Gang

Friday, Feb. 4, 2000 | 11:15 a.m.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure has changed his mind and agreed to let LeRoy Iverson testify next week at a hearing that could result in Jeremy Strohmeyer withdrawing his guilty plea in the killing of a 7-year-old girl.

Strohmeyer's new lawyers also want to call the admitted killer's high-profile Los Angeles attorney, Leslie Abramson, to testify about what she told the defendant that led to his decision to plead guilty in September 1998.

In that plea, Strohmeyer admitted he strangled 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson to death in a women's restroom at a Primm casino in 1997. He also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the Los Angeles girl.

The deal called for Strohmeyer to serve a life prison term with no chance for parole, but he now says he was coerced into the negotiated end to the case by Abramson and Las Vegas attorney Richard Wright.

Strohmeyer's lawyers also say he should be allowed the chance to stand trial because of new evidence that points to the defendant's buddy at Primm, David Cash Jr., as the actual killer.

That new evidence came from LeRoy Iverson, who said he recalls bumping into Cash outside the restroom just moments before his daughter's body was found propped on a toilet seat.

District Attorney Stewart Bell has argued that surveillance videotapes at the resort 45 miles south of Las Vegas show Cash and Strohmeyer were gone from the area at least 45 minutes before Iverson showed up.

Bell had persuaded the judge not to hear testimony from Iverson, but defense attorneys filed documents arguing that Iverson's story is legally admissible and crucial to Strohmeyer's appeal.

The defense team contends there are unanswered questions of whether Iverson ever told police he saw Cash outside the restroom and the only way to resolve the matter is to have the victim's father tell his story to a judge.

The issue is important because the defense is entitled to all of the evidence that might have cast doubts on Strohmeyer's guilt. The defense, which was never told of Iverson's claim to having encountered Cash, said the withholding of such information prevented Strohmeyer from making an informed decision on his chances at a trial.

Prosecutors and Metro Police homicide detectives have said in affidavits that they never knew of Iverson's story until it surfaced in the latest court challenge.

While Iverson now has permission to testify, medical problems and his recent release from a hospital may require him to testify through a telephone hook-up rather than in person.

If Bonaventure decides, after hearing testimony from witnesses and arguments from lawyers, that Strohmeyer should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea, it would not mean the 21-year-old defendant would get out of jail.

In fact, it could backfire on Strohmeyer in the end because at a trial prosecutors would be free to again seek the death penalty -- something he avoided through the plea bargain.

Whether Abramson will be one of the witnesses to testify is unclear because she is a California lawyer and a subpoena issued by a Nevada court carries no legal weight in other states. There are legal ways to order Abramson to honor a Nevada subpoena, but it may be difficult to obtain such an order in the time available.

But because Abramson agreed to be bound by Nevada courts when she was permitted to defend Strohmeyer, despite not being a Nevada lawyer, it may be possible for Bonaventure to simply order her back under that agreement.