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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Teenager Arrested In Girl’s Rape, Murder Male Following 7-Year-Old Into Restroom Filmed By Casino’s Surveillance Cameras

Associated Press

On the road to Las Vegas, right after the last hill in California, three casinos straddle Interstate 15, beckoning eager gamblers with bright lights, $1 hot dogs and a roller coaster and log ride for kids.

The come-ons worked so well over the Memorial Day weekend that the arcade at the Primadonna hotel was kept open late.

It was here that 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson came to play. And it was here that she died, raped and strangled in a restroom stall.

Casino surveillance tapes showed her killer may have played hide-and-seek with little Sherrice before following her into the restroom. Some 300 video surveillance cameras monitor the three resorts. In the 25 minutes he was in with the girl, several women used the restroom and didn’t report seeing or hearing anything.

Late Wednesday night, police arrested a Long Beach, Calif., high school student after two teenage girls told their parents he had bragged to them about the killing. Police said 18-year-old Jeremy Joseph Strohmeyer was the man seen on surveillance cameras Sherrice into the women’s restroom.

“We don’t have any doubt it’s him,” said Las Vegas Police Lt. Wayne Petersen, who said Strohmeyer was cooperating with police.

Petersen said Strohmeyer took a number of pills when police arrived to question him, calling it a “half-hearted suicide attempt.”

Classmates at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach - where he was two weeks shy of graduation - described Strohmeyer as smart but profoundly troubled and said he routinely mixed alcohol with speed.

His parents kicked him out of the house, and former girlfriend Jennifer Ainley, 17, said he could get abusive.

“He was pretty nice until he didn’t get his way. He’d get violent. He hit me hard,” she said. “Once, in the car, he just started beating me up,” Ainley said. “He was just partying too much.”

Over the weekend, Leroy Iverson arrived at the Primadonna on what he said was supposed to be a family vacation for Sherrice and her 14-year-old brother. After driving from their south Los Angeles home, however, the family had no room at the hotel, and the father simply gambled the night away in the hotel’s casino.

While Iverson gambled, Sherrice and her brother played in the arcade. Twice, security guards found her alone and called her father. A third time they found her sleeping on a chair in the arcade, only an hour or so before she was killed.

Each time, Primadonna chief operating officer Chris Gibase said, the father was told to take his children and leave.

“He said, ‘OK, I’m going,”’ Gibase said. “I don’t know what more we could have done.”

Iverson, though, told a different story.

“They’re responsible for my daughter’s killing,” he said. “They advertise for children. You go down there thinking your children will be safe. You can’t watch your children 24 hours a day.”

The three roadside casinos, all owned by Primadonna Resorts Inc., have nearly 3,000 rooms combined and were built on business drawn off the main interstate linking Southern California and Las Vegas. What was once a small bar and gas station is now a major attraction with one of the tallest roller coasters in America and a new $27 million golf course.

Police said Strohmeyer and a friend were on their way to Las Vegas when they stopped at the same casino where Iverson had brought his family. With a fake ID, Strohmeyer had a few drinks before going into the arcade, now teeming with both kids and adults. Normally closed at midnight, the arcade was open late because of the busy weekend.

At 3:48 a.m. Sunday, the surveillance videotape showed Sherrice darting into a women’s bathroom. In a few moments, she was followed by a man who was seen on the tape leaving the restroom 25 minutes later.

Another 45 minutes went by before the father asked security guards to find his daughter. Upon discovering her body, casino employees frantically summoned her father.

Later, Gibase said, the father asked for compensation from the casino for his daughter’s death.

“He said he wouldn’t sue anybody if they would give him $100 to gamble with, free beer, fly his girlfriend in from out of town, and he wanted money for the arcade for the 14-year-old boy,” he said. “His cavalier attitude was so shocking, everyone was stunned.”

Iverson denied making the comments. “I didn’t ask for anything from those people,” he said.

His attorney, Eddie Harris, said his client was “a conscientious parent” who rarely let the girl out of his sight.

Strohmeyer and his friend, meanwhile, left the casino and drove on to Las Vegas, where they spent Sunday night in a cheap downtown motel.

The next morning, they returned to Southern California, not knowing that surveillance cameras had captured images of a young man following the girl. A witness told police the suspect had nipple rings and a stud in his tongue.

On Thursday, a hastily built wall blocked off the restroom where Sherrice was killed. No one played in the arcade.