Suspect in Girl’s Slaying Will Fight Extradition

Jeremy Strohmeyer, the prime suspect in the murder of Sherrice Iverson, has decided to fight extradition to Nevada, police said Friday, adding that they are investigating allegations that the Wilson High School senior had been collecting child pornography from the Internet.

Police also said that a close friend of Strohmeyer who had been considered a witness may now be a candidate for arrest.

Strohmeyer, 18, could face the death penalty on charges of kidnapping, raping and killing the 7-year-old girl at the Primadonna casino at the California-Nevada state line.

A funeral for the girl will be held today at Paradise Baptist Church.

Strohmeyer was transferred Friday afternoon from the Long Beach city jail to the Los Angeles County Jail. An arraignment hearing is expected to be held Monday. Neither he nor his attorney, Douglas Otto, has commented on the case. Prominent defense attorney Leslie Abramson, who defended Erik Menendez in his murder case, said Friday that she may become involved in the case but that no decision has been made.

Strohmeyer’s best friend, David Cash Jr., also 18, who accompanied Strohmeyer on his trip to Nevada casinos over the Memorial Day weekend, may be subject to arrest and is not the only potential witness, the lead police investigator told reporters.

“David Cash and his father have both been told by the Long Beach Police Department and by the Las Vegas Police Department that their future may involve an arrest for him as well--meaning the son,” Sgt. Bill Keeton, a homicide detective from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said during a news conference.

Keeton told reporters that even though Cash had been cooperating with authorities, the Clark County district attorney was looking at the evidence and the filing of charges against Cash was “a definitely viable option.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the district attorney chooses to charge,” Keeton said.

In Las Vegas, Peggy Leen, Clark County deputy district attorney, said her office was “going to evaluate whether there is a basis to charge him with anything . . . if he did anything to aid and abet [the crime].”

“He would be responsible if he did something to cover up” the killing, she said, adding that for now her office continues to classify Cash as a witness.

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In a brief conversation Friday morning with reporters outside his family’s small apartment in La Palma, Cash said he was upset by the news that his best friend was suspected of raping and killing a 7-year-old girl.

“He was like a brother to me,” Cash said as a friend pushed reporters away from the slight teenager with closely cropped blond hair and a small goatee. Then Cash closed the door of his apartment behind him.

Police have said that early Sunday, Strohmeyer and Cash encountered Iverson at the casino’s video arcade. Authorities say the girl’s father had allowed her to play there without supervision while he gambled elsewhere in the complex.

Surveillance camera videos allegedly show Strohmeyer following the little girl into the women’s room and emerging 25 minutes later. Her body was found later in the women’s room, slumped on a toilet. She had been raped and strangled, police say.

Cash, according to police, can be seen in the same videotapes standing around outside the women’s room. When he was interrogated earlier this week, police say, Cash told them he had looked into the restroom at one point and had seen Strohmeyer struggling with the little girl, then had hastily left. He and his father later accompanied Strohmeyer to Las Vegas and then back to their homes in the Long Beach area.

Keeton also said that police had received a number of reports from Strohmeyer’s classmates about his collecting pornography and that officials had confiscated a computer from his house.

Asked if Strohmeyer was interested in child pornography--an allegation made by classmates--Keeton said: “A large number of the young people that we interviewed that went to school and befriended this young man have told us he was interested in pornography and was getting a lot of information from the Internet.”

Police had not yet been able to substantiate the reports that pornography had been taken off the Internet, he added.

“We’ve taken no evidence whatsoever from his residence or anyone else to support the fact that any of it had been printed out off the Internet,” Keeton said.

He refused to discuss other evidence taken from Strohmeyer’s home, although he said “certain items” taken from Strohmeyer’s home link the suspect to the crime scene.

“I personally have no doubt that this is our suspect,” Keeton told reporters. “This is the individual that took that young lady’s life at the Primadonna Hotel.”

At the high school, which draws students from some of Long Beach’s wealthiest neighborhoods, the murder of Sherrice Iverson and the arrest of Strohmeyer cast a pall over prom night.

The chief topic of conversation for many, including students and teachers, was Strohmeyer and Cash.

Periodically throughout the day Thursday, school administrators interrupted classes, handing out bulletins and announcements about the arrest.

“Our teachers are telling us not to assume anything, that he’s innocent until proven guilty,” said one student who asked not to be identified.

On Friday, teachers and administrators offered crisis counseling to students alarmed about the slaying and subsequent arrest of their schoolmate.

Some students who said they knew Strohmeyer said he had undergone a change over the last six months. Once known as a good student and hard-working member of the volleyball team, he had, the students said, quit the team and begun drinking heavily at parties and had become known for erratic behavior.

“He changed a lot the last six months,” said Brad Ball. “He became a totally different person.”

Another friend of Strohmeyer offered a contrasting view. Dustin Infante dismissed criticisms that Strohmeyer got out of hand when he drank.

“He’s totally mellow,” said Infante, a high school junior.

According to Infante, Strohmeyer had been kicked out of the family house this spring for two weeks during which he shared rent at a house near school with another student. He subsequently returned home.

Strohmeyer, he added, had confided hopes of becoming a professional pilot, and told classmates that he already knew how to fly a plane. His father, John, is a pilot and real estate investor, and his mother, Winifred, is a corporate executive, according to neighbors.

A woman who answered the phone at Strohmeyer’s house declined to discuss the case.

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Cash remained at his family’s apartment much of the day. Early Friday he arrived at the house with a freshly pressed tuxedo and dress shirt over his arm and told reporters he was determined to go to the senior prom that evening, despite a warning from Wilson school officials not to attend.

“If they want to stop me, you know, they can try,” said Cash, stepping out of his red Mustang.

“I want to be remembered as a good student and as a good person, so I just want to see my friends tonight,” Cash said.

Officials at Long Beach Unified School District said Cash would not be permitted at the prom at the Long Beach Hilton, and has been told in writing not to return for the last few days of classes or for his graduation ceremony. District spokesman Richard Van Der Laan said the school will credit Cash for his course work and mail him his diploma.

“[Cash’s] presence in class or in school activities would be highly disruptive and would jeopardize his safety or the safety of others,” Van Der Laan said.

Late in the day, Cash left the apartment again in the company of a friend and said he had decided not to attend the prom after all.

Times staff writers Greg Krikorian, Esther Schrader and Lily Dizon contributed to this story.