Jury Selection Begins in Strohmeyer Casino Murder Case

Racial attitudes and the death penalty were examined Monday as potential jurors were questioned in the trial of Long Beach teenager Jeremy Strohmeyer, who is accused of sexually assaulting and strangling a girl in a casino restroom.

Strohmeyer, 19, is accused of killing 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson at a Primm, Nev., resort where she was playing in the casino’s arcade area as her father gambled in the hours before dawn.

The May 1997 slaying sparked concerns over the security of children in Nevada’s casinos. And it prompted protests over a decision to not prosecute a friend of Strohmeyer who allegedly saw the assault in progress but did nothing to stop it.

Twelve jurors and six alternates are to be chosen from a pool of 400 people. Jury selection is expected to take a week or more.

Prospective jurors were questioned extensively about pretrial publicity and whether any had been victims of violent crimes. They also were asked questions stemming from the fact that the defendant is white and the victim was black.

The first prospective juror said that race is “the first thing that comes to mind when there is one black and one white involved.”

Defense attorney Leslie Abramson asked the man if he would have some concern going back to his friends if he acquitted a person who had been accused of a racial killing. The man said that would be a problem.

The prospective juror was asked if he had watched any other high-profile trials and he said he had seen the O.J. Simpson trial. He said race was an issue in that trial.

The potential juror, who was questioned for nearly an hour, said he would hesitate to impose the death penalty because “there is no redemption in that.”

A former Marine said he believed in the death penalty in certain circumstances, and a retiree said imposing the death penalty would be “difficult, even more so for a young person.”

A schoolteacher said the death penalty would be “an extremely difficult decision to make,” but said she could impose it if it was warranted.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Strohmeyer could face the death penalty, life in prison with or without parole, or a 50-year sentence. The jury would be called upon to impose the sentence.

Strohmeyer stood attentively as he was introduced to the 50 initial jury panelists. During questioning, he took notes on a yellow pad.

The case has attracted wide publicity, in part because Strohmeyer’s friend David Cash Jr. has said he saw Strohmeyer begin to assault the girl but did not intervene, and did not tell authorities later when Strohmeyer allegedly told him that he killed her.