Strohmeyer Admitted to Child Sex Fantasy, Prosecutor Says

Thirty hours before he allegedly molested and strangled a young girl in a casino restroom, Jeremy Strohmeyer was confiding to Internet pals that he fantasized about sex with 5- and 6-year-old children all the time, a prosecutor said Thursday.

“You don’t need an expert to tell you what that means,” Clark County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Peggy Leen told District Judge Myron Leavitt during a motions hearing.

She argued against a defense request for $3,000 that defense attorney Leslie Abramson said was needed to hire an expert witness to combat prosecution claims that Strohmeyer is a pedophile.

Opening statements in Strohmeyer’s murder trial are scheduled Tuesday. A jury was seated Wednesday. The seven men and five women, along with six alternates, will be sequestered for the trial.

Prosecutors say Strohmeyer, a 19-year-old Long Beach student, killed Sherrice Iverson, 7, in a Primm casino on May 25, 1997, “to experience death.”

Leen said Strohmeyer wrote to an Internet chat room, saying, “I fantasize about having sex with 5- and 6-year-old girls all the time.”

“You can’t prove it was my client,” Abramson countered.

Prosecutors plan to call an FBI expert on pornography as a rebuttal witness because “there is a person on the defense [witness] list who purports to be an expert in child pornography,” Leen said.

Prosecutors reportedly found hundreds of pornographic pictures on Strohmeyer’s computer, although the defense says the pictures were sent to him unsolicited.

“Looking at pictures does not produce pedophilia or child molesters,” Abramson said.

Leavitt reminded the attorneys that he had already ruled that evidence on the computer can be introduced by the prosecution in rebuttal only.

The judge gave the defense the $3,000 it requested, boosting the amount of public money spent on defense expert witnesses to $50,000. The judge said he was capping the witness fund at $50,000.

The Los Angeles victim was left with her older brother in the arcade of the Primm Valley casino while her father gambled.

Strohmeyer allegedly began playing hide-and-seek with her, ending the game when he followed her into a women’s restroom.

David Cash Jr., a friend of Strohmeyer, told investigators he entered the restroom and found Strohmeyer holding the child in a stall, muffling her screams.

Cash said he told Strohmeyer to let the girl go and left the restroom. When the teenagers met up a short time later, Strohmeyer told Cash he had killed the girl, authorities say.

Cash has been targeted by Sherrice’s mother and supporters who condemn him for failing to prevent the killing or call authorities.

There is no law in Nevada requiring someone to act to prevent a crime. But Sherrice’s death has prompted activists to seek such a law on both the state and federal level.

Cash is expected to be a key witness against Strohmeyer.

A detailed report on Jeremy Strohmeyer and the death of Sherrice Iverson is on The Times’ Web site. Go to: https://www.latimes.com/jeremy