Going West: True Crime - Sherrice Iverson // 75

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

In 1997, a 7-year-old girl drove to Nevada with her father and step-brother for a Memorial Day Weekend trip to a casino. When she was left in the casino's arcade without adult supervision in the early morning hours, a predator found his way to her instead. This is the murder of Sherrice Iverson. BONUS EPISODES: https://www.patreon.com/goingwestpodcast MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/goingwestpodcast SPONSORS: Get 20% off your Lumi CBD order by visiting https://www.lumicbd.com and using promo code "goingwest20" at checkout! CASE SOURCES: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-05-28-mn-63101-story.html https://lasvegassun.com/news/1997/may/28/brother-feels-responsible-for-death/ https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/24/us/mother-rages-against-indifference.html https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-sep-18-me-23920-story.html https://people.com/archive/scot-free-vol-50-no-11/ https://www.thedp.com/article/1998/09/uc_student_who_failed_to_stop_murder_faces_expulsion_calls https://lasvegassun.com/news/1997/may/29/police-arrest-18-year-old-man-in-connection-with-g/ https://www.salon.com/1998/08/28/28hot_2/ https://www.thecriminaljournal.com/murder-of-sherrice-iverson-by-jeremy-strohmeyer-7-year-old-girl-was-found-dead-inside-a-restroom-stall-at-a-casino/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your other host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Today's episode is about the murder of a child, but we're going to do our best to keep the really graphic details out since child cases are always a lot harder to hear, but we felt it was really important that her story be told since it doesn't appear to be very well known within the true crime community. Just a quick announcement for you guys out there that are loving our show, if you guys want some bonus episodes, we have a bunch of them available on our Patreon account and that's patreon.com slash going west podcast,

head over there and subscribe. And you can find the link for our Patreon below in the episode description. That's where we also have information about our sponsors and all of our case sources. And last week, we released a crazy bonus episode about a woman who was supposedly killed after a metal pipe struck her windshield of her car.

And the investigation was super intense and there was a lot of red flags and it's such a crazy case. It was really interesting to dive into. And that is the murder of Barbara Ken Tamer. So go ahead and join if you're looking for more episodes. Yeah, very, very twisty case. All right, guys, this is episode 75 of going west.

So let's get into it. In 1997, a seven-year-old girl drove to Nevada with her father and stepbrother for a memorial day weekend trip to a casino. When she was left in the casino's arcade without adult supervision, a predator came in contact with her. This is the murder of Sheree's Iverson was born on October 20, 1989 in Los Angeles, California to parents Yolanda Minwell and Lee Roy Iverson. Sherees was raised in South Central Los Angeles Angeles and according to her mom Yolanda, had dreams of either becoming a police woman, a dancer, or a nurse. Yolanda knew from a very early age that Sharice was special and that she would go on to be a very intelligent and well-rounded woman

someday because of her ability to tie her shoes and read at a very early age. So Cherice really always made her parents proud, and even her teachers later stated that she was a great student as well as a very sweet girl. In 1997, Cherice was in second grade at 75th Street Elementary School, which was close to her South Central apartment where she lived. She lived with her 27-year-old mother Yalanda, who worked in the cafeteria at a local elementary school. Her 57-year-old father, Leroy Iverson, who was a retired tour bus driver and was living

off disability, and her half-brother Harold, who at this time was 14 years old. On Memorial Day weekend of 1997, Leroy Iverson wanted to head to the Las Vegas area to Gamble, which was kind of their Memorial Day weekend tradition because Leroy really liked to Gamble. He was basically an avid gambler. Sherees' school was a year round school, so they didn't have a long summer vacation like most public schools in the United States have. She had been on break since May 9th and was scheduled to return back to school on July

1st, but since she was on break, she and her 14-year-old brother Harold tagged along with Lee Roy for the 4-hour drive to Nevada in their 91 white Dodge van. Lee Roy didn't really trust his kids to be watched by a babysitter, so he wanted them to come with him. On the early morning of Sunday, May 25, 1997, around midnight, the three of them arrived at the Prima Donna Resort and Casino in Prim, Nevada, which is right on the California and Nevada border and about 45 minutes away from Las Vegas. Leroy didn't have money for a room so his plan was to drive there,

gamble as long as he could afford to, and then head back home. At the pre-Madonna Casino, there was a whole floor dedicated to an arcade so that kids could play while their parents gambled since kids are not allowed on the casino floor. So the plan that early morning was to have her stepbrother Harold look after her while they both played games. And Lee Roy just kind of gave them a few dollars so that they can play the different arcade games and kind of hold them over for a few hours. Yeah, my parents actually used to do that with me and my sister.

We would get to go to the arcade and they would give us like five bucks, go get some quarters, play any arcade while they were out on the floor gambling. The hub, that's exactly what he did. But obviously since we're talking about a seven-year-old here, she was excitedly running all around, so it was kind of hard for her teenage brother to watch after her, and he himself was also playing games, so he was just kind of distracted doing his own thing, which is totally fair. But Harold also later stated that their father, Leroy, would check in on them every 20 minutes or so. A few times throughout that morning, he got caught up in the slot machines, so Sherees

had to be escorted to her father by security guards on three separate occasions throughout that morning. During these three instances, the security guards warned him that he needed to watch after his child, but he continued to gamble and would periodically check in. Since kids are not allowed on the casino floor, they were kind of like, you know, if your kids are going to run amok and keep coming over here where she's not allowed to be, you have to leave kind of thing. And so he just told her to behave and go back to the arcade and be with her brother. I mean, and they got there at midnight. So he was starting gambling at midnight. And since he

didn't have a room, the kids had to be up and awake in the arcade. So it was the middle of the night and they were playing in the arcade. So Leroyoy wasn't in very good health, and he had terrible asthma, he had emphysema, and very high blood pressure. So, he got really mad at Harold for not watching his sister Sharise for him, since he himself wasn't able to run around after her. Leroy was usually very protective of Sharise back at home, and wouldn't even let her play outside their apartment

building because he felt it was too dangerous. But with all the security guards at the casino, he didn't really feel nervous about letting Sheree's run around, which is probably how your parents felt to Heath. Yeah, definitely. And to be fair, me and my sister were both teens at this point, so it wasn't really a big issue. It's Shereees is seven years old.

Yes, definitely seven years old is too young to be unattended like that. So he was just hoping that Harold would watch her so he didn't have to keep hearing from security. Sherees' mom Yolanda didn't come on this trip because she and Leroy weren't in a good place in their relationship at this time. A couple weeks prior to this weekend, they got in a huge fight which resulted in Yolanda

moving in with her sister, but they didn't have a good relationship from the start. And their story is actually pretty insane. They actually met when Yolanda was just 15 years old and in high school, and Li Roy was 45 years old, and he had a newborn baby son who was herald. And this was in the 1980s so still very much not okay for a 45 year old to pursue a 15 year old. A year later she was living with him and she was pregnant with his baby who was born in 1986.

And this is really predatory because she was 15 years old and then became pregnant at 16 and he was 46. And Heath and I were actually just watching the documentary on Netflix about Jeffrey Epstein while we were doing this research. And I feel like this detail in this case is just kind of set aside. And I was really shocked by this. Yeah, it's kind of one of those things that like you're researching the case and then all the sudden you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa What? This guy is 45 and she was fucking 15 and this is sure these are sure is parents So it's obviously this case is about Sharice, but I didn't see anybody really talking about her parents relationship and how

Predatory it was so you know on his part against Yolanda, so it's just really weird to me. Yeah, and I'm not blaming Yolanda or anybody else, but I do blame Leroy. I mean, he's 45. You should know better. It's gross. It's gross. So after Yolanda had given birth to this baby in 1986, the baby had died of sudden infant death syndrome when he was about a year and a half old. So Yolanda and Leroy eventually tried for another baby and when Yolanda was about 19 or 20, she became pregnant with Sherees. And after this, their relationship pretty much went downhill from there because they were just two completely different people at very different stages in their

life. From pretty much the moment that Sherees was born, Yolanda and Leroy slept in different rooms and they fought basically all the time. Back to Memorial Day weekend, around 3.30 a.m., Shreece came in contact with a young man named Jeremy Strowmeyer. Jeremy was born on October 11, 1978 in Long Beach, California, where he was also raised, and he was put into the foster system as a baby, but at the age of two, he was adopted by Winnie and John Strowmeyer. Little did they know at the time? Jermy's family had a history of mental health issues and major behavioral problems. His biological father was addicted to drugs and spent much of his adult life in prison and his biological mother was schizophrenic and spent many of her years in a state hospital because of this. But at the time of his adoption,

Winnie and John Strohmeyer just saw this beautiful blue-eyed baby and knew they wanted to take him home. And the adoption facility actually didn't release this information to them regarding the history of mental health issues. So they were none the wiser regarding that. During high school, Jeremy left for a year and moved to Singapore with his family since his mom had gotten a job there

with a computer company. So when he returned back to Long Beach, California in 11th grade, he entered Woodrow Wilson High School, where he was a great student and even took some advanced academic classes. His main goal was to attend a military academy after high school, which he was on track to do, and then potentially become a pilot. Jeremy also came from a pretty wealthy family. I mean the kind of family that had like a maid. They took a ton of vacations, and as Jeremy went through school, many of his teachers thought that he was a great kid, and his parents considered him to be a very kind and funny person. Someone who

would make something big out of themselves career-wise someday. But once they returned from Singapore and Jeremy started 11th grade, he seemed to have become a pretty different person. Although he still did well in school, he kept a lot of secrets, including his deep interest in child pornography and his collection of said pornography. He even had interests of dressing his girlfriend up to look like a much younger school girl. And Singapore, his interest in younger girls, really heightened.

And he later bragged to one of his friends that young girls in Singapore would do just about anything for a pack of cigarettes. During his twelfth and senior year of high school, his when Jeremy really began to rebel. And this also included his school life in his grades. He began drinking a lot which eventually resulted in a DUI and neglecting his schoolwork, and he had an incredibly violent temper. After Jeremy's DUI, he had his license suspended, but this also really screwed his chances

of getting into a military academy. This really lowered his motivation for success even more. And soon after, when he turned 18, he just did whatever he wanted all the time. His behavior became incredibly destructive, and one telltale sign was, the night he threw a kitten out of a moving car. Okay, I officially fucking hate this guy. Yeah, if you're gonna hurt animals, I mean that just tells us a lot and we just should have nipped it in the bud at that stage. So he was getting wasted at a

party during his senior year when he grabbed the homeowners kitten and put it in his pocket. When he got in his car to drive home, he sped up and then threw it right out his driver's side window. Also, the password on his computer was KILL, and he watched endless amounts of hardcore pornography, including very, very young children. About a week before Jeremy went to Nevada to go to the casino, he began taking medication, an amphetamine called Dexdrine, for his attention deficit disorder, which is something that his new therapist suggested he start taking. Two days before the trip, Jeremy went into a chat room online and talked to another guy about his interest in children. He was under the username Flyboy1030, but investigators

were later able to determine that this was Jeremy. The other man online asked him if he was into little girls, and Jeremy replied very much so. The man went on to ask how young, and Jeremy responded, I've never had a chance to try anything, but I fantasize all the time. I don't know, probably five or six. These type of people out there are the literal worst type of people. And honestly, we just need to do away with all of them.

It's so sad that this pornography even exists to begin with, but then to go on chatrooms and kind of bond with people who also are sexually attracted to children who are that young is so horrifying to think about the fact that that's a real thing in this world. Yeah, it's it's sickening to think that there's a community of these people supporting each other all with the same goal of abusing young children. So let's talk about that night at the casino. Jeremy was at the Premadonna Casino early that Sunday morning after going on a short trip

with his friend David Cash Jr. and David's dad. Their plan was to stop at the Premadonna Casino before heading to Las Vegas. This was just going to be like a little pit stop. But David's dad got caught up in gambling there. And while he played poker, Jeremy and David decided to walk around the casino and just kind of cost trouble. And by trouble, I mean, they peed on a couple games and then a wall socket. So dumb. And then they laughed about it. So they're those guys. Both of them were 18 years old and finishing up their high school

careers at Woodrow Wilson High School and Long Beach at this time. David Cash actually had plans to go to Berkeley and he was accepted and he was supposed to study nuclear engineering. A nuclear engineering major pissing on casino games. And wall sockets. Interesting. Sounds like a smart guy. So in the early morning, Jeremy was chatting up a 16 year old girl and kind of bragging about being able to drink even though he himself wasn't of the legal drinking age at that point. But he did have a fake ID so he was guzzling down a couple beverages, including beer and a whiskey and coke.

And he really seemed to be trying to impress her because he even pulled up his shirt to show her his nipple piercings and stuck his tongue out to show this rod in his tongue. And she was not into any of this at all. She thought he was weird and creepy. And there's actually security footage of them just going around to people, both of them and showing them all their piercings as if they're like, I think they're really cool. Oh man, that's so cringy.

So cringy, like nobody cares, dude. Nobody thinks you're super cool because you have nipple piercings, bro. So no one was into this, and this girl was just not interested. She was trying to get him away from her, and she gave him a fake phone number and gave him a fake city that she didn't actually live in kind of things.

She was just like, leave me alone. And it was actually while he was talking to this girl that Cherisse Iverson caught Jeremy's eye originally because during the conversation between Jeremy and the 16 year old girl, he was hit by a paper towel snowball. And that made him turn around to see Cherice playing with a boy who was around her age. They were like wading up paper towels that were wet and they were making kind of like

makeshift snowballs and having little snowball fights in the arcade. Kind of like giant spitballs. Exactly. Yes. So at first, it seemed like Jeremy was just being playful with them and throwing the watted towels back. But Jeremy continued to follow Sheree's around the arcade, trying to play with her. So it's kind of fun if you throw it back just once and then carry on with your business, but now you're following a 7 year old girl. The next 10 minutes or so, consisted of them basically playing tag around the arcade,

until Cherisse ran into the lady's bathroom. After Sheree's Iverson ran into the lady's bathroom, Jeremy Strowmeyer followed her inside. Then she graced his body with a wet floor sign that was propped up on the floor as if she was kind of trying to hit him with it, and this made him incredibly mad. He then picked her up and carried her into the largest stall in the bathroom. Jeremy's friend David went into the stall next to it and stood on the toilet so he could see what Jeremy was doing. And David could tell he was being pretty aggressive and threatening to kill her if she didn't shut up.

David apparently tried to stop Jeremy from continuing, but ended up just walking out of the bathroom and going to the courtyard to wait for Jeremy to come back out. And what David means by I tried to stop him. He really didn't intervene. All he did was say, hey Jeremy, Jeremy, come on. And like just kind of like a casual like dude, what you doing kind of thing. He wasn't like, Jeremy, get off her.

He was, it was just really casual. And then he was like, okay, I'll let him carry on what he's doing. And then he walked out. That's seriously how it happened. So once Jeremy began molesting and raping her, Jeremy squeezed her neck to get her to be quiet. And at this point, other women were starting

to enter the restroom. So Jeremy kept his hand over Cheris's mouth. And it's so hard to hear that because it's like, little did these women know if they just kicked the door down they could have stopped it? Not that it's their hard to hear that because it's like little did these women know if they just kicked the door down they could have stopped it. Not that it's their fault, they had no idea, but they were right there and this was happening so quietly behind this locked door. Yeah, that's really, really tragic to know that detail. Exactly. And so once they did leave the restroom, the women, Jeremy removed his hand and Sheree's apparently appeared to be alive but possibly

brain dead because he suffocated her. As if it were a courtesy, Jeremy snapped her neck to ensure she wouldn't spend her life in a vegetative state. And this is what ultimately killed her. While she was nude from the waist down, Jeremy propped her up on the toilet and closed the stall door behind him, leaving 24 minutes after he had entered. And just to let you guys know like we stated earlier, the actual details of this case are very very horrific. We chose to leave them out if you are interested in learning about exactly what he did, that information is online. I do sort all the case sources in the episode notes, but we just chose to leave them out out of respect.

So about 45 minutes after Cherisse was killed, and about an hour and a half after Cherisse and Jeremy Strollmire first came into contact, her father, Leroy, was seen running around the casino screaming Sheree's name because he didn't see her anywhere. Shortly after this, a security guard found Sheree's in the stall and she was dead. Other employees were asked to help secure the area and a couple of them needed intense therapy after seeing her body because the scene was so upsetting. An employee quickly realized that this was the young girl

that Leroy was looking for, and they had to explain to him what they had found. And get ready to get frustrated. So after Jeremy killed Sherees, he told his friend David all about what he had done as if it was cool, and then they walked out of the casino. David then asked him, quote, was the little girl sexually aroused.

Oh, God. That makes me so sick to my stomach. If you're gonna ask that, you're just as bad as committing the actual crime. So at this point, the boys got into David's car and they drove to Las Vegas, again, which was about 45 minutes away, to continue their gambling trip. When they arrived at about 7am, David's dad went inside and left the boys in the car to have a nap, which they did until about noon. And I don't know how he was just able to carry on with his day and take a nap and go to Vegas as if he didn't just do something so unspeakable. Apparently, he's just void of any sort of emotion.

Yeah, just doesn't care at all. Throughout the rest of the day, this was a Sunday, and the following day, which was Monday, Memorial Day, Jeremy and David drank beer and played the cheap slot machines and talked about what exactly Jeremy did to Sherees. And David began to worry that they were going to get in trouble knowing that the casino had security cameras all around. But Jeremy was convinced that no one would find out. There was no actual footage of the molestation and murder occurring, so Jeremy assured David

that they couldn't get caught. Even though there's security cameras everywhere that could you know show them going into the bathroom Which there are that exists He was just had some wishful thinking there right and if you've ever been into a casino Those are not the places that skip on security footage I mean basically they they have footage from every corner of that place. This is not the place to commit a crime. Yeah, that's not the place to commit a murder. Even in 1997, they had a ton of security cameras everywhere. So

that tells you a lot. Well, it tells you how incredibly stupid Jeremy is. That it does. The very next day on Tuesday, May 27, 1997. David decided to skip school and spend the day sleeping in and watching TV since they hadn't gotten home from Nevada until around 4 a.m. And as he was flipping through the channels, he passed by the news channel and he saw video surveillance of he and Jeremy at the Prima-Donna Casino on the TV. The TV newscaster described that the suspects in question of Sheree's Iverson's death were apparently from Long Beach and that they were looking to find out the names of those two young men. And shortly after, two of their classmates reported their identities to the Long Beach Police

Department. And with that, Jeremy Strowmeyer was arrested for first degree murder, first degree kidnapping, and sexual assault of a minor. In an interview with detectives, Jeremy waved his right to have an attorney present. He explained how it all happened. He wasn't even trying to hide it at all. He didn't show any remorse. He was just like, here's what I did and he said It seemed like a dream. I only remember bits and pieces of what happened

What I see is death. I wanted to experience death. I never have. I've never been that close And this is the voice literally of a future serial killer. Oh, yeah, if he was in court, he wouldn't have stopped. He would have kept praying on children. 100%. So when David was interviewed about that night's events, he didn't take any ounce of responsibility for Sheree's death or her sexual assault. Even though he himself stated that when he looked into the stall and saw Jeremy holding her down, he felt a little bit worried that he was going to do something to her. But obviously, if he's the kind of person who doesn't stop something like this from happening,

and he asks his friend a question like, was the little girl sexually aroused, you're a horrible person, you did something very, very morally wrong, and I don't know how he's okay with that. Yeah, without a doubt. And it even gets worse as far as David's morals go, because when investigators asked him if he was shocked to learn his friend had killed someone, his response was, I'm not going to get upset over somebody else's life. I just worry about myself first.

I'm not going to lose sleep over somebody else's life. I just worry about myself first. I'm not going to lose sleep over somebody else's problems. This is something only someone who is severely, severely selfish would say. What do you mean you're not gonna lose sleep over someone else's problems? Do you have no concern for anybody, but yourself, obviously not? And not only that,

but he still considered Jeremy his friend after this whole incident occurred and said, well, he didn't do anything to me. Surveillance footage confirmed that David had only been in the bathroom for about two minutes, whereas Jeremy was in there for about 24 minutes. And this helped confirm that David Cash wasn't present for the sexual assault nor the murder, meaning that he wasn't an accomplice. And Cheris' mom fully believes that he should have been charged alongside Jeremy, since David knew Jeremy was going to do something with Cheris and he didn't stop her.

But it was pointed out that, unfortunately, there is no legal obligation for stopping something from happening or interfering even if it's a crime. So it's more of a moral issue and there's plenty of that when it comes to David Cash. There was also a lot of talk about whether or not Leroy Iversen should hold responsibility for child neglect and a lot of people felt strongly that he should and that he was in part responsible for her death. He had brought his seven-year-old daughter to a casino at midnight and until four in the morning and then failed to watch her. The casino made a statement that sometime after he learned his daughter was dead, he told the casino that he wanted them to do some things for him, and if they

didn't, he was going to sue them. And those things included $100, a hotel room, a plane ticket for Yolanda to come to Nevada and stay an extra night there with him, which I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted to do anyway, because they're not together. Money for Sheree's funeral, and a six-pack of beer. Okay, hold up. We have to talk about this for a second. Your seven-year-old daughter was just murdered in a casino in which you neglected to watch her and you're now asking the casino to give you money and beer? Yeah, and there's a lot of issues with this,

and the casino was so shocked by his lack of emotion, and all of the casino employees were freaking out. They were so horrified by the fact that this happened, and they said that it seemed like their employees cared more than he did. And of course, we all process emotion differently, so I'm not trying to judge him on that. But I think it is really messed up to kind of take advantage of the casino because it's not there, Fall. And say, I'm not going to sue you if you give

me these things. Like, that's really manipulative. Well, and it also just shows where your head's at. Like, you should be more concerned with the fact that your daughter was murdered than the casino doing things for you. Right. And the casino, of course, they don't want to get sued, they don't want to get in trouble, and they feel so terrible about what happened, even though it's not their fault. So I'm sure they would have been willing to kind of do something for him, but the fact

that he came to them and said, you're going to do what I want you to do. They were like, excuse me? Right, he's asking for compensation when they probably would have done that anyways, but the point is, is that this little girl was killed. Yeah, and you're her father. So this really upset a lot of people, and that's why the casino released the statement because they were just shocked at the way that he acted. But after learning that the casino had said all this stuff about him, Leroy sued them for slander. His attorney later made a statement saying that Leroy was a wonderful parent because Sherees

would always go to school with fresh press clothes and neat braids, and he made sure to drop her off and pick her up from school every day, which was apparently not very common for kids at her school and in this area. And ultimately, Leroy was not charged with child neglect by the Las Vegas District Attorney. Sheree's death did cause Yolanda and Leroy to split officially, though, because Yalanda blamed Leroy for Teresa's death. While Jeremy Strowmeyer was behind bars in a waiting trial, David Cash was expelled from high school just before graduation, and he was prohibited from attending both prom and the graduation ceremony.

But since he didn't technically commit any crimes, he still wanted to work to get himself to college and finish high school. And the University of California Berkeley still accepted him. So instead of going straight into college the fall of 1997, he instead went the following year in the fall of 1998. And people protested. Over 200 people waited outside his college in Northern California, holding signs and telling him to go home. They were also passing around petitions to get him expelled

because they didn't think that it was fair that he got off scot-free. Which is so cool that people actually did this. And as we discussed, it doesn't seem he did anything illegal, but he's clearly a very disturbed person. Like I said, to ask if Shereece was aroused by Jeremy, to know that Jeremy was going to do something to her and not intervene, and for him to not think anything bad when Jeremy explained the graphic details to him regarding the sexual assault and murder that he had just committed. And the fact that he said that he was still friends with Jeremy after this incident.

Yeah, for you to say, well, he didn't do anything to me. It's like, if my friend murdered a child, I wouldn't be like, oh well, that didn't happen to me, so we're still good. I'd be like, oh my god, get out of my life. I would be like, yeah, literally, go to hell. Yeah, if you don't think that, it's very questionable. So I think, and hopefully all of us can agree, that he is very much a bad dude and shouldn't just be allowed to continue on with his life going to a prestigious college. But Berkeley released a statement at that time saying that since David

Cash didn't commit a crime, they couldn't rightfully expel him, so they didn't. And the student government, on the other hand, voted to expel him, but this was rejected. And as gross as it is, little side detail, David later stated that all the media attention helped him get girls. That is so wrong. So around this time that people were petitioning to have David Cash expelled from Berkeley, Jeremy's trial was about to begin. His defense attorney was actually the same woman who represented the Menendez brothers

who were convicted for murdering their parents in 1989, and the trial began on September 8, 1998. Although Jeremy had confessed a year and a half earlier when he committed the crimes, in court, he presented that he was drunk and high on drugs and doesn't even remember committing the crime. So he basically recanted his confession, and furthermore suggested that David was the one to murder Sheree's instead. But prosecutors really pointed to all of the proof they had regarding Jeremy's interest in younger girls, including wanting to dress his ex-girlfriend up as a younger schoolgirl,

him talking about being interested in five and six-year-olds in that chat room the year prior, and all the child porn found on his computer. So clearly there was a hefty amount of evidence that would make Jeremy Strohmeier look like a disgusting pedophilic monster which is exactly what he is. So his defense attorney decided not to go to trial but instead to enter a plea bargain. So on the day his trial was supposed to begin, which was September 8, 1998, about a year and three months after Sharice was murdered, Jeremy Strohmeier pleaded guilty to all four charges,

which again were murder in the first degree, kidnapping in the first degree, sexual assault on a minor, and sexual assault on a minor with substantial bodily harm. In 2000, Jeremy filed an appeal which was denied. Thank God. And a year later, a new appeal was denied once again. Thank God. About two and a half years after the murder, Jeremy's adoptive parents, John and Winnie,

filed a million-dollar lawsuit against LA County and the adoption workers who apparently withheld information that would have stopped them from adopting Jeremy, aka information about his mother having schizophrenia and his family having behavioral issues in general. So obviously his parents were very upset about this entire ordeal. But they also stated that they would still support him in the ways that they could since he was still their son. So, you know, they were upset, but they also were like, we love you. But I'm also curious about the way that Jeremy was raised because he learned a lot of

this messed up stuff from somewhere, and I'm not trying to blame his parents or his adoptive parents, but a lot of the time there is an issue with that about the way that a person is raised and their moral ground. Nature and nurture. Because of this case, the Sheree's Iverson Bill was passed in Nevada that states people must report to the police when they have suspicions that a minor is being sexually assaulted or violated. So now the whole issue with David Cash is no longer considered a moral one in the state of Nevada. It's now a legal one. You know, obviously you can't go back in time,

but if it were to happen again, it's now he's doing something illegal. Yeah, and we're very thankful that this is now a law. Exactly, for sure. And as far as Cherisse's family goes, her brother Harold felt a lot of guilt after what happened since he had technically been put in charge of watching her. But at the same time, he was just a kid himself and should have never been given that responsibility. Both Leroy and Yolanda filed wrongful death suits against Jeremy Strowmeyer and they did split it for good after her death, like we mentioned.

In 2009, Jeremy Strowmeyer married a woman named Desiree after meeting through sending letters back and forth years prior. She stated that she isn't delusional or desperate, but that they just are simply in love. And if you love a man who raped and murdered an innocent seven-year-old girl, yeah, I have issues with that. I think that that's strange, and I think that that's sick. Totally agree. And Jeremy Strollmeyer also eventually wrote a letter to the press, addressed two Sherees' family, asking for forgiveness. He said,

I want to ask for their forgiveness, and I want them to know I would give anything to trade places with Sherees. I just want them to know I'm sorry. More sorry than words can ever say. I wish nothing but peace and good lives for them wherein their lives are not defined by this horrible tragedy as mine has been. Prison is an angry, hateful, paranoid place most of the time where everyone is your enemy. I try to diffuse that blind malevolence in the hopes of making life more bearable for those around me, as well as in the hopes of avencing the goodness inside each of these guys, so they'll go back into the world with hopeful and helpful hearts,

instead of hearts filled with anger and bitterness. Well, I'll tell you, if you're a pedophile and you rape and kill a seven-year-old, you're probably going to have a lot of enemies in prison. I just think it's funny how he played this kind of, I'm the good guy now and I'm teaching people to be better people, cause I'm a better person after this card, which is very common in murder cases I have noticed. In the fact that he says,

I wish nothing but peace and good lives for them, wherein their lives are not defined by this horrible tragedy as mine has been. Like dude, you're not a victim. You killed a little girl. As if my life has been defined by this, uh, yeah, you did it, so that makes sense. Like you said, you're not the victim, you're the perpetrator, you're not allowed to say that. Of course, their lives are defined by this. You killed their child, you ass. About a month after Jeremy was charged with his crimes against Sheree's Iverson, he was

sentenced to four life terms without the possibility of parole. Since he didn't go to trial, he didn't face the death penalty, but he will remain in an avada prison for the rest of his days. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode, and next week we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. It's that time for the shoutouts! Yes, it's time to give thanks to those who left us five star reviews on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much to Yadira and Oakley Idaho.

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