Art Helps Kin of Slain Girl

In his hands Rene Childress held a painting created by a little boy named Emyea, a landscape of powder blue clouds, a bright sun and a lone palm tree.

But Childress’ mind was on another little girl, Sherrice Iverson, and the family that is grieving her loss.

“I’m here because I want to support this effort to get this family to Las Vegas” for the trial, Childress said.

On Saturday those visiting the Leimert Park Fine Art Gallery purchased children’s art in memory of Sherrice, a 7-year-old who was killed in a Nevada casino on May 25, 1997.

The fund-raiser was held to assist family members who will travel to Nevada for the trial of Sherrice’s accused killer, Jeremy Strohmeyer. The Long Beach man faces charges of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault in a case set to begin this month.

According to prosecutors, Strohmeyer molested and strangled Sherrice in a toilet stall in the Primadonna casino.

The child’s mother, Yolanda Manuel, is a cafeteria worker at a public elementary school and doesn’t have the money for lodging, food or transportation while she attends the trial. Nor can she do without the wages she will lose, said Imam Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic H.O.P.E. The child’s grandmother, Jo L. Manuel, who also plans to attend, is retired.

“That’s my grandbaby. It’s important for me to be there,” she said.

The art on sale at the gallery was created by participants in a free art program for children offered by the gallery and taught by local artist Kenneth Beavers.

Maya Callender, a 5-year-old with corn-rowed hair, flitted through the gallery Saturday pointing out her creations, hanging above a collection of Shona statues from Zimbabwe.

“I like to draw stars,” she said, unaware of the purpose her paintings would serve. “I like to draw suns, and sometimes I used to draw flowers and people.”

Earl Underwood, an owner of the gallery at 43rd Street and Degnan Boulevard, said he held the event because he “heard the need for support in this terrible, terrible case.”

The fund-raiser will continue through the week, he said.

At a news conference also held Saturday, the family announced plans to push for a new law in Nevada that would make it a felony for an adult to witness a crime against a child and not report it to authorities.

*

“We want to make sure that this bill is introduced to Nevada legislators so this type of crime and murder won’t happen to any young person again,” Ali said.

The push for the law is a response to the lack of action on the part of several people who said they were aware of Sherrice’s killing and said nothing to authorities.

The family is collecting signatures for a petition aimed at convincing Nevada authorities to charge Strohmeyer’s friend David Cash with being an accessory to the crime.

Cash has said he watched Strohmeyer struggle with Sherrice in the bathroom stall and later heard him confess to killing her. Cash did not report the slaying to authorities. Las Vegas police said they have no grounds on which to charge Cash.

“The only thing we’re asking for is justice,” Yolanda Manuel said. “This is about justice for a little 7-year-old child whose life was taken from her. . . . To the community, please come and support me, because this could have been your child.”

Two KLSX-FM (97.1) talk show hosts have vowed to try to get Cash kicked out of UC Berkeley.

But nationally syndicated columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a representative of the family, said at least four other people knew about the killing and did nothing.

“We believe they should be held liable and culpable too,” Hutchinson said.

Many of those present Saturday, like Childress, expressed concern that the case has not generated the public uproar that other cases have.

Jamaal Goree, a producer of Front Page on KJLH-FM (102.3), said the early morning program’s listeners “have been talking about it consistently since it happened.” He questioned the handling of the story, which he said “victimizes the victim.”

“For the most part you see pictures of this guy in prom pictures,” Goree said about Strohmeyer. “You don’t see him in county garb. His image has been protected by the mainstream media.”

Ali said, “It’s not a black issue or a white issue. It’s a humanity issue.”

*

A new Web site, https:/www.Iverson.org, includes the petition and information about donating to the Sherrice Iverson Justice Fund.