LAS VEGAS - Hours before he was found hanging from a bedsheet, actor David Strickland spent 20 minutes with a stranger named Jasmine in a rent-by-the-hour motel room in a seedy neighborhood known as "naked city."
The "Suddenly Susan" actor left the Oasis Motel, but returned before dawn Monday to rent the room where he apparently committed suicide.
On Wednesday, Room 20 at the Oasis, off the glitzy Las Vegas Strip, was still much the way it was when a clerk discovered Strickland's body - rumpled covers strewn across the double bed, an empty case of Coors Light beer nearby.
Three employees at the 34-unit motel remembered Strickland Wednesday, tracing some of his last hours.
Cheri Alvarez, a clerk, said she was surprised when she saw a man walk down the motel driveway about 9 p.m. Sunday. She said he asked if he could exit through the rear of the property and she told him that was a bad idea because of crime problems in the area - it's called "naked city" because of the crime.
"I was sitting with this girl (Jasmine) and he started talking to us," Alvarez recalled.
"I asked him what he was doing in that area and he said he was just out walking," Alvarez recalled. "He did not seem disturbed. He had a smile on his face.
"She (Jasmine) told him he looked like a movie star and he said, 'No, not me."'
Alvarez said the man picked up a magazine advertising outcall services and was looking at pictures of women. She said Jasmine told him the women were call girls and their services were a "ripoff," adding, "Why don't you just give me the money?"
Alvarez said she went into the nearby office, but the other two kept talking. Soon Jasmine came in and rented Room 4 for an hour for $20, Alvarez said. Signs on the motel advertise hourly rates, adult movies and fantasy rooms.
Alvarez said Jasmine told her the man was acting "kind of weird" and to call her in 10 minutes to see if she was OK. Alvarez said she called, the woman said she was OK, then Strickland and Jasmine left separately five minutes later.
Peter Napoli, who owns the motel with his father, said the man told Jasmine: "Some important changes are going to happen in your life."
Napoli said the woman who rented the room told him the two had no sexual contact, but just talked for a while.
"Both then went their own way," Napoli said. "We don't ask questions here."
Asked if Jasmine was a prostitute, Napoli said: "Prostitution is not legal in Las Vegas. We don't rent to prostitutes."
Cheri Alvarez' husband, Juan, said Strickland returned at 4 a.m. and rented Room 20 for $55 with a credit card. The actor was by himself.
He left briefly to buy a six-pack of beer at a nearby convenience store, then returned to the room - alone again, Napoli said.
"He just went in and didn't come out," Juan Alvarez said.
Cheri Alvarez said she was horrified when she went to check Strickland's room at 11 a.m. Monday and found his body.
Strickland played a music reviewer in the "Suddenly Susan" and appears in the movie "Forces of Nature," the No. 1 movie at the box office over the weekend.
Strickland was arrested Oct. 31 for alleged possession of cocaine and pleaded no contest on Dec. 21, Los Angeles court records show.
He was placed on 36 months probation and ordered into rehabilitation. He was to have appeared in a Los Angeles court Monday for a progress report.
Police said there was nothing to indicate foul play in Strickland's death. No note was found, there was no indication of drugs, and Strickland did not place any long distance calls from his room, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Wayne Petersen said Tuesday.
"We found nothing to indicate anything but a suicide," he said.
Interview: Las Vegas 1 interviews a woman who saw Strickland before he died. Running time: 56 seconds. Download size: 900 K for QuickTime 3.0 and 3.3 Mb for QuickTime 2.0. Click here for interview: http://www.lasvegassun.com/video/html/news/strickland.html
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