Article: 'Murder suspect wanted job as stripper' - Canada

[Bearman]

Suspect wanted job as stripper

 

Trevor Wilhelm, Craig Pearson and Sonja Puzic

Windsor Star

 

 

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

 

 

Hours before allegedly strangling the bartender of a gay nightclub, Jesse Imeson showed up there looking for a job as a stripper.

 

Eddie An, who runs The Tap, said Imeson came to the bar July 17 wanting to dance.

 

"He was filling out an application form, but he didn't have his ID, so we couldn't finish it," An said. "He said he forgot it at home and would come back the next day. He stayed and had a few drinks, just as a patron."

 

CLOSED THE BAR

 

Rivera helped close The Tap around 2 a.m. on July 18, and was last seen at 6 a.m. in his Honda Civic with Imeson driving. Rivera's body was discovered July 19 in Imeson's apartment on Erie Street West. The Regiers' bodies were found July 23 in their farmhouse near Exeter. Imeson is wanted for all three murders.

 

An said Imeson didn't get a job that night, but he did jump on stage and dance "for a few minutes." An didn't see the performance, but said Imeson didn't take his clothes off and he wasn't paid.

 

"He wasn't working as a dancer," he said.

 

"We have amateurs go on stage from time to time."

 

Nick Cesljar, who took Imeson to The Tap that night, said the fugitive thought he could make a lot of money stripping.

 

"I tried to advise him against doing that," said Cesljar, who had partied with Imeson over the last couple of months. "He was just looking at the money, I guess. He got the idea he can get more money dancing for guys rather than dancing for girls because, guys being perverts, they'll pay more. That's how it began."

 

Cesljar said he drove Imeson to The Tap July 17 and they stayed about 20 minutes, before Imeson wanted to go get the Moby CD he had planned to dance to.

 

"We ended up driving to his sister's, picked up the CD, I dropped him back off over there," he said. "It was maybe 9:30 by this time. That was the last time I saw him."

 

But just before 1 a.m., Cesljar said Imeson called him from someone else's cellphone.

 

"He wanted to hang out, he wanted to get some blow (cocaine), he wanted to party," said Cesljar, who lives in McGregor. "I was already in McGregor by then, so I wasn't in to it."

 

Cesljar said Imeson told him he had stripped at The Tap and made $80. If Imeson was lying about stripping, Cesljar said, it wasn't the first lie he told.

 

"Everything that came out of his mouth, now I know, was a lie," said Cesljar.

 

Among the lies, he said, was that he was in the army and dishonourably discharged after being caught with "two keys of blow down south somewhere."

 

Cesljar, 25, said he met Imeson a few months ago. Imeson was doing construction work in the building where some of Cesljar's friends live.

 

TOUGH GUY IMAGE

 

"We would hang out, watching (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fights, drinking, scheming on the girls, you know what I mean?" said Cesljar. "Every time we hung out, he was pretty much drinking. He was being a bit kooky, but you didn't really think much of it."

 

But Imeson, who tried to create a tough guy image for himself, did have an angry streak, Cesljar said.

 

"Every time we'd watch UFC, afterwards we'd get rowdy," he said. "You know, some grappling matches. When he loses, man, he (expletive) freaks out. We're like Jesse, man, calm the (expletive) down."

 

But he also seemed depressed. Cesljar and Imeson were at a party in McGregor the Saturday before Rivera's body was discovered. There were drugs and alcohol, said Cesljar.

 

"He was saying that if he wasn't socializing with us, if he wasn't hanging out, he'd be out there thinking about committing suicide," he said. "All this crazy (expletive) about his girlfriend, his daughter."

 

Cesljar said he can't remember seeing Imeson sober. There are rumours police found sobriety self-help books in Imeson's Erie Street apartment, where he had lived for about three weeks.

 

Before that, he stayed at the Salvation Army's residential substance-abuse program downtown.

 

Salvation Army regional spokesman Maj. Byron Jacobs said Imeson was in the program, but wouldn't confirm why. He did say it was a 40-day rehabilitation program, with group and individual counselling, and that Imeson was there from April to early June.

 

The day he left the program, he was at a downtown bar with a friend getting drunk and asking where he could get some drugs, according to the waitress who served him.

 

"He just got out that day," she said. "They came in and were drinking pitchers of beer."

 

She said Imeson started to open up, told her about his battle with cocaine and even mentioned his father's suicide a few years ago. Before leaving that night, she said Imeson asked her out.

 

She declined, but said she couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He seemed like a lost soul.

 

Not long before starting the rehab program, Imeson had spent about six months in jail for robbery. Court documents show he has a record for theft, break-and-enter and robbery.

 

Imeson also has trial dates scheduled in January for charges of theft, possession of stolen property and fraud stemming from alleged incidents in April and last November.

 

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=12c234cd-7f8d-4053-8f98-458d5e497992&k=44152

[fedssocr1]

this is an odd story. He didn't have ID to fill out the forms but they served him alcohol anyway? Does the story ever explain who "the Regiers" are?

[OneFinger]

Here's a link to another article including a pix of the suspect.

 

http://info.branchez-vous.com/Nationales/070731/N0731220U.html

 

http://info.branchez-vous.com/Nationales/070731/N0731220U.jpg

 

Sad story and sorry to see it happen.