Murphy described affair to her friend

Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 11:27 a.m.

Sandy Murphy confided to a close friend that she was having a sexual affair with her co-defendant in the slaying of former Horseshoe Club executive Ted Binion, the friend told homicide detectives last month.

Murphy also acknowledged she was in an abusive relationship with Rick Tabish, a 34-year-old contractor who has a wife and two children in Montana, the friend, Tanya Cropp, said.

The Sun has obtained a copy of 24-year-old Cropp's July 14 statement to Metro homicide detectives in which she sheds new light on the romance that both Murphy and Tabish previously have denied.

Detectives believe Murphy and Tabish were carrying on the affair while plotting to murder Binion, whose body was found in his home Sept. 17 next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative, Xanax.

Cropp is expected to be a key witness at next week's preliminary hearing for Murphy, Tabish and four other defendants charged in crimes related to Binion's murder. The hearing, which could last two weeks, will take place in the courtroom of Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti.

There was word at the courthouse today that prosecutors were planning to file additional charges against Murphy, linking her to the July torture and extortion of Jean sand pit operator Leo Casey, who also is expected to testify at the preliminary hearing.

Defense lawyers were to appear before Togliatti this morning to request that television cameras be barred from the courtroom during the hearing. Las Vegas 1 has been planning to carry the hearing live.

In her statement, Cropp said Murphy told her prior to Binion's death that she wasn't having sex with the gambling figure because he was "on the junk (heroin) again."

Though having sex with Tabish, Crop said, Murphy was afraid of the two-time convicted felon.

"She would call me and say that, uh, she got her punishment last night," Cropp said. "And I'd ask her what she meant by punishment, and she'd say that Rick would, uh, beat her up, you know, hit her, whatever, throw her around ... So yeah, she was afraid of him physically."

Murphy, Cropp said, told her she also was beaten by Binion.

"She always, for some reason, referred to her being beaten up as punishment," Cropp said.

Cropp said Murphy wouldn't let her see her for a couple of days after her punishment sessions with Tabish.

" ... I told her I thought she was stupid, and I thought that she should just leave Rick if Rick was beating her up," Cropp said.

Murphy, she said, responded: "But I love him so much."

Cropp, who was hired as Binion's secretary the day before his murder, also provided detectives with new information about what has become key evidence in the murder case.

She said that about a week after Binion's death, Murphy asked her to hold onto a handwritten seven-page list of rare coins that may have been stolen from Binion's home. Missing from Binion's home is a $300,000 collection of rare coins and currency, as well as cash, diamonds and jewelry.

The list, which police believe was written by Murphy, wound up in the hands of detectives at the end of June, a week after Murphy and Tabish were arrested. Cropp's former roommate, Jeannine Pierce, gave the list to Binion's sister, Horseshoe Club President Becky Behnen, who turned it over to police.

The Sun has obtained a copy of a 29-page statement that 31-year-old Pierce gave to detectives on July 6. In her statement, Pierce corroborates many of the things Cropp later told detectives. Cropp decided to cooperate when confronted with the list of coins. She told detective she no longer was afraid of Tabish because he was in jail.

Cropp said she never saw any of the coins, but Murphy asked her to fax a copy of the list to a number in Montana, where police believe Tabish could obtain it.

Cropp, who once lived in a house owned by Binion, also said Murphy talked to her about a wine glass that police never took from Binion's home after his murder.

In a videotaped tour of the inside of Binion's house the day after his death, Murphy is seen taking what appears to be a wine glass from a island counter top in his kitchen. Police believe the glass may have had something to do with his death. An autopsy found a liquid mixture of heroin and Xanax in Binion's stomach.

Cropp said several months after Binion's slaying, Murphy told her she was worried that another friend, Linda Carroll, who lives in Orange County, Calif., "was going to open her mouth and she would have to take care of her."

Carroll, who spent time with Murphy in the immediate hours after Binion's death, was subpoenaed to testify last spring before a county grand jury investigating the casino man's death.

Prior to her testimony, Carroll had told a lawyer for Binion's estate that she was afraid to come forward, a statement she later denied through her lawyer. Carroll eluded authorities for weeks before finally agreeing to appear before the grand jury in April.

Police, however, were unhappy with her testimony, believing she wasn't being truthful.

Cropp said Tabish promised to buy her a car the day after Binion's death if she would lie for him to investigators.

Tabish wanted her to say that she overheard him telling Murphy that he had to take care of something before the lawyer for Binion's estate got his hands on it. Tabish has used that statement in his alibi for digging up Binion's silver fortune in Pahrump two days after his murder.

Tabish put Cropp to work for his lawyer, William Knudson, who also represented Murphy following Binion's death.

On Tabish's relationship with Murphy, Cropp told detectives that after Binion's death, Murphy used to get money from Tabish, drive his cars and live in a Green Valley apartment he rented.

"Anytime she needed money, that's where she got it, from Rick," Cropp said.

Cropp said Murphy also tried to cause problems between Tabish and his wife, Mary Jo, by often calling Tabish at his home in Montana in the presence of his wife.

Murphy, she said, told her Tabish was going to get a divorce so that he could be with her.

Last spring, Cropp said, Murphy told her she had to have a medical procedure done in California and that Tabish was going with her.

Murphy never explained what the procedure was, but Cropp told detectives she formed her own opinion.