Columnist Jeff German: Binion case gets a boost

Sunday, Aug. 22, 1999 | 9:31 a.m.

Jeff German is a senior investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lvsun.com.

ELEVEN MONTHS after Ted Binion's murder, authorities have a new theory of what led to his death.

Drugs are out and suffocation is in.

In another remarkable development in this case, prosecutors last week brought in widely respected New York pathologist Michael Baden to blow away the drug overdose theory advanced by their own medical examiner, Lary Simms.

The stunning events unfolded in the courtroom of Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti during the preliminary hearing for Binion's accused killers, his girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and her reported lover, Rick Tabish.

Once the shock of Baden's testimony wore off, it became clear that he had given prosecutors an incredible boost.

By concluding the 55-year-old Binion died of suffocation rather than forced lethal doses of heroin and the sedative Xanax, Baden all-but eliminated the defense strategy of Murphy and Tabish, who were suggesting the casino man had committed suicide or died of an accidental overdose.

"It just took the wind out of the defense," one investigator says.

But why did it take investigators 11 months to reach this conclusion? Why didn't they think of enlisting Baden's help earlier?

It turns out, they did seek his help months ago.

I'm told Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the case, suggested bringing Baden on board back in January, but Clark County Coroner Ron Flud killed the idea.

After Flud ruled Binion's death a homicide in March, Binion's estate hired Baden as its forensics expert.

Last week, as prosecutors appeared to be having doubts about the way Simms had evaluated the autopsy evidence, Baden, who worked on such high-profile cases as the death of John Belushi and the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, was asked to lend a hand.

At first, prosecutors thought Baden was going to back up Simms. But they learned after his arrival here that Baden had come to the conclusion upon further review of the medical examiner's file that drugs didn't kill Binion.

Defense lawyers Bill Terry and Steve Wolfson were hard-pressed to question Baden's impressive credentials while he was testifying. As a pathologist for 40 years, including a 25-year stint at the New York City's medical examiner's office, Baden has performed more than 20,000 autopsies.

Simms, by contrast, testified last week that he has conducted a mere 3,000.

His inexperience showed on the witness stand last week when he was torn apart by defense lawyers. Prosecutors, knowing they had Baden as their ace in the hole, didn't even bother to rehabilitate the county's top pathologist.

Ironically, if Terry and Wolfson stick to the suicide or accidental overdose theory as a defense for their clients, they now may have to rely in part on Simms, the guy they beat up in court.

And if Simms becomes important to the defense, how will that affect his relationship with prosecutors and homicide detectives in this case? How will it affect their ability to work with Simms on other cases.

Homicide detectives, I'm told, have not gotten along very well with Simms since Flud named him medical examiner a year ago.

Losing confidence in his abilities over this case isn't going to help matters.

Nobody's publicly rapping Simms because investigators know they also need him in this case. He did, after all, perform the autopsy on Binion.

But you've got to believe those close to the case are happy they've got Baden as their new star witness.

Investigators still contend Binion's killers tried to make his death look like a drug overdose, which means the basic theory of the case hasn't changed.

There are, however, new theories being advanced about why the killers decided to suffocate the gambling figure after pumping him with drugs.

One is the killers ran out of heroin and Xanax because Binion kept throwing it up. The other is that faster action had to be taken because Binion's longtime gardener, Thomas Loveday, showed up at the home to mow his lawn while the murder was taking place.

How would you like to be inside that home with someone you just killed waiting for the gardener to finish cutting the grass?