Lawyer: Binion’s safe was found empty

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999 | 11:07 a.m.

Ted Binion's lawyer testified Tuesday there was nothing but a single dime in the middle of the gambling figure's safe when it was drilled after his Sept. 17 murder.

Richard Wright, who had spent considerable time with Binion the last five years of his life, said he didn't know what was supposed to be in the safe.

But Binion's housekeeper, Mary Montoya-Gascoigne, testified last week that she saw loose coins and bags of coins in the safe two days before the 55-year-old Binion's murder.

Steve Huggins, a former Nye County police sergeant, said on the witness stand Monday that he found one silver dollar in the middle of an underground vault in Pahrump after three men, including one of Binion's alleged killers, were arrested Sept. 19 for digging up and trying to steal the casino man's silver fortune.

Wright said he saw Binion's coin and old currency collection in his den when he visited him the evening of Sept. 14. The collection, worth about $300,000, was missing after his death along with other valuables Binion was known to keep at his 2408 Palomino Lane home, Wright said.

His testimony came in the second week of the preliminary hearing for Binion's live-in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and her reported lover, Rick Tabish, who are charged with killing Binion and stealing his valuables.

Following the hearing, which now could drag into next week, Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti will decide whether Murphy and Tabish and four other defendants charged in related crimes should stand trial.

Prosecutors believe the lone dime in Binion's safe and the silver dollar in his Pahrump vault provide evidence of a signature crime committed by his killers.

Earlier Tuesday, Michael Perkins, a Metro Police crime scene analyst, testified that after he arrived at Binion's home Sept. 17, he saw what appeared to be a Halloween-type decoration with the letters "RIP" attached to a light fixture above the entrance.

Binion's body was discovered on the floor of his den at 3:55 p.m. next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative, Xanax. Prosecutors now believe his killers tried to pump his body with drugs and then suffocated him in a plot to make it look as though he had died of an overdose.

Wright, a well-known criminal defense attorney, was to resume testifying today under cross examination by lawyers for Murphy and Tabish.

His appearance was to be followed by attorney James Brown, who is overseeing Binion's $30 million estate. Brown previously told investigators Binion telephoned him the day before his death to express a fear of Murphy and instruct him to cut her out of his will.

During Brown's testimony today, prosecutors planned to play a videotape of a tour the 27-year-old Murphy gave inside Binion's home the day after his slaying. Murphy wanted to videotape the contents of the home in anticipation of a bitter court battle with his estate.

But on the tape, which already has been viewed by the Sun, Murphy is seen taking what appears to be a wine glass from an island counter in his kitchen. Investigators believe the glass may have played a role in Binion's murder. An autopsy found a liquid mixture of heroin and Xanax in Binion's stomach.

Also listed as a witness today is Tanya Cropp, a 24-year-old close Murphy friend who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Cropp has told homicide detectives that Murphy confessed to an abusive love affair with Tabish and provided her with a hand-written list of coins police believe were stolen from Binion's home.

Binion's 19-year-old daughter, Bonnie Binion, also was expected to be called to testify today or Thursday. The younger Binion, who has told investigators, Murphy once threatened to shoot her, is the chief heir to the former Horseshoe Club executive's estate.

Wright, meanwhile, testified Tuesday that Tabish, a 34-year-old Montana contractor, never sought permission from him to dig up Binion's estimated $4 million silver fortune in Pahrump. Tabish told Nye County sheriff's deputies when he was arrested Sept. 19 that he was carrying out Binion's wishes to turn the silver into cash and put it in a trust account for his daughter.

Both Murphy and Tabish listened intently, often from the edge of their seats, as Wright was questioned by Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger.

Wright said he brought $40,000 in crisp $100 bills he was holding for Binion to his home Sept. 14 so that Binion could make a political donation to Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones.

The next day, however, Binion wrote a $40,000 check to his banker and obtained fresh $100 bills, according to court documents obtained by the Sun. He is believed to have given that money to Jones.

On Sept. 16, after he had made the contribution to the mayor, Binion asked Montoya-Gascoigne to deposit $20,000 in the bank for him. That would have left at least $20,000 in his home.

When Tabish and one of his associates, Michael Milot, were taken into custody in Pahrump, sheriff's deputies seized $1,600 in fresh $100 bills from each man. Most of the bills had consecutive serial numbers, indicating they had not yet been circulated.

On Tuesday, Wright displayed a $100 bill Binion had given him from the original $40,000 he had turned over Sept. 14. The serial number on that bill came close to matching those seized from Tabish and Milot.

Wright also testified about the time he spent with Murphy and Tabish in the immediate hours after Binion's death.

Tabish, he said, showed up at the Palomino Lane home while police were processing the death scene and later went to Valley Hospital, where paramedics had transported a hysterical Murphy.

About 20 minutes later, Tabish returned to the home and told Wright police were "interrogating" Murphy.

Wright said Tabish asked him to go to the hospital to protect Murphy's rights.

At the hospital, Wright said, he talked to a psychiatric nurse, who told him Murphy was being released under the care of Binion's neighbor, Janice Tanno.

While in Tabish's Mercedes with Murphy after leaving the hospital, Tabish suggested taking Murphy to the Desert Inn, Wright said.

But Wright testified that he opposed the idea because Murphy was released on the condition she would spend the night with Tanno. Tabish ultimately took Murphy to the neighbor's home, he said.

Before Wright took the witness stand, Peter Sheridan described the last time he delivered heroin to Binion the evening before his death.

Sheridan, who acknowledged he was being treated with methadone, said he delivered 12 quarter-gram balloons (about a dose each) of crude tar heroin to Binion about 8 p.m. In return, Binion gave him $180 and 30 tablets of Xanax, he said.

Sheridan said he had delivered heroin to Binion about a half-dozen times the last several months of his life.

Binion, he said, was known to smoke heroin, not inject or ingest it.