Murphy free on bail, under house arrest

Friday, July 16, 1999 | 10:48 a.m.

A Metro Police detective had a tough time obtaining information from Sandy Murphy when he questioned her at Valley Hospital Medical Center several hours after she had reported Ted Binion's death.

Murphy, who was in an apparent hysterical state, was taken to the hospital from the Sept. 17 death scene. She provided few details to detective James Mitchell in a 13-minute interview in which she was crying, shaking and speaking in choppy sentences.

The Sun has obtained a seven-page transcript of the interview, which took place at 7 p.m, four hours after Murphy had telephoned 911 to report that she had discovered Binion's body at the 2408 Palomino Lane home they shared.

Murphy was freed on $300,000 bail Thursday on charges of murdering Binion and transported to her Green Valley apartment, where she will remain under house arrest and electronic monitoring through her upcoming preliminary hearing.

Homicide detectives have alleged the death scene at Binion's home was staged by his killers. Murphy's reported lover and accomplice, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, remains in jail on no bond.

In the interview with Mitchell, Murphy elaborated on statements about Binion's drug use that she had given officers at the house before being taken to the hospital by fire department paramedics.

Murphy denied giving Binion heroin, but she acknowledged providing him with the bottle of Xanax he had obtained a day earlier.

Police found an empty bottle of the prescription sedative next to his body on the floor of his den. Drug tests conducted by the coroner's office later found lethal levels of heroin and Xanax in his system.

Murphy told Mitchell that Binion had gotten the Xanax prescription from his neighbor, Dr. Enrique Lacayo.

"My neighbor's a doctor," she said while weeping, "and my neighbor used to give him that sh... before when we were .... and I told him if you ever give him that stuff again ... And he gave him some more last night."

Murphy then said Binion had gotten "other pills" from another physician a couple of weeks earlier.

"He (Binion) told me this was the last time, and he wasn't gonna do it ever again," she said.

Murphy told Mitchell the last time she saw Binion alive was in the morning. She said she had left the house for awhile, but didn't know what time she returned because her watch had stopped.

She described what she said she saw when finding his body in the den.

"I thought he was alive," she said. "He looked like he was sleeping. I thought he was sleeping, and he wouldn't wake up. He would wake up. He wouldn't wake up. He wouldn't wake up. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"

Murphy denied cleaning the room after discovering his body.

Questioned further, she added: "I found him and he wouldn't wake up and I panicked and I was trying to make him breathe and he wouldn't breathe and he wouldn't breathe. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"

Murphy said Binion had awakened her in the middle of night to tell her he might be sick, and he asked her to watch him sleep.

"He said he might have a seizure and to please watch him." she said. "I should've never left. I should've never left. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"

On Thursday, Murphy shielded her face from reporters and refused comment, as she was whisked away in her jail garb by Justice Court officials to her Green Valley apartment.

She was released at 2:50 p.m.