Judge refuses to hold separate hearings for suspects

Friday, July 23, 1999 | 3:32 a.m.

Justice Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti ruled Friday that the four must be a part of a preliminary hearing scheduled Aug. 16 for Sandra Murphy and Rick Tabish.

Murphy and Tabish face murder charges in the Sept. 17 death of Binion, a member of a well-known casino clan.

Attorneys representing the four other defendants had sought to sever their clients from the murder case, saying they did not want the stigma attached to Binion's death.

Togliatti said she had the ability to separate out the defendants and their charges in a preliminary hearing that could take as long as two weeks.

Michael David Milot and David Lee Mattsen are charged with conspiracy, burglary and grand larceny. They were arrested two days after Binion's death, working with Tabish to dig up $4 million in silver that Binion had buried in an underground vault in Pahrump, Nev.

John B. Joseph and Steven L. Wadkins are charged with conspiracy, extortion, kidnapping and assault in plots to kidnap and extort a sand pit operator. Tabish also faces those same charges.

Murphy, 27, and Tabish, 34, are charged with giving Binion fatal doses of heroin and the prescription sedative Xanax at his Las Vegas home, and stealing his valuables in Las Vegas and Pahrump.

Tabish is being held without bond on the murder charge.

Murphy is free on $300,000 cash bail. She is fighting efforts by prosecutors to force her to turn over handwriting samples that can be compared to a list of coins reportedly stolen from Binion's home after his murder.

The seven-page list, which prosecutors believe was written by Murphy and once faxed to Tabish, surfaced three weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Sun reported Friday that Binion received 12 balloons of rock heroin the night before his murder.

The Sun said the transaction was disclosed by a drug dealer in a Feb. 2 interview with detectives. The dealer said Binion had been using an increasing amount of heroin.