Murphy makes jail visit to co-defendant Tabish

Tuesday, Nov. 30, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

Sandy Murphy returned to the Clark County Detention Center last week, but this time to visit her co-defendant in Ted Binion's slaying, Montana contractor Rick Tabish.

It was the first contact outside a courtroom between Murphy and Tabish since their June 24 arrests on murder charges.

The 90-minute visit, jail officials said, occurred last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. It was authorized by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who is presiding over the March 13 murder trial.

Murphy, 27, Binion's girlfriend, and the 34-year-old Tabish have been charged with pumping Binion with drugs, suffocating him and stealing his valuables. Tabish has been behind bars on no bond since his arrest. Murphy, who posted a $300,000 bail, has been under house arrest at the Henderson apartment she once shared with Tabish.

Murphy spent a week in jail last month after she was taken into custody for violating the terms of her house arrest. When she left the detention center, she claimed her designer black lace panties were missing from her belongings.

Jail officials said Murphy's attorney, John Momot, and Tabish's lawyer, Robert Murdock, were present during last Wednesday's visit, which occurred from 1 p.m. until 2:30 p.m.

Momot described the meeting as a "defense conference."

On Thursday night, meanwhile, Momot and Murphy were expected to appear on ABC's "20/20" news magazine. The two were interviewed by ABC correspondent John Miller, who flew to Las Vegas earlier this month to tape a segment on the Binion murder case.

ABC plans to make the Binion segment, which lasts more than 13 minutes, its lead story in the hour-long broadcast that begins at 10 p.m.

Murphy and Tabish have maintained her innocence throughout the circumstantial case that District Attorney Stewart Bell once described as a "complex jigsaw puzzle."

Also on Thursday, John B. Joseph -- charged with Murphy and Tabish in a plot to torture a Las Vegas businessman two months before Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, slaying -- will be back in Bonaventure's courtroom.

Bonaventure set an 8:30 a.m. hearing on Joseph's request to modify his $100,000 bail. Prosecutors plan to oppose the request.