Prosecutors may seek death penalty in Binion murder trial

Tuesday, Sept. 14, 1999 | 11:30 a.m.

Prosecutors expect to decide within the next two weeks whether they'll seek the death penalty for Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish in Ted Binion's murder.

District Attorney Stewart Bell said the decision will be made before the Sept. 27 arraignment date of both accused killers in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

"We will thoroughly review the facts and circumstance of this case so that we're in a position to make a fair and appropriate decision," Bell said.

On Monday, Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti, following a 13-day preliminary hearing, one of the longest ever in Las Vegas, ordered Murphy, Tabish and four other defendants charged in crimes related to Binion's well-publicized Sept. 17 murder to stand trial.

Togliatti said prosecutors had presented more than enough evidence to persuade her to let a jury decide the fate of Binion's 27-year-old girlfriend and her 34-year-old reported lover. She said both appeared to have a financial motive to kill the wealthy gambling figure.

Afterward, a smiling Murphy, while being escorted out of the courthouse by her lawyer, Bill Terry, told the Sun that Togliatti's decision was "very predictable," and Murphy promised to beef up her defense team for the trial.

By law, both Murphy and Tabish would be allowed an additional lawyer, most likely at state expense, if prosecutors seek the death penalty.

There has been much speculation at the courthouse this week that Tabish may replace lawyer Steve Wolfson with his previous attorney, Louis Palazzo.

Wolfson said Monday he was not aware of his client's plans, and Palazzo did not return phone calls.

Bonaventure, regarded as a seasoned "no-nonsense" judge, was randomly assigned to preside over the trial, which is expected to attract national attention, including Court TV.

The trial, which Bell said could last as long as three months, isn't likely to take place until next year.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor on the case, expects to call 100-150 witnesses, more than three times the number of those who testified during the preliminary hearing.

"The real work begins now," said Tom Dillard, a private investigator hired by Binion's $50 million estate to investigate the former Horseshoe Club executive's death. "The standard of proof has just been raised considerably."

At the preliminary hearing, prosecutors only needed a slight amount of evidence to move the case to Bonaventure's courtroom. To obtain a conviction there, they'll need to persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

In the coming months, Dillard and Metro homicide detectives plan to pursue new leads in the 55-year-old Binion's murder and shore up current evidence, including the new suffocation theory advanced by a well-known New York pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden, during the preliminary hearing.

Dillard said he expects defense lawyers will fire away at his participation in the year-long homicide investigation during the trial.

"I'm fully prepared for that," he said. "Our role merely has been information gathering and dissemination to the authorities."

Defense attorneys also expect to chip away further at the credibility of some of the prosecution's chief witnesses in the coming weeks.

But Terry said his first order of business will be to ask Bonaventure to overturn Togliatti's order forcing Murphy to stand trial. Murphy currently is under house arrest. Tabish remains in jail on no bail.

Bell, meanwhile, said the work of his office is "far from done" in what he described as the "most complicated" case ever in his office.

"We will continue to endeavor to develop facts that support our case all the way up to the time of trial," he said.

Bell said he isn't ruling out the possibility that some of the defendants might want to strike a deal with prosecutors, as the circumstantial case moves closer to trial.

"If somebody wanted to cooperate with the state and they had something meaningful to contribute, we would certainly be interested," he said.

Four other defendants are facing lesser charges relating to Binion's murder.

David Mattsen and Michael Milot are charged with helping Tabish and Murphy steal Binion's silver fortune in Pahrump two days after his slaying. And Steven Wadkins and John B. Joseph are charged with the murder defendants in a plot to torture businessman Leo Casey into turning over his interests in a Jean sand pit two months before Binion's death.

Prosecutors also expect to put more heat on Linda Susan Carroll, a Murphy friend who earlier this year testified reluctantly before a county grand jury investigating Binion's murder.

Carroll, whom prosecutors believe was not forthright during her testimony, is expected to be called as a witness during the trial.

Another Murphy friend, 24-year-old Tanya Cropp, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors before the start of the preliminary hearing. She acknowledged on the witness stand that she lied to the grand jury in February to cover up for Murphy.

Prosecutors also expect to look into the possibility that Tabish may have influenced the testimony of his high-school chum, Steven Kurt Gratzer, who told authorities Tabish sought to drag him into the Binion murder plot.

Tabish was observed winking at Gratzer during his testimony last month. Gratzer, who recanted much of what he earlier had told investigators, turned out to be a hostile witness for prosecutors.