March trial expected in Binion killing

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure is expected to set a March 13 trial date for Ted Binion's accused killers, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish.

Murphy, Binion's 27-year-old girlfriend, and Tabish, her reported lover, are accused of pumping Binion with drugs and suffocating him on Sept. 17, 1998.

The trial date was the result of a meeting Thursday between Bonaventure, prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Bonaventure, a district judge since 1988, plans to formally set the March date on Monday when Murphy, Tabish and four other defendants charged in crimes related to Binion's death are arraigned before him.

Two of those defendants, Steven Wadkins and John B. Joseph -- charged in a Tabish-inspired plot to torture a business partner into turning over interests in a Jean sand pit -- will get separate trials, according to an agreement worked out between prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger and attorneys for Wadkins and Joseph, Thomas Pitaro and Stan Hunterton, decided that a separate trial was warranted.

That trial will follow the murder case, which could last up to three months.

David Mattsen and Michael Milot, two other defendants charged with Murphy and Tabish in the theft of Binion's silver fortune in Pahrump after his death, also are expected to seek separate trials.

Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti ordered all six defendants bound over for trial Sept. 13 following a 13-day preliminary hearing, one of the longest in Las Vegas history.

On Thursday, Tabish's new lawyer, Louis Palazzo, participated in the meeting with Bonaventure. Palazzo, who previously has represented Tabish, replaced Steve Wolfson.

Murphy's lawyer, Bill Terry, also attended the meeting.

There was no confirmation that New York attorney Barry Scheck, a member of O.J. Simpson's "dream team," might join Murphy's defense.

Scheck this week declined comment, referring a reporter to Terry, who could not be reached for comment.

Another Simpson dream team member, Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, previously has been retained to help Murphy and Tabish with their defense strategy behind the scenes.

Dershowitz also declined comment this week.

A Harvard aide said the celebrity lawyer has no plans to be in Las Vegas for Monday's 9:30 a.m. arraignment.

Bonaventure, meanwhile, informed lawyers that at Palazzo's request, he will allow Tabish to come to court unshackled and in civilian clothes. The murder defendant, however, will have to wear a stun belt.

During last month's preliminary hearing, Tabish, in custody on no bond since his June 24 arrest, was forced to appear in court in his blue jail garb.

Palazzo also has asked Bonaventure to set bail for Tabish, a 34-year-old Montana contractor, in the hopes that he might gain his freedom while waiting to be tried. A hearing on that request will be held later.

Lawyers for both Tabish and Murphy also plan to file motions seeking to sever the murder charges against their clients from the other related charges. They plan to request separate trials for the different sets of charges.

The arraignment comes as Nye County sheriff's deputies investigate the circumstances surrounding the discovery of two freshly dug holes at Binion's Pahrump ranch.

The holes are believed to have been dug by intruders looking for buried treasure at the 125-acre ranch, where the murdered gambling figure was thought to have hidden valuables.

Murphy had told Binion's secretary 11 days after his death that the former Horseshoe Club executive had said he had buried property under a tree at the ranch.

The holes were discovered near fruit trees in the front of Binion's home.

Tabish, Mattsen and Milot were arrested by Nye County deputies Sept. 19, 1998, after they had dug up $4 million in silver bars and coins Binion had stored in an underground vault on property he owned in downtown Pahrump.

Binion's body was discovered at his Las Vegas home two days earlier next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax.

An autopsy found heroin and Xanax in Binion's stomach, and police believe the death scene was staged by his killers.