Defendants admit to romance

Monday, April 3, 2000 | 11:30 a.m.

Prosecutors don't plan to alter their case amid Friday's stunning defense admission that Ted Binion's accused killers, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, were romantically involved prior to his death.

"It's not going to shorten our case one bit," Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger said Sunday.

Roger expected to call several employees of the Beverly Hills Hotel to the witness stand as early as today to testify about a secret tryst between Murphy and Tabish at the posh California resort a month before Binion's Sept, 17, 1998, slaying.

Prosecutors have alleged that Murphy, a 28-year-old former topless dancer, and Tabish, a 35-year-old married Montana contractor, carried on their affair while plotting the wealthy gambling figure's death.

Roger said in his lengthy opening statement Friday that he was prepared to prove that the 55-year-old Binion was killed by Murphy and Tabish.

"He was murdered for lust, murdered for greed," Roger said. "He was murdered by someone he trusted and her new companion."

For months, Murphy and Tabish and their lawyers publicly had been denying the romantic relationship.

But on Friday, facing overwhelming evidence gathered by prosecutors, Murphy's lawyer, John Momot, acknowledged that the two defendants indeed had been lovers.

"Is that against the law?" he asked.

After the opening statements, Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, insisted the defense had never tried to deny the romantic relationship. He also said Tabish's wife, Mary Jo, still was standing by him in the wake of the public revelation. He would not say when Tabish's wife and family learned of the affair.

Momot said in court that Murphy began looking to Tabish for moral support months before Binion's death, as the former casino man's drug abuse escalated in the middle of a family battle for control of the Horseshoe Club.

"If you don't take care of your woman, someone else will," Momot told the 12-member jury. "That's what happens when you love drugs more than your woman."

Legal experts said the defense needed to acknowledge the relationship to give it more credibility in the courtroom fight against the murder charges.

Prosecutors have gathered explicit details of a second Beverly Hills tryst between Murphy and Tabish the weekend before Binion's death.

There also is evidence that Murphy used Binion's credit card to buy Tabish expensive designer clothes on at least two occasions prior to his death. And homicide detectives found the couple together at a Henderson apartment during a 7 a.m. raid in February 1999.

The defense admission, experts said, bolsters the prosecution theory that the defendants wanted Binion out of the way to gain access to his millions.

It also strengthens the credibility of several prosecution witnesses, such as manicurist Deanna Perry, clothing salesman Christopher Hendrick, Murphy friend Tanya Cropp and Tabish associate Steven Kurt Gratzer, all of whom are expected to testify that Murphy and Tabish secretly told them about the affair.

Momot said Sunday the defense acknowledged the romantic affair knowing it could play into the prosecution's hands.

"We felt the better course was to be direct and forthright," he said. "The decision was to be upfront about it and let the jury give it whatever weight it wishes."

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, for the first time explained their theory that Binion killed himself with an overdose of heroin and the prescription sedative Xanax. Prosecutors contend Murphy and Tabish pumped Binion with the drugs and suffocated him.

"This case is not about homicide," Momot said. "It's about heroin."

Momot described Binion, the son of the late legendary gaming pioneer, Benny Binion, as a paranoid "drug addict" and a "control freak."

Several times during his opening statement Momot accused the "Binion money machine" of wrongly trying to pin Binion's death on Murphy, a "nice young girl" who got more than what she bargained for when she moved into Binion's home in April 1995.

"She didn't bargain for death in the desert," Momot said.

Momot described Murphy as a "self-sufficient" woman who came from a normal Southern California family.

He said Murphy was "awestruck" by Binion's wealth and hard-living and quickly learned there was a "dark side" to their relationship.

Murphy, he said, was the only one who really loved and took care of Binion. He said she often cleaned up after him when he would vomit and soil himself as a result of his heroin and alcohol use.

Momot blamed Binion's death on his heroin dealer, Peter Sheridan, who sold him 12 doses of tar heroin the night before he died, and Binion's neighbor, Dr. Enrique Lacayo, who gave him a prescription for Xanax that day.

"Sandy Murphy didn't get the heroin," Momot said. "Sandy Murphy didn't get the Xanax prescription."

Roger, meanwhile, methodically laid out his case of murder and thievery against Murphy and Tabish in a nearly three-hour opening statement Friday. There were no surprises.

He described how both defendants had a financial motive to kill the Binion.

Tabish's trucking and contracting businesses were failing and he owed the IRS hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Murphy stood to gain Binion's $900,000 house and $300,000 in cash, Roger alleged.

Murphy and Tabish are charged with stealing Binion's valuables from his 2408 Palomino Lane home and trying to take his $6 million silver fortune that was buried in an underground vault in Pahrump.

Roger charged that the defendants committed a signature crime. Authorities found one silver dollar in the middle of the vault and one dime in the middle of Binion's safe at his Las Vegas home.

Palazzo told the jury that Murphy and Tabish should be charged with being "felony stupid," not murder and theft.

Tabish, he said, dug up the silver to fulfill Binion's wishes of protecting the fortune for his daughter, Bonnie.

Palazzo said it was "ludicrous" to believe that Tabish would bring in heavy equipment to do the excavation on the busiest street in Pahrump and not expect to be noticed.

The defense has contended that Tabish even telephoned Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke ahead of time to inform him that he was taking the silver at Binion's request.

But Lieseke has previously testified that Tabish never mentioned anything to him about the silver.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com.