Drug dealer tells jury he sold Binion heroin

By Jeff German (contact)

Monday, April 10, 2000 | 11:32 a.m.

Ted Binion's drug dealer testified today that he sold the wealthy gambling figure 12 doses of crude tar heroin the night before Binion's death.

Peter Sheridan, 45, who has not been charged for selling the drugs, said he delivered the 12 balloons, a quarter-gram each, to Binion at his 2408 Palomino Lane home on Sept. 16, 1998.

Binion, he testified, gave him $240 and 30 tablets of the prescription sedative Xanax for the heroin. Binion had obtained a prescription for 120 tablets of Xanax earlier in the day.

Sheridan took the witness stand today as the trial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, the two people charged with killing the 55-year-old Binion on Sept. 17, 1998, entered its second week of testimony.

Prosecutors contend Binion's accused killers pumped him with heroin and Xanax and suffocated him. But defense attorneys maintain Binion killed himself with an overdose.

Sheridan, who acknowledged under cross-examination that he has been treated with methadone for his own heroin addiction for 20 years, testified that he had sold the street drug to Binion off and on since 1985.

He testified that he went to Binion's home Sept. 16 about 8 or 9 p.m.

Murphy, he said, let him inside.

After handing Binion the balloons of heroin, Binion pulled out a wad of bills from his pocket and paid him the $240 for the drugs.

Sheridan said he had been selling Binion three or four balloons of heroin a week the last three months of his life. But on the night before he died, he said Binion requested 12 balloons because he planned to spend time at his Pahrump ranch.

Binion, he said, was not contemplating suicide.

Sheridan testified that Binion always smoked heroin, which supported the prosecution's theory that Binion did not kill himself. An autopsy found heroin in his stomach.

Prosecutors today also were expected to call Binion's longtime gardener, Tom Loveday, to the witness stand. Loveday, who was working at the former casino executive's home the day of his death, has testified previously that he noticed some strange occurrences there that day.

Other people close to Binion, such has his longtime bookkeeper, Kathy Rose; his real estate agent, Barbara Brown; and one of his attorneys, Richard Wright, also were on today's witness list. All three had conversations with Binion in the days before his death.

Prosecutors also were expected to begin describing the death scene at Binion's Palomino Lane house as early as today with the testimony of paramedics and crime scene analysts who were among the first to arrive at the scene.

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.