Experts describe chaotic death scene

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Testimony in the Ted Binion murder trial this morning again focused on the hectic death scene at the home of the wealthy gambling figure.

Michael Perkins, a Metro Police crime scene supervisor, was the first of several criminalistics experts to take the witness stand today to explain what they found when they arrived at Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home on the day his body was found.

Perkins showed the 12-member jury photos of Binion's body lying on a sleeping mat partially covered with a comforter in the middle of his den.

On Monday Steven Reincke, a veteran Las Vegas Fire Department paramedic, testified about the chaotic scene at the home about 3:57 p.m., as his team responded to a frantic 911 call from Binion's live-in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, who had reported that "her husband" had stopped breathing.

Murphy and her lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, are charged with killing Binion and stealing his valuables. Prosecutors believe Binion was pumped with drugs and suffocated sometime between 9 a.m. and noon on Sept. 17, 1998. But defense lawyers contend the former casino owner committed suicide with a drug overdose.

Reincke testified that a hysterical Murphy greeted the paramedics outside the home and led them to Binion's body, which was lying next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax.

"I immediately thought that he was dead," Reincke said, adding that Binion's face looked ashen and that rigor mortis already seemed to have set in his jaw.

Shortly after Reincke began examining the body, Murphy returned to the den in an excited state, he said.

"Murphy came running into the room and just about fell on the body," he said.

His colleagues, he said, intercepted her and escorted her back out of the room so that he could continue his examination.

Reincke, who reviewed photos of Binion's body taken at the scene while on the witness stand, said he found that Binion had no pulse and wasn't breathing and that his pupils were dilated.

The experienced paramedic described the scene inside and outside the Palomino Lane home as a "circus," as he examined Binion's body. Phone messages were pouring in on a recorder next to the body, plainclothes and uniformed officers and Horseshoe security guards were coming inside, and Binion's friends, neighbors and attorneys were gathering outside, he said.

Murphy, a 28-year-old onetime topless dancer, cried throughout Reincke's testimony. It was the second day in a row that she had become emotional in court. After Reincke concluded his testimony and District Judge Joseph Bonaventure recessed for the evening, a teary-eyed Murphy stood up and stared at all 12 jurors as they left the courtroom.

Outside the courthouse there also was plenty of action.

Prosecutors learned Monday that a second witness, Las Vegas businessman Larry Stockett, was arrested over the weekend following his testimony for allegedly passing bad checks.

Stockett, who testified last week that he tried to buy Tabish's trucking firm, MRT Transport, days before Binion's death, followed Steven Kurt Gratzer to jail.

Gratzer, a 36-year-old Montana man who testified that Tabish had sought his help in killing Binion, was taken into custody last Thursday on a charge of domestic battery just two days after he had taken the witness stand.

Prosecutors insisted the arrests would have no effect on the well-publicized trial, now in its second week of testimony.

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, stepped up a campaign to influence public opinion outside the presence of the jurors.

For the second time in a week, John Momot, who represents Murphy, and Louis Palazzo, who is defending Tabish, appeared on Geraldo Rivera's live CNBC show Monday night to attack the prosecution's case.

Rivera, who acknowledged that he hasn't kept abreast of all of the courtroom developments, told Momot: "I like your client's chances."

Chief Deputy District Attorneys David Roger and David Wall have declined to go on Rivera's show or grant interviews to local and national media during the trial, which has been moving at a faster pace than anticipated. But they are said to be pleased with the way their case against Murphy and Tabish is unfolding.

On the local front, the defense also has been attempting to put a favorable spin on the trial by releasing poll results that show Murphy and Tabish now are faring much better in the eyes of the public.

The man behind the defense strategy, Bill Cassidy, an aide to Murphy's former lawyer, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, went on local television Monday night blasting the prosecution, as well.

In other testimony Monday, Eunice Altamirano, a former housekeeper for Binion's neighbor, Dr. Enrique Lacayo, said Binion looked as though he had just awakened when she handed him his newspaper about 5:30 a.m. on the morning of his death. Lacayo testified Friday that he prescribed the bottle of Xanax for Binion.

Prosecutors believe Altamirano, who spoke through an interpreter, was the last person outside Binion's home to see him alive.

Altamirano said she saw Murphy drive home about 11 p.m. the night before and park her black Mercedes under an awning near the kitchen to Binion's home.

Binion's longtime gardener, Thomas Loveday, testified that he saw Murphy's car in the carport the entire time he worked on Binion's lawn from 9 a.m. until 1:15 p.m. on the day of Binion's death.

Loveday said Binion's two dogs, Princess and Pig, weren't acting normal that day and the curtains to the living room, which has a view to the den where Binion's body was found, mysteriously were drawn. He said he never saw the drapes closed in the dozen years that he had been cutting Binion's grass at the Palomino Lane home.

Suspicious when Binion's housekeeper never showed up to work, Loveday said he walked around the house peering into windows, but he never saw anybody inside. The housekeeper, Mary Montoya-Gascoigne, has said Murphy told her not to come to work that morning.

Binion's real estate agent, Barbara Brown, also took the witness stand to describe her encounter with Murphy during a 12:04 p.m. phone call to Binion's house on Sept, 17, 1998.

Brown recalled that a distraught Murphy told her Binion was "out of it" and couldn't talk to her. She said Murphy explained that she had a big mess to clean up in the bathroom and that "nobody knows what it's like living with a drug addict."

Under cross examination, Brown said she once heard Murphy and Binion talking about domestic abuse in their relationship.

She quoted Murphy as telling Binion: "Every woman needs a beating once a month, isn't that right babe?"

Binion, she said, responded, "And you got yours already."

Kathy Rose, Binion's longtime bookkeeper, testified that Murphy made an unscheduled visit to her office about 3 p.m. the day Binion died to drop off a $150 check.

Murphy told Rose that she was up all night with Binion, who had obtained a new prescription, and that she was on her way to get a bite to eat because he had finally gone to sleep.

Rose said Binion had instructed her to cut off Murphy's $5,000-a-month credit card habit just days before he died.

She also testified that Murphy telephoned her on Sept. 28, 1998, offering to split some valuables buried at Binion's Pahrump ranch with his brother, Jack Binion.

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.

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