DA: Murphy may have coerced change in will

Thursday, April 27, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

A prosecutor suggested today that Sandy Murphy may have coerced a drug-dependent Ted Binion into including her in his will two months before his death.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger raised that possibility when cross-examining attorney R. Gardner Jolley, the first witness called by the defense.

Murphy, Binion's 28-year-old live-in girlfriend, and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, are standing trial on charges of killing Binion on Sept. 17, 1998, and stealing his valuables.

Jolley, who represented Murphy in her battle with Binion's $55 million estate, acknowledged that a will can be challenged because of coercion, but he said it is tough to prove in court.

On direct examination Jolley testified that a District Court judge in late December 1998 voided an attempt by Binion's estate lawyer, James J. Brown, to disinherit Murphy. Brown testified earlier in the murder trial that Binion had expressed the day before his death a fear that Murphy was going to harm him and wanted her out of his will.

Murphy, a one-time topless dancer, had persuaded Binion to change his will on July 9, 1998, to give her his $900,000 house, its contents and $300,000 in cash. Witnesses testified that Binion was using heroin and other drugs during this period.

Jolley also acknowledged under cross-examination that Binion's estate has alleged that assets are missing. Murphy asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions about those assets when questioned under oath last year.

Roger also pointed out that Jolley filed a "palimony" suit for Murphy last year, seeking $2 million from the $55 million estate for "extraordinary services" she provided Binion in the three years she lived with him.

Prosecutors wrapped up their case Wednesday, calling the last of about 90 witnesses in less than one month in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Prior to resting, Roger brought Jimmy Smith, a Metro Police handwriting analyst, to the witness stand.

Smith told the 12-member jury about another hand-written list of coins that police found at Binion's home during a court-authorized search on Oct. 7, 1998. He said Murphy wrote the 19-page list, as well as a seven-page list introduced as evidence earlier this week.

The latter list identifies coins allegedly stolen from Binion's safe after his death. Tabish turned over coins believed to be on the list to his brother-in-law, Dennis Rehbein, in November 1998 as collateral for a $25,000 loan.

Smith also testified that a map purporting to show buried treasure at Binion's 125-acre ranch in Pahrump was written by Murphy. The map was seized from Tabish's briefcase during a Feb. 19, 1999, police raid at a Henderson apartment shared by Murphy and Tabish.

Binion's longtime bookkeeper, Cathy Rose, testified earlier in the trial that Murphy telephoned her about a month after the 55-year-old Binion's death looking to split "property" Binion had buried at his ranch with his brother, Jack Binion.

Also Wednesday Denise Wieser, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, testified that she saw an affectionate Murphy and Tabish sitting together in first class on a flight to Salt Lake City a couple of weeks after Binion's death.

Wieser said she saw Murphy with her hand on Tabish's leg while "nuzzling his neck."

Prosecutors have alleged that Murphy and Tabish pumped Binion with drugs and then suffocated him at his home. Defense attorneys contend the wealthy gambling figure, a known heroin user, killed himself with a drug overdose.

The most important witness called by prosecutors Wednesday was Jason Frazer, a 29-year-old Tabish friend and former business associate. He was the last of a string of witnesses in the inner circle of Murphy and Tabish to testify against the two defendants.

Frazer spent several hours on the stand outlining what prosecutors believe was a plot by Tabish to pay witnesses to provide him with an alibi in the slaying, as well as the July 28, 1998, alleged torture and kidnapping of Las Vegas businessman Leo Casey.

Tabish, Frazer said, also instructed him to seek out a man identified only as "Ishma" to come up with witnesses who would falsely testify that private detective Tom Dillard had offered them money to be witnesses for the prosecution.

Dillard, who has investigated Binion's death for his estate, has been credited with breaking open the case. He interviewed about 100 witnesses for prosecutors.

Frazer said he gave an associate of Ishma's $2,500 up front for his efforts to find the witnesses to discredit Dillard.

Murphy, he said, was aware of the plot and even telephoned him once to direct him to Ishma.

After meeting with Ishma, Frazer testified, Murphy told him "this is really going to work out great for our side."

The scheme, Frazer testified, was hatched last July at the Clark County Detention Center, where Tabish was being held on no bail. At the time, Frazer said, he was running Tabish's trucking firm for him in Missoula, Mont.

Frazer said Tabish passed him instructions on how to carry out the alibi plot in hand-written notes delivered by his civil lawyer, William Knudson.

Roger referred to one note in which Tabish was seeking the testimony of employee Jim Mitchell to corroborate other witnesses who would say Tabish was at a North Las Vegas concrete mixing company on the morning of Binion's death. Prosecutors believe Binion died between 9 a.m. and noon.

"We really need an affidavit from (Mitchell) saying we were working on the sand screw from 7-11:30 a.m.," the note said. "My life is on the line, and we need to fight fire with fire, and I will pay for an attorney for him."

Mitchell, who had some legal problems at the time, is expected to be called as a defense witness.

Frazer said Tabish also wanted him to round up two employees to provide testimony that would rebut allegations that Tabish had tortured Casey into turning over his interests in a Jean sand pit two months before Binion's death.

Tabish, he said, gave him instructions in writing explaining how the two men, Roger Davis and Martin Frye, were to testify.

Both men said, "tell me what to say," Frazer testified.

Frazer said he took Davis and Frye to the office of defense investigator Jim Thomas, who obtained tape recorded statements from them in each other's presence.

The two men, however, are not listed as defense witnesses.

Under cross-examination from Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, Frazer acknowledged that he never paid any witnesses himself on Tabish's behalf and that it was possible Tabish was merely trying to determine whether the witnesses had information that would help his case.

Frazer told Murphy's lawyer, John Momot, that she never sought to pay off witnesses while he was staying at her Henderson apartment last summer.

On Tuesday, however, Tanya Cropp, a close Murphy friend, testified that Murphy had asked her to give false statements about the case to Dillard early in the murder investigation.

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