Lawyers: Mob had time to slay Binion

Thursday, Aug. 24, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

Defense lawyers filed court papers Wednesday suggesting the mob had time to kill Ted Binion while his girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, was away from his house the afternoon of his death.

Attorneys John Momot and Gerald Scotti, who represent Murphy, contended in an 11-page brief that medical experts testified the wealthy gambling figure could have died as late as 2:40 p.m. on Sept. 17, 1998.

Murphy, the lawyers said, left Binion's home to go to the Horseshoe Club's corporate office at 1:30 p.m., which meant "Binion could have been murdered pursuant to the previous plan of organized crime at which time the perpetrators made the murder look like an accidental overdose.

"By not disclosing this information prior to trial, the state prevented defendant's counsel from utilizing that information and incorporating it into the defense," the lawyers wrote.

They argued that prosecutors failed to turn over FBI reports showing that the reputed underworld figures who killed Herbie Blitzstein in January 1997 planned give Binion an overdose of heroin and steal his valuables.

Murphy, a 27-year-old one-time topless dancer, and her lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, were convicted in May of killing Binion.

The two defendants maintained during their trial that Binion died of a self-induced overdose. But prosecutors, who suggested Binion died about 9 a.m., persuaded a jury that Murphy and Tabish pumped the former casino executive with drugs and suffocated him to gain access to his wealth.

Murphy had reported discovering Binion's body on the floor of his den at 3:55 p.m.

The theory that the mob plotted Binion's death was first argued last week at an evidentiary hearing on whether to grant Murphy and Tabish a new trial.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger told District Judge Joseph Bonaventure that it would have been "absurd" and "legal suicide" for Murphy and Tabish to claim the mob killed Binion knowing prosecutors had evidence linking both defendants to being at Binion's home the day he died.

Roger, who insisted he never had the FBI reports, said any such defense would have linked the two lovers to the organized crime conspiracy.

Tabish's attorney, William Terry, meanwhile, used his post-hearing brief Wednesday to attack the integrity of the 12 jurors who returned the guilty verdicts.

"The actions of the jurors in the instant case do not pass the smell test," Terry wrote. "Something went wrong in the jury room."

Terry charged that nine of the jurors had a potential "monetary interest" in the guilty verdicts because of a pending book deal and weren't impartial.

He said Kimberly Arnold, a local dental assistant and aspiring author, sought out the jurors during the trial and then organized them afterward, even arranging a dinner with Binion's sister, Horseshoe Club President Becky Behnen.

The jurors also were eager to be interviewed by NBC's "Dateline" after the trial, Terry said.

And Terry accused juror Chris Sowell of "misrepresenting himself" to his fellow jurors by suggesting he had knowledge about medicine when he didn't.

Sowell also "lacked candor" when testifying during the evidentiary hearing about his correspondence after the trial over the Internet, Terry alleged.

Terry accused the panel of "racial coercion" when one juror laughingly told dissident Joan Sanders that she must feel like the token black on the panel.

Sanders, who voluntarily went to defense lawyers after the trial to allege jury misconduct, felt intimidated by that remark, Terry said.

It was Sanders who told defense attorneys that the unauthorized legal phrase "depraved indifference" may have played a role in the deliberations.

Sanders said she changed her voted to guilty after hearing a discussion of the term -- which suggests a person can be convicted of murder by being in the presence of someone who dies and doing nothing to save the person.

Depraved indifference was not part of the jury instructions.

Defense lawyers contended the phrase "infected" the deliberation process.

But the majority of jurors testified that they never even heard the words, and the foreman, Arthur Spears Jr., said the term did not play a major role in the deliberations.

Roger, in his brief Wednesday, wrote that the defense should be barred from using depraved indifference to attack the verdict because it leads to the mental processes of the jurors.

In his brief, however, Terry said Bonaventure should seriously consider the jury misconduct allegations because the "issue of guilt or innocence in the instant matter is close.

"The evidence presented by the state of Nevada against Mr. Tabish cannot be characterized as overwhelming," he said. "To the contrary, the state's evidence was circumstantial and inconclusive."

Bonaventure has promised a decision on a new trial on Sept. 8.