Tabish’s wife granted divorce

Friday, July 21, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

Missoula, Mont., officials confirmed to KLAS Channel 8 in Las Vegas that the divorce was granted this week.

In the divorce petition, Mary Jo Tabish said her marriage was broken and has no chance for reconciliation.

There was no mention of Tabish's murder conviction.

Tabish and Sandra Murphy, a former topless dancer, were convicted in May of the September 1998 murder of gambling figure Ted Binion. Murphy was Binion's live-in girlfriend.

Tabish and Murphy also were found guilty of trying to steal $7 million in silver Binion had stored in a vault buried in the desert near Pahrump and looting his home of silver coins and other valuables.

A jury recommended they be sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years for the murder charges.

Formal sentencing on all charges is scheduled Sept. 8.

In October 1999, Mary Jo Tabish wrote a letter to the court asking that her husband be released on bail. In the letter, she said the criminal charges had taken a toll on the family's business and financial welfare.

"I won't be able to hold onto what little is left without him, for the vultures are circling, and with every day he spends incarcerated, they loom ever closer," she said.

During the murder trial, defense attorneys conceded that Tabish and Murphy had been having an affair. Mrs. Tabish was absent during the six-week trial, but testified during the penalty phase in an effort to spare Tabish a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Mrs. Tabish will use her maiden name, Rehbein, the television station reported.