Prosecutors say jailhouse notes reveal alibi scheme

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

Prosecutors Thursday unveiled handwritten jailhouse notes from Rick Tabish outlining an alleged plot to pay alibi witnesses in the Ted Binion murder case.

The 52-pages of notes were delivered to Jason Frazer last summer by Tabish's civil lawyer, William Knudson, who has denied any involvement in the alleged conspiracy.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, following more than four hours of sworn testimony from Frazer and strenuous objections from defense lawyers, gave prosecutors permission to introduce the notes at the March 13 trial of Tabish and his reported lover, Sandy Murphy, who are charged with killing Binion in September 1998.

Frazer, a 28-year-old Montana man who once ran Tabish's trucking businesses, has been granted immunity from prosecution to testify about the alibi scheme at the trial.

Bonaventure reduced Frazer's bail on a material-witness warrant from $1 million to $100,000 at the urging of Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the Binion case. Frazer agreed to remain under house arrest in Missoula, Mont., until called to the witness stand in Las Vegas.

Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, who argued that Frazer's testimony was filled with holes and not credible, told Bonaventure he needed a 30-day continuance of the trial so that he can properly respond to Frazer's 11th-hour allegations. Bonaventure, however, made it clear he is determined to start the case March 13.

Frazer testified that the alibi plot was hatched last July and August when he visited Tabish at the Clark County Detention Center.

He said the notes, sometimes given to him by Knudson in sealed envelopes, contained tasks -- including rounding up witnesses -- that Tabish wanted him to perform in preparation for the trial.

In one note Tabish allegedly asked Frazer to make sure a Tabish employee identified as Jim Mitchell would be available to help provide him with an alibi on the day of Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, slaying.

"I need Roger to get a hold of Jim Mitchell concerning Sept. 17, 1998, at All Star (Ready Mix)," Tabish wrote. "We really need an affidavit from him saying we were working on the sand screw from 7-11:30 a.m. 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 listed in court records as one of Tabish's alibi witnesses who will testify that Tabish was at the North Las Vegas cement company the morning of Binion's death.

Police believe the former casino executive was killed between 9 a.m. and noon.

Tabish told Frazer in the note to "be careful about what you do.

"Everything will be fine," he said. "Let's get some stuff handled and pay attention to business."

In another note Tabish wrote: "Tell Mitchell we will take care of any legal concerns he has, but his testimony is crucial to me being set free. ..."

Tabish added: "This is a slam dunk if everyone sticks in ... Tell everyone when I owe someone something, the rewards are huge, and I think they know."

In several of the notes Tabish expressed concerns about private detective Tom Dillard, who has been investigating Binion's death for his estate.

"Half of the 109-page (arrest affidavit) comes from this uneducated moron," Tabish wrote. "This man has no business savvy. Thank God for us he has no ethics either."

Frazer testified how Tabish allegedly put him in touch with the mystery man, Ishma, whom Frazer said he paid $2,000 to find witnesses for Tabish.

Prosecutors originally were told that Ishma, whom Frazer described as a dark-skinned Hispanic man, was going to round up people to help with the alibi in the slaying. But on the witness stand, Frazer said Ishma was to provide witnesses who would falsely allege that Dillard had offered them money to testify in the case.

Dillard told the Sun after Thursday's hearing that Frazer's testimony has exposed Tabish as a bigtime manipulator.

"He thinks he's the puppet master, but his strings have been severed," Dillard said.

Dillard said Frazer's testimony also does not portray Knudson and Tabish's private investigator, Jim Thomas, in a good light.

"It appears to me that Knudson and Thomas are playing fast and loose with the truth," he said.

Frazer testified that he arranged at Tabish's request for two employees, Roger Davis and Martin Frye, to give false statements to Thomas about Tabish's alleged torture of a Las Vegas businessman at a Jean sand pit two months before Binion's death.

Frazer said he got a note from Tabish instructing Davis and Frye to tell Thomas there was no violence at the sand pit. Both men weren't at the sand pit that day, Frazer said.

On another subject, Frazer said Tabish once told him that Murphy, a 28-year-old onetime topless dancer, was "very good in bed."

He testified that he believed the two slept together at the Henderson apartment they shared prior to their June 24 arrests in Binion's slaying.

Both Murphy and Tabish, who has a wife and two small children in Montana, have denied being romantically involved.

But Frazer said: "I saw them kiss. They were very close with each other. They touched each other a lot."

Frazer also testified that he believed Murphy was aware of the alibi plot.

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