Case against alleged killers opens

Friday, March 31, 2000 | 11:28 a.m.

Prosecutors today began laying out their case in court against Ted Binion's accused killers.

Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor, described the colorful, but troubled lifestyle of the wealthy gambling figure before his Sept, 17, 1998, slaying.

"We're not about to paint a picture of a saint," Roger said in his opening statement. "However, he was a human being."

Roger's statement came as the biggest murder trial ever in Las Vegas got under way this morning under tight security in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, a seasoned no-nonsense jurist.

Prosecutors have alleged that Binion's live-in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and her reported lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish, pumped the former casino man with drugs and suffocated him at his 2408 Palomino Lane home.

Defense lawyers, who were to deliver their opening statements after Roger, have countered that the 55-year-old Binion killed himself in a drug overdose.

Roger described in his statement how Binion became hooked on heroin, broke up with his wife, Doris Binion, and met his accused killers Murphy and Tabish.

Doris Binion moved out of the couple's Palomino Lane home in March 1995 after overhearing Binion and Murphy planning a picnic at Binion's Pahrump ranch, Roger said.

One month later, Roger said, Murphy, a 28-year-old onetime topless dancer, moved in with Binion, where she stayed until his death more than three years later.

"Sandra Murphy led a pretty good life when she lived with Ted Binion," Roger said.

The prosecutor told the jury it wasn't "always a day at the beach living with a drug addict," but that Murphy received many benefits from Binion.

Binion, he said, bought her a Mercedes sports coupe and gave her a Mastercard with a $10,000 limit and thousands of dollars in cash.

Murphy, who wore a navy blue suit, watched intently with a stern face as Roger addressed the nine women and three men on the jury.

Roger said witnesses during the expected two-month trial, which is being aired live on local and national television, will testify that Binion was not in a mood to kill himself, as the defense has claimed.

"Although Ted Binion was down, he was not out," Roger said.

Roger said Binion was looking forward to regaining his gaming license that had been revoked several months earlier.

The prosecutor was expected to refer to an explosive quote from Binion's estate lawyer, James J. Brown, during his statement to the jurors.

Brown has testified that Binion, the son of the late legendary gaming pioneer, Benny Binion, told him the day before his death to remove Murphy from his will.

"Take Sandy out of the will if she doesn't kill me tonight," Brown quoted Binion as saying. "If I'm dead, you'll know what happened."

At the preliminary hearing for Murphy and Tabish last September, Roger charged that Murphy and Tabish had fallen in love and conspired to kill Binion for his money.

Tabish, 35, a married convicted felon who comes from a prominent Montana family, was hoping to gain access to Binion's wealth to ease his failing businesses, Roger alleged.

The prosecutor contended that Binion was restrained with his own handcuffs, forced to drink a liquid mixture of the heroin he had bought the night before he died and then was suffocated.

His body was discovered on the floor of his den next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. Police have concluded that his accused killers staged the death scene.

The suffocation theory was unveiled during the preliminary hearing when Dr. Michael Baden, a celebrated New York pathologist, took the witness stand.

Baden, director of forensic sciences for the New York State Police, testified that Binion was suffocated by a 19th century method called "burking" in which the killer sits on the chest of the victim and covers the victim's nose and mouth.

His testimony contradicted Lary Simms, Clark County's chief medical examiner who had performed the autopsy on Binion's body. Simms has concluded that Binion was forced to ingest fatal doses of heroin and Xanax, which were found in his stomach.

But the defense contends Binion willingly took the drugs.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a nationally known Pittsburgh pathologist, has provided defense lawyers with a 17-page report that concludes Binion died of "a combined heroin and Xanax overdose" as part of a planned suicide.

Defense attorneys John Momot and Louis Palazzo, who represent Murphy and Tabish, were expected to elaborate on that theory during their opening statements.

The lawyers were prepared to lay blame for Binion's death on his heroin supplier, Peter Sheridan, and neighbor, Dr. Enrique Lacayo, who gave Binion the Xanax prescription the day before he died.

Momot and Palazzo were expected to chastise Binion's family members for allowing his heroin addiction to get out of hand.