Crime scene expert disputes handling of gambler’s murder

Robert Macy

Monday, May 1, 2000 | 3:39 a.m.

A crime scene reconstruction expert claimed Monday that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police did sloppy investigative work at the scene of gambler Ted Binion's death.

Paul Dougherty, who now runs his own laboratory and does consulting work for the Ventura County, Calif., Sheriff's office, called the investigation by local police "incomplete."

Dougherty, who testified as a defense witness in the high-profile trial, said there was "not an adequate recording of the scene itself."

Police were called to Binion's $900,000 Las Vegas home Sept. 17, 1998, and found him dead of what appeared to be a drug overdose.

Weeks later the death was ruled a homicide.

Prosecutors contend Binion was forced to ingest a lethal dose of heroin and the prescription anti-depressant Xanax, then was suffocated.

Defense attorneys contend Binion, a longtime drug user, died of an accidental overdose or committed suicide.

Binion's live-in girlfriend, Sandra Murphy, and her lover, Missoula, Mont., contractor Rick Tabish, are charged with killing Binion and stealing his valuables.

Dougherty said that based on police photographs, it appeared Binion was lying on a mat in the den of his home, his head positioned so he could watch television. Prosecution witnesses testified that would be uncharacteristic of Binion.

Dougherty contended the body was not photographed adequately although a Metro police photographer took 200 photos of the death scene and the house.

The witness reviewed numerous police photos taken at the scene Sept. 17, 1998, then others of the same areas taken Oct. 7, 1998.

Dougherty criticized the work of police, saying they should have used something in the photos to measure scale, such as the distance between various objects being photographed. Under cross-examination he admitted that a scale was used in many of the photos, particularly those showing abrasions on Binion's body.

He pointed out items that had been moved or changed in the photos taken on the two dates, and said such changes can "alter your interpretation" of what took place.

"Things have been altered in a supposedly secure scene," Dougherty said in reviewing photos of the home.

He also questioned whether authorities might have lost DNA evidence in the case.

Dougherty criticized longtime Binion friend and attorney Jim Brown for not notifying police sooner about Binion's concerns that Murphy might kill him.

Brown testified that Binion called him Sept. 16, 1998, telling him to cut Murphy out of his will, saying he was afraid she would kill him. The will stated Murphy was to receive $300,000, the home and its contents if Binion died.

Brown went to police with the concerns three days after Binion's death. The Binion family then hired Tom Dillard, a retired Metro homicide detective, to pursue the case. Murphy and Tabish, the prime suspects, were arrested in June 1999 and charged in Binion's death.