Murphy sobs as dramatic tape is played in court

Thursday, May 4, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Sandy Murphy openly sobbed in court today as her defense lawyer played an emotional 13-minute tape of a hospital interview she gave a Metro Police detective after the death of her boyfriend, Ted Binion.

The 28-year-old Murphy, charged with killing the wealthy gambling figure, clasped her hands over her face and put her head down on the defense table in a moment of high drama while weeping continuously as the tape was played to the 12-member jury.

The jury showed little reaction as Murphy wept.

Her attorney, John Momot, with a stern face, tried to comfort her several times during the playing of the garbled tape of an apparently hysterical and wailing Murphy.

According to a seven-page transcript of the tape, which was obtained by the Sun in July, Murphy, speaking in choppy and sometimes incoherent sentences, provided Detective Jim Mitchell with few details of Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, death.

But she suggested Binion had overdosed on drugs. She had told police that Binion planned to enter a drug rehabilitation program.

Murphy told Mitchell in the interview that Binion had obtained a prescription for a bottle of Xanax from his neighbor, Dr. Enrique Lacayo, the day before his death.

"He (Binion) told me this is the last time, and he wasn't gonna ever do it again," she said while weeping.

Murphy described finding Binion on a sleeping mat on the floor of the den of his 2408 Palomino Lane home, saying she originally thought he was alive.

"He looked like he was sleeping," she said. "I thought he was sleeping, and he wouldn't wake up. He wouldn't wake up. He wouldn't wake up. He wouldn't wake up. Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!"

Momot today also played the 911 call Murphy made to report discovering Binion's body.

On that call, Murphy, in a hysterical voice, told the 911 dispatcher that "her husband stopped breathing." Then she hung up.

The dispatcher attempted to reach her again, but failed. Then, according to the recording, the dispatcher heard from a paramedic who said the death appeared "natural."

Murphy kept her left hand on the side of her face and appeared to be on the verge of bursting into tears as the 911 tape was played for the jury today. The call was made at 3:55 p.m. on the day Binion died.

Minutes later, when the tape of her hospital interview was played, she started sobbing.

Murphy, and her lover, Montana contractor Rick Tabish are standing trial on charges of killing the 55-year-old Binion and stealing his valuables. The trial, in its sixth week, is taking place in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Defense lawyers were expecting to wrap up their case as early as today.

Last month, nurses at Valley Hospital, where Murphy was taken a couple of hours after Binion's body was found, described her hysteria as "almost theatrical."

And prosecutors played a videotape of Murphy touring Binion's home the day after his death showing a dramatic change in her demeanor from the previous day. The tape showed that Murphy, in less than 24 hours, went from the grieving girlfriend to a foul-mouthed materialistic heir.

On Wednesday the defense's star witness, well-known Pittsburgh pathologist Cyril Wecht, attempted to take apart the prosecution's theory that Binion was suffocated. The theory was advanced by Wecht's good friend and equally celebrated forensic expert, Dr. Michael Baden of New York.

Wecht, who serves as the county coroner and director of laboratory services for St. Francis hospital in Pittsburgh, spent nearly six hours on the witness stand offering a different conclusion on Binion's death.

Questioned by Momot, Wecht testified that Binion died of an intentional drug overdose of heroin, Xanax and Valium.

Her said he determined that Binion committed suicide based on autopsy reports and information the defense provided him -- including his many personal problems and the fact that he obtained 12 balloons of tar heroin and a prescription for Xanax the day before he died.

But under cross-examination by Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall, Wecht acknowledged he basically was spoon-fed information from the defense and not given access to a long list of testimony from key prosecution witnesses who have shed light on the alleged scheme to kill Binion.

Wecht, who like Baden has consulted in some of the biggest murder cases in the country, said he "might back away completely" from the suicide theory if he read that testimony.

But he insisted he still would not consider Binion's death a homicide as Baden and Clark County Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms have concluded.

"That just puts me back to accidental death," he said.

Wall did not attempt to embarrass Wecht, who appeared to be well-received by the jury, over his appearance in the controversial 1995 Fox broadcast "Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction."

Instead, the prosecutor kept the brunt of his cross-examination to the facts of the Binion case.

Wall's even-handed questioning of Wecht was in stark contrast to the aggressive, condescending approach taken by Milwaukee attorney James Shellow on behalf of the defense in his cross-examination of Baden last month.

Baden also was well received by the jury, and Shellow appeared to irritate some panel members.

Wall questioned Wecht about a paragraph in his book, "Grave Secrets," in which he said Baden is "always correct" on the witness stand except when Wecht testified.

Wecht testified that Baden was wrong in his conclusion that Binion died by the 19th century method of "burking" in which pressure is put on the victim's chest and he is smothered.

"I don't find a basis for such a diagnosis in this case," he told the jury.

He said he did not see pinpoint-sized ruptured blood vessels under Binion's eyes that would indicate he was suffocated, as Baden claimed.

Discoloration around Binion's mouth and nose was the result of irritation from shaving rather than being smothered, Wecht said.

He also disagreed with Baden that marks on Binion's wrists were the result of being restrained with handcuffs.

And Wecht suggested that two small marks on Binion's chest could have been the result of efforts to revive him and not from someone trying to suffocate him.

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.