Momot: A conspiracy with heroin

Tuesday, May 9, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Sandy Murphy's attorney told the jury in the Ted Binion murder case today that she did not kill the wealthy gambling figure.

"The true fact is Sandy Murphy did not kill Ted Binion," John Momot said in his closing argument this morning. "But the real fact is Ted Binion did die of a conspiracy, and it was a conspiracy between himself and heroin."

Murphy, Binion's 28-year-old live-in girlfriend, and her 35-year-old lover, married Montana contractor Rick Tabish, are standing trial on charges of killing Binion Sept. 17, 1998, and stealing his valuables.

The case was expected to go to the 12-member jury today following the conclusion of closing arguments in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.

Momot portrayed Murphy as a young woman who had become the victim of Binion's drug-addicted lifestyle that intensified after he lost his gaming license six months earlier.

"You have to have the strength of Hercules to deal with this on a day-to-day basis," Momot said. "She loves him, and he loves heroin."

Momot accused the "Binion Money Machine" of trying to "grind this woman up" and blame Binion's death on her. Binion is the son of Benny Binion, late politically connected gaming legend.

Binion's death, Momot said, was the result of a "curse" brought on by his own drug problems.

"Everybody here, including the state, is in denial about that," he charged.

Momot also pointed blame at Binion's "Dr. Feelgood" neighbor, Enrique Lacayo, who gave Binion a prescription for Xanax without an examination the day before Binion's death, and his heroin supplier, Peter Sheridan, who delivered 12 balloons of black tar heroin to him that evening.

The defense contends Binion committed suicide with an overdose of heroin and Xanax.

Momot said Sheridan, not Murphy, should have been at the defense table, facing charges of killing the former casino executive.

Murphy broke into tears again as Momot read from a transcript of an emotional interview she gave police after Binion's death. Prosecutors have accused Murphy of putting on an act in court throughout the six-week trial.

On Monday Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger spent four hours delivering a high-tech closing argument that focused heavily on the massive amount of circumstantial evidence pointing to the alleged murder-robbery conspiracy.

He weaved a tale of lust, greed and betrayal on the part of Murphy and Tabish during his methodical, computer-assisted presentation.

Roger and his fellow prosecutor, Chief Deputy District Attorney David Wall, had called about 90 witnesses to the stand to detail the murder scheme during the nationally televised trial.

As he carefully laid out his case to the 12 jurors Monday, Roger flashed snippets of key testimony from many of those witnesses on two large computer monitors.

"Ladies and gentleman, this isn't all a coincidence," Roger said. "The totality of the evidence in this case establishes that Ted Binion was murdered.

"The evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the killers in this case are the two people he trusted, the two people who had a secret affair behind Ted Binion's back, the two people who talked about killing Ted Binion, who stole everything Ted Binion had, including his life."

Roger said Murphy and Tabish, who wanted to live a "prince and princess-like life" together, each had a financial motive to kill Binion and make it look like a drug overdose.

At the time of Binion's death, Roger said, Tabish, the son of a wealthy Montana businessman, was more than $1.6 million in debt as a result of his own struggling businesses.

"Do you think he was feeling a little pressure?" Roger asked.

Murphy, a transplanted Southern Californian who met Binion while dancing topless at Cheetah's nightclub in 1995, was going to be cut out of Binion's life and his will, which meant he was worth more to her dead than alive, Roger said.

By killing the 55-year-old Binion, Roger said, Murphy was able to stay in his will and be eligible to inherit his $900,000 house, its contents and $300,000 in cash. Murphy also believed she was the beneficiary of a $900,000 life insurance policy on Binion.

"And by the way," Roger told the jurors, "she got her prince charming as well."

Binion's sister, Horseshoe Club President Becky Behnen, sat in the audience Monday for the first time since the trial began seven weeks ago. Behnen, the first to publicly suggest foul play in her brother's death, had been barred from attending the trial because she was listed as a witness. She was never called to the stand, however.

Behnen said she was very pleased with the closing argument Roger delivered.

"He deserves all the accolades I can give him," Behnen told the Sun. "I feel great."

Also in court for the first time Monday was Tom Dillard, a private detective who probed Binion's death for his $55 million estate. Dillard, the subject of much criticism from the defense, is credited with breaking open the case.

Roger, meanwhile, said the people who knew Binion best made it clear that he was not suicidal at the time of his death.

He charged that Murphy and Tabish pumped a restrained Binion with drugs on the morning of Sept, 17, 1998, but were forced to suffocate him when his gardener, Thomas Loveday, showed up for work.

Murphy, he said, had instructed Binion's housekeeper, Mary Montoya Gascoigne, not to come to work that morning but forgot to "call off" Loveday.

Roger suggested that Binion, who also had heroin in his system, probably had lapsed into a coma by the time Loveday arrived. The accused killers, however, decided they couldn't wait for him to die so they sat on his chest and smothered him with their hands.

Binion was given a lethal cocktail of dissolved Xanax pills that he had obtained a day earlier, Roger said. That cocktail was mixed in a wine glass Murphy took from his 2408 Palomino Lane home the day after his death.

Roger showed excerpts on the computer monitors from a 20-minute home video of Murphy appearing to put the glass in her pursue. Roger said the tape also showed a dramatic change in Murphy's demeanor -- she went from grieving girlfriend to materialistic heir -- in less than 24 hours.

Murphy and Tabish staged the death scene leaving the bottle of Xanax near Binion's body with no fingerprints and laying out Binion on the floor of his den in a "mortuary pose," Roger said.

Roger charged that the killers then ransacked Binion's house, cleaning out his safe of everything but a single dime. Two days later Tabish was arrested in Pahrump after he had dug up Binion's $6 million silver fortune from an underground vault. One silver dollar was left on the floor of the vault.

"It is arrogance when you kill someone and you then leave behind clues to that crime," Roger said.

The killers, Roger said, also left their signature another way by posting a Halloween decoration with the letters "R.I.P." above the entrance to Binion's home. Halloween was six weeks away at the time.

During the nine-month homicide investigation, Roger said, the defendants tried to manipulate witnesses.

He pointed to the testimony of Tanya Cropp, a close Murphy friend who was asked to lie to investigators for her, and Jason Frazer, a Tabish associate who was instructed to pay off alibi witnesses.

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