Long hours appear to be taking their toll on jurors

Tuesday, May 16, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

Patience may be wearing thin in the Ted Binion murder case as the jurors began their fifth day of deliberations.

Courthouse sources said the jurors left for dinner Monday looking tired and not happy.

Inside the jury room, the nine women and three men were said to he holding loud discussions about the fate of Binion's accused killers, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish.

This comes amid word of major dissension within the defense team as both sides wait for a verdict.

Several disputes, sources said, have arisen over defense strategies.

"I'm not aware of any problems," Murphy's lawyer, John Momot, said this morning. "My client was very satisfied with my presentation."

Tabish's attorney, Louis Palazzo, could not be reached for comment. But his partner, Rob Murdock, said everything was fine at his firm.

The jurors, meanwhile, worked another long day Monday from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m.

In all the jurors have deliberated some 40 hours since receiving the case last Wednesday morning. They have been reviewing testimony from about 120 witnesses and more than 500 exhibits, including several videotapes.

Murphy, Binion's 28-year-old girlfriend, and Tabish, her 35-year-old lover, are standing trial on charges of killing Binion on Sept. 17, 1998, and stealing his valuables, including his $6 million silver fortune in Pahrump.

Prosecutors have alleged that Murphy and Tabish pumped Binion with drugs and suffocated him to gain access to his wealth. Defense lawyers have contended Binion, a known heroin user, committed suicide with a drug overdose.

Binion obtained heroin and a prescription for Xanax the day before his death. An autopsy found both drugs in his stomach.

Jurors are considering 11 felony charges against Tabish, a married Montana contractor with a criminal record, and six against Murphy, a one-time topless dancer.

Murder and conspiracy to commit murder are among the charges facing both defendants.