Defendants get life with parole

Thursday, May 25, 2000 | 11:18 a.m.

Following a day of high drama and emotion in the courtroom, the 12 jurors who convicted Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish of killing Ted Binion sentenced the two lovers late Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The sentence means that Murphy, a 28-year-old former topless dancer who lived with Binion for three years, and Tabish, a married 35-year-old Montana contractor who had befriended the wealthy gambling figure, will be eligible for parole in 20 years on the first-degree murder charge.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure set a formal Aug. 11 sentencing date to hand out punishment on a variety of other charges against Murphy and Tabish stemming from Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, slaying.

The two defendants, who acknowledged engaging in a romantic relationship early in the trial, each could face additional years in prison on those charges.

The mothers of the two convicted killers shed tears of relief as the jury foreman, a retired aerospace engineer, read the sentencing verdict, which was reached in a little more than an hour. The jurors, nine women and three men, had taken eight days to find the defendants guilty of killing the 55-year-old Binion.

Tabish's wife, Mary Jo, who stayed home in Montana throughout the seven-week trial looking after her two small children, also cried as Wednesday's verdict was read.

All three women earlier had made tearful pleas for leniency on the witness stand.

Binion's 19-year-old daughter, Bonnie Binion, was not present when the verdict was read. But she was in court earlier when prosecutors urged the jurors to send Murphy and Tabish to prison for the rest of their lives for killing her father. She cried when prosecutors spoke.

As the sentence was announced, Tabish looked over to the jurors from the defense table and thanked them twice for allowing him the opportunity to gain his freedom some day. Murphy looked over as well and offered her thanks.

At least one juror was seen crying. Several others wept earlier in the day as the family members of both defendants begged them for mercy. The jurors left the courthouse without talking to reporters and lawyers in the case.

Both Murphy and Tabish had taken the witness stand Wednesday to offer apologies to the Binion family and their own families. Murphy professed her love for Binion, and Tabish told the jurors he was ashamed of himself.

Both, however, remained committed to fighting their convictions. Famed Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz has been retained to help with the appeals.

Chief Deputy District Attorneys David Roger and David Wall broke their silence outside the courtroom and told reporters after the verdict that they were satisfied with the jury's decision.

"I feel that justice has been served," Roger said.

He added that he had "faith in the jury" and "great empathy for the families" of the victim and the defendants.

Tabish's lawyer, Louis Palazzo, called the lighter sentence a "bittersweet victory," and Murphy's attorney, John Momot, predicted the defendants would have success with their appeals.

Earlier in court, Murphy's stepmother, Sandra Murphy, stunned the jurors and courtroom observers when she disclosed that Murphy had been raped twice -- once as a 14-year-old and again a year before she came to Las Vegas in 1995 and moved in with Binion.

Crying uncontrollably, the older Murphy told the jurors how the rapes changed her stepdaughter, causing her to have nightmares and ultimately to leave her home in Southern California to start a new life.

Murphy, with tears streaming down her face, read an unsworn statement to the jurors in which she refused to acknowledge killing Binion, but apologized for leaving him alone on the morning that he died.

It was Murphy who reported discovering Binion's body on the floor of his den next to an empty bottle of the prescription sedative Xanax. Police later concluded the death scene at Binion's home was staged and that Murphy and Tabish had pumped him with drugs and suffocated him.

Murphy, who said it was a mistake for her not to take the witness stand during the trial, called Binion in her statement her "fix-it man."

"You may have taken away my freedom, but no matter what goes on in these proceedings, or what anybody ever says about us, you can never take away the love we had for each other," she said.

Tabish, who broke into tears for the first time during the trial, told the jurors in his unsworn statement that his heart went out to the Binion family.

"I can look everybody in that front row in the eye and tell you I am sorry," Tabish said. "And please take that from my heart because that's where it's coming from."

He told the jurors he had no quarrel with their guilty verdicts, but pleaded for the sake of his young children and other family members to give him a chance for freedom some day.

"For every bit of cocky attitude I had during this case, I'm ashamed of myself," he said. "I'm disgusted."

Tabish acknowledged making mistakes in his life, but he said he had no regrets about his past.

He added, however, that he regretted getting involved with Binion, saying: "My heart's broke because everybody else is destroyed."

Both of Tabish's parents, Frank and Lani Tabish, gave emotional testimony on his behalf.

"It's a sad day when you have to beg for your son's life in court," a tearful Lani said. "He's part of our hearts. Without him two generations are going to suffer a loss, and I don't know what to do about that."

She said she has never seen her husband cry before.

Frank Tabish called his son a "humanitarian who has a big heart."

"It's an absolute waste of a life that this thing happened to him," he said.

archive