Court: Murphy legally cut from Ted’s will

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Sandy Murphy, sentenced to a life term for the slaying of her one-time lover, Las Vegas casino executive Ted Binion, has lost another court battle.

The Nevada Supreme Court Monday ruled that Binion legally cut Murphy out of his will the day before he was slain.

The court overturned the ruling of then-District Judge Myron Leavitt, who had held that Binion's action to remove Murphy as one of his beneficiaries was illegal.

Binion, about two months before his death, executed a first codicil to his will, giving his house worth $900,000, the furniture and $300,000 in cash to Murphy, his long-time girlfriend.

But the day before he died, he called his lawyer and told him to strike Murphy from the will. Murphy and the Binion estate then disputed whether the phone call was legal without Binion being present to make the request.

The estate argued Binion was within the law in directing his attorney by telephone to cancel a bequest. But Murphy claimed Binion, to change his will, had to be present to change the codicil.

The law at that time said a will could only be revoked "by burning, tearing, canceling or obliterating the same, with the intention of revoking it, by the testator, or by some person in his presence or by his direction ..."

Leavitt determined that a telephone call to Binion's lawyer was not sufficient under the law to revoke or amend the codicil. And as a result the codicil making the bequest to Murphy stayed in effect.

Leavitt made the ruling in favor of Murphy shortly before he became a Supreme Court justice. He did not take part in the high court's review of the decision.

The Supreme Court, in reversing Leavitt, said the law was plain that the telephone call from Binion to his attorney was sufficient to erase the codicil.

This appeal was filed before Murphy was convicted of the slaying of Binion. In a footnote to the four-page order, the court noted Nevada law prohibits a murderer from benefiting from community or separate property of the victim.

The court sent the case back to District Judge James Mahan for further hearings.

Murphy and her lover, Rick Tabish, were convicted of forcing Binion to ingest a lethal dose of heroin and the drug Xanax. They were both sentenced to life in prison.