Legal arguments drag on in Murphy, Tabish sentencing

Jeff German And Greg Tuttle

Friday, Sept. 15, 2000 | noon

Rick Tabish took responsibility during today's sentencing hearing for his actions but came short of admitting that he killed gaming figure Ted Binion.

It was a morning for yet more long and intricate arguments as District Judge Joseph Bonaventure presided over the sentencing of Tabish and his girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, who in May were convicted of Binion's death.

Tabish made a long, rambling statement at today's sentencing, which began at 9:30 a.m., and took responsibility for the crime and said he wants to move forward not as a victim but as one who his family and friends should remain proud.

"I want my parents to hold their heads up," Tabish said. "I want everybody who knows Rick Tabish to hold their heads up, because this is a good day. We're moving on. I accept my punishment for 20 years. I'm not telling you I am a victim."

When the defense and prosecution attorneys had had their say, Bonaventure at about 10:45 a.m. declared a recess before announcing his sentencing decision. His sentence had not been delivered by press time.

Prosecutors called for the two to receive punishment exceeding what the jury had recommended -- life in prison with parole possible after 20 years. Prosecutor David Wall suggested that all counts against the two should be considered for consecutive sentences before parole would kick in.

In calling for the harshest sentence possible, Wall noted the recurring themes of greed, selfishness and "entitlement" that pervaded the killers' motives.

Earlier in the morning, Bonaventure had denied Murphy credit for 236 days she had spent on house arrest. The judge noted that she had gone shopping and had dined in fancy restaurants and had altogether flaunted her independence. Such time does not qualify as "time served under confinement," Bonaventure ruled.

Today's scheduled sentencing capped the most publicized and sensational murder case ever in Southern Nevada.

Last week, Bonaventure refused to grant Murphy and Tabish a new trial, saying he had found no merit to their claims of misconduct on the part of prosecutors and the 12-member jury.

The defense had argued that prosecutors failed to turn over FBI reports disclosing a mob plot to overdose Binion on heroin months before his Sept. 17, 1998, death.

But in dismissing the claim, Bonaventure said he didn't believe that the reports would have changed the defense's strategy at the trial.

Bonaventure also ruled that the foreign legal term, "depraved indifference," introduced at the end of the jury's deliberations did not affect the guilty verdicts.

He quoted a U.S. Supreme Court case that concluded a "defendant is entitled to a fair trial, but not a perfect one."

Following eight days of weighing the massive amount of evidence behind closed doors, the jury convicted Murphy and Tabish May 19 on all 17 counts related to murder conspiracy. Tabish was found guilty of 11 counts and Murphy of six.

Then on May 24, following two days of testimony in the penalty phase of the trial, the jury recommended sentencing Murphy and Tabish to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years on the first-degree murder charge.

During the penalty phase, an emotional Murphy took the witness stand to profess her love for Binion, the man she had just been convicted of killing.

"I loved Teddy with all my heart, and I know he loved me," Murphy told the jury.

Earlier, Murphy's stepmother testified that her daughter had been raped twice, once as a teenager, before she moved to Las Vegas.

Tabish told the panel that he was ashamed of himself and embarrassed for his family. But both defendants refused to acknowledge any role in Binion's death, setting up a certain appeal of their convictions to the Nevada Supreme Court.

In closing arguments at the trial, prosecutors charged that Murphy and Tabish forced Binion to drink a lethal cocktail of Xanax on the morning of Sept. 17, 1998, and then suffocated him to speed up his death after his gardener showed up to mow the lawn.

Then, prosecutors contended, the two lovers looted his Las Vegas home of all of its valuables, including his $200,000 collection of antique coins and currency, and conspired to steal his $6 million silver fortune that was buried in an underground vault in Pahrump.

Prosecutors told the jurors that Binion was the victim of a 'classic murder' plot. Murphy and Tabish, they said, killed the wealthy gambling figure because of their 'lust' for each other and their 'greed' over his millions.

The killers, they added, arrogantly had left their signature in their crimes, a lone silver dollar on the floor of the Pahrump vault and a single dime in the middle of the safe at Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home. A Halloween decoration with the letters 'R.I.P.' also was left above the front entrance to the home even though the holiday was six weeks away.

While plotting Binion's demise, prosecutors said, the defendants weaved a tale of deception that continued throughout the nine-month homicide investigation.

The case pitted the politically connected family of the eccentric, drug-addicted casino man against two little-known Las Vegas outsiders.

There was Murphy, a 28-year-old transplanted Southern Californian with a reputation for being a gold digger who had met Binion while dancing topless at a local adult nightclub. And there was Tabish, a 35-year-old married contractor and convicted felon who had come from a prominent family in Missoula, Mont. Tabish's wife, Mary Jo, who never attended any of the court proceedings in Las Vegas, filed for divorce after the trial.

Prosecutors said the greed of both defendants fed off of each other and resulted in the plot to kill Binion, who had returned to using heroin after Nevada gaming regulators in March 1998 revoked his license and forced him to sell his 20 percent interest in the Horseshoe Club, a popular downtown gambling joint founded by his late legendary father, Benny Binion.

Binion's body, prosecutors charged, was laid out in a 'mortuary pose' on the floor of his den surrounded by an empty bottle of Xanax with no fingerprints on it and other personal items to make it look as though he had committed suicide. An autopsy later found lethal levels of heroin and Xanax in his stomach.

Throughout the high-profile investigation, Murphy and Tabish continued to insist that Binion had committed suicide.

And suicide was their defense during the trial even in the face of testimony from renowned New York pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who insisted Binion was the victim of the 19th century suffocation method known as 'burking,' in which pressure is exerted on the victim's chest and his mouth and nose are covered, leaving few marks.

Defense attorneys paraded a string of medical experts during their case hoping to discredit Baden, including his good friend Dr. Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh, who enjoys a similar celebrity status in the world of forensic pathology. Wecht testified that he saw no signs of suffocation and that Binion had died of a self-induced overdose of heroin and Xanax.

In the end, the jury chose to believe Baden's version of Binion's death.

Much of the trial was aired live on Las Vegas ONE, a local cable news channel, and Court TV, a national legal network.

The prosecution's case was made easier when defense lawyers acknowledged in opening arguments that Murphy and Tabish were romantically involved at the time of Binion's death.

The admission came as prosecutors were prepared to present numerous witnesses confirming the relationship. Prosecutors traced hundreds of cellular phone calls between Murphy and Tabish in the weeks before Binion's death and uncovered records of secret trysts between the two at posh Beverly Hills hotels, including one the weekend before Binion died.

Among the key witnesses who testified for the prosecution were three Montana men close to Tabish, all of whom were given immunity.

Steven Kurt Gratzer, a former Army Ranger and childhood Tabish friend, testified that Tabish asked him to think of ways to kill Binion. Gratzer stepped forward and struck a deal with prosecutors a year before the trial.