New allegations of misconduct by jurors arise in Binion case

Thursday, May 10, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.

Sandy Murphy's defense team is trying to interview two jurors in the Ted Binion murder trial about new allegations of misconduct on their part.

Murphy's lawyer, Herb Sachs, filed court papers last week asking District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who presided over the trial, to provide him with the addresses and telephone numbers of jurors Chris Sowell and Carol Simon.

"There is an issue, and an ongoing issue, of juror misconduct in regards to the conviction of Sandra Murphy," Sachs wrote in his papers. "Information has come to our attention during our re-investigation of additional areas of misconduct attributed to these two jurors.

"We need an opportunity to interview these jurors to get to the bottom of the allegations."

Sachs said Wednesday he has new information that Sowell and Simon may have told fellow panel members the names of upcoming witnesses during the trial. That, he said, suggests the two jurors violated Bonaventure's directive not to follow media accounts of the well-publicized case.

"We'd love to talk to them, but we don't know where they are and how to get in touch with them," Sachs said.

Bonaventure's staff would not give Sachs any information about the jurors because the judge no longer has jurisdiction in the case. The Nevada Supreme Court it took over once Murphy and her co-defendant, Rick Tabish, filed notice they were appealing their convictions for killing Binion.

This morning Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, the lead prosecutor in the Binion case, said the allegations against Sowell and Simon were resolved last year by Bonaventure following the convictions of Murphy and Tabish.

"These allegations have been reviewed by the court and rejected as being unsubstantiated," Roger said. "Sandy Murphy's defense team seems to be spinning its wheels looking for something in the shadows."

The attempt to interview the jurors comes while the defense has been pressuring prosecution witnesses to come forward with information to help Murphy win a new trial.

Murphy, 29, and Tabish, 36, were convicted last May 19 of killing Binion at his 2408 Palomino Lane home on Sept. 17, 1998. Prosecutors alleged the 55-year-old gambling figure was pumped with heroin and Xanax and then suffocated.

On Monday manicurist Deanna Perry, a key prosecution witness, reported that she was being harassed by the defense team.

And late last week Jason Frazer, another witness, obtained a temporary restraining order in Missoula, Mont., to stop Murphy's father, Kenneth Murphy, from having any direct contact with him.

In recent weeks two defense team members, John Prendeville and private investigator Ted Gunderson have been mounting a push to interview witnesses.

The effort has attracted the attention of the Nevada Private Investigators Licensing Board, which has launched a probe into allegations the defense team members are operating here without a license.

Prendeville represents William Fuller, a wealthy 84-year-old mining executive who has shelled out hundreds of thousands of dollars for Murphy's defense over the past three years. Fuller is bank-rolling the defense's latest activities.

Roger has accused the defense of trying to manipulate the witnesses in a desperate attempt to spring Murphy from prison, where she is serving a minimum of 22 years behind bars.

But Sachs said the defense merely is gathering information for the appeal and a possible motion for a new trial based on prosecutorial misconduct.

Appeal briefs must be filed with the Supreme Court by June 13.

New evidence suggesting prosecutors put pressure on witnesses to testify against Murphy and Tabish may be used to form the basis of a motion for a new trial, Sachs said.

Though he's considering filing such a motion, Sachs said he doesn't hold out much hope the judge will rule in his favor.

"Based on his past rulings, I don't believe we have much of a chance," Sachs said. "He's a completely changed judge from when I first met him, and he called it the way he saw it regardless of what toes he stepped on..

"I think over the years he has become more prosecution oriented, rather than playing it down the middle."

Sachs said he might ask Bonaventure to disqualify himself from hearing the motion if it's filed.