Binion estate gets OK to sell house

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

District Judge Michael Cherry today gave Ted Binion's estate permission to sell his home four years after the gambling figure's slaying.

At a hearing this morning Cherry said he would sign an order at noon Friday approving the sale.

He gave lawyers for Sandy Murphy, one of the 55-year-old Binion's convicted killers, until then to persuade the Nevada Supreme Court to stay his order.

Attorney Joseph Reiss, who represents Murphy, said after the hearing he did not know whether he would go to the Supreme Court.

Murphy, Binion's former live-in girlfriend, has been trying to block the sale of the home at 2408 Palomino Lane, which at one point was valued at $1.5 million, since it went on the market in July 2001.

Mary Bartsas, a local Realtor, has offered $900,000 for the 8,000-square-foot residence where Binion was killed, and the estate wants to close the deal quickly.

The estate is anxious to sell the home to save the expense of keeping it up.

In court papers Binion lawyer Bruce Judd said the estate has spent more than $200,000 maintaining the home.

Murphy, who was willed the house prior to Binion's Sept. 17, 1998, death, has tried to block attempts to sell the house in the past without much success.

"She's a convicted murderess," Cherry said in denying her last request in May 2001. "She is not entitled to one dime from Mr. Binion's estate."

The Supreme Court has ruled that Murphy can't inherit any portion of the gambling figure's $55 million estate because of her May 19, 2000, murder conviction.

The high court currently is considering whether to overturn Murphy's conviction, as well as the murder conviction of her co-defendant, Montana contractor Rick Tabish.

Both defendants were found guilty of pumping Binion with drugs and suffocating him at his home. They each are serving more than 20 years in prison.