Murphy, Tabish back in court

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Dec. 15, 2003 | 11:20 a.m.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure today put off a decision on whether Sandy Murphy should be allowed out on bail while she awaits a second trial in the death of casino executive Ted Binion.

Clark County prosecutors Christopher Lalli and Robert Daskas said they planned to oppose the request for Bonaventure to set bail for Murphy. They said they would file the paperwork by Thursday.

Murphy's attorneys were given until Friday to respond in writing to the prosecutors' arguments. Bonaventure is scheduled to decide on the motion in a Dec. 22 hearing.

A new trial date was to be set later in the day.

Bonaventure did decide this morning where Murphy and her co-defendant, Rick Tabish, would be held while awaiting and during a retrial. Attorneys for Tabish asked Bonaventure to allow Tabish to remain at the High Desert Correctional Center near Indian Springs. Tabish had been transferred to the Clark County Detention Center this morning for today's hearing.

Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin argued that Tabish does not have access to law books or the law library at the Clark County jail and said he would not have access to education and work programs there either. He added that visits at the jail would be more limited than at the prison.

Bonaventure asked Tabish directly whether he would prefer to stay in the prison, and Tabish answered, "Yes. They (Clark County Detention Center officials) advised me that I'd have to have a court order to go back."

Bonaventure said he would prepare the order.

Murphy is to remain at the state women's prison in North Las Vegas while awaiting trial.

The motion on Murphy's bail and where the two were to be held were two of several motions heard this morning. Defense attorneys also asked prosecutors to turn over evidence needed for the retrial.

DeGuerin said new information shows that FBI had reports of a planned mob hit on Ted Binion in which Binion was to be given an overdose of heroin.

"Those reports existed before Ted Binion was killed," he said.

Bonaventure asked defense attorneys to file motions regarding the new information and said an evidentiary hearing would be scheduled if needed.

The Nevada Supreme Court in July overturned the murder, robbery and burglary convictions in the 1998 killing and ordered a new trial for both defendants.

The high court determined that Bonaventure erred by allowing Tabish to be tried on extortion charges not related to Binion's death along with the other charges.

The extortion charges stemmed from the beating of Jean sand pit operator Leo Casey by Tabish two months prior to Binion's death.

The court also ruled that Bonaventure improperly allowed hearsay evidence from Binion's lawyer, James J. Brown, who testified that Binion told him to cut Murphy out of his will the day before he died.

At the time their convictions were overturned, Murphy was serving a minimum sentence of 22 years in prison and Tabish was serving a minimum of 25 years.

Binion's body was found next to an empty bottle of Xanax on the floor of his Las Vegas home on Sept. 17, 1998.

Two days later Tabish and two other men were arrested on theft charges in Pahrump after they dug up Binion's $6 million silver fortune from an underground vault.

Police later learned that Murphy and Tabish were romantically involved.

Detectives originally thought that Binion had died of a drug overdose. His death turned into a homicide investigation after toxicology tests found that he had lethal levels of heroin and Xanax in his system.