Thursday, July 31, 2003 | 11:25 a.m.
Sandy Murphy is seeking bail while she waits to be tried for a second time in connection with the death of downtown casino figure Ted Binion.
The motion, filed with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, asks that Murphy receive the same bail conditions she had during the first trial -- $300,000 bail and house arrest with electronic monitoring.
"Right now we're back to square one, so the same bail conditions should apply," Murphy's attorney Herb Sachs said. "She didn't run away the first time, and this time we have more evidence."
In May 2000 Murphy and her boyfriend, Rick Tabish, were convicted of the 1998 killing and robbing of Binion, a 55-year-old scion of the founder of the Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas.
Several medical experts testified that Binion died from an overdose of heroin, Xanax and Valium. One expert testified, however, that Binion had been suffocated.
On July 14 the Supreme Court granted new trials to Murphy, 31, and Tabish, 38. Clark County District Attorney David Roger has filed a motion asking for an extension to file a petition asking the Supreme Court to rehear the case, but Sachs wants his client free on bail in the meantime.
"Should (Roger's) motion be granted, the case will remain in this court at least until some time in the fall," Sachs' motion reads.
Roger said that he will likely file a motion to dismiss the bail motion or file an opposition to it.
"There are substantial arguments against granting bail including the fact that she was convicted by a 12-person jury, and many see the court's reversal as procedural," Roger said.
Roger also noted that Murphy's appeal contending there was insufficient evidence to convict her was rejected by the Supreme Court, and that she went went shopping last time she was free on bail, violating the rules set by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure. Roger said he feels that the District Court, not the Supreme Court, should make the decision on bail.
Sachs argues that while bail is generally set in the trial court the case has not yet been remanded back to Bonaventure.
"Moreover, there are unresolved issues ... as to whether, given the circumstances surrounding this highly publicized prosecution, Judge Joseph Bonaventure may or should preside over further proceedings," Sachs' motion reads.
The issue of whether or not Bonaventure should supervise a new trial is something for Murphy's as-yet unnamed trial counsel to address, according to the motion.
In overturning the convictions the Supreme Court said Bonaventure erred by allowing Tabish, a Montana contractor, to be tried on unrelated extortion charges at the murder trial. The court said the extortion charges, which involved an assault against a Jean sand pit operator, prejudiced the murder case against Tabish and Murphy, a onetime topless dancer and Binion's live-in girlfriend.
The court also ruled that Bonaventure improperly allowed hearsay evidence from Binion's lawyer, James J. Brown, who testified that Binion told him the day before he died that he wanted to cut Murphy out of his will before she killed him.
Binion's body was found next to an empty bottle of Xanax on the floor of his Las Vegas home on Sept. 17, 1998. A $300,000 collection of antique currency and coins was missing from his home along with other valuables. Two days later Tabish was arrested on theft charges in Pahrump after digging up Binion's $6 million silver fortune from an underground vault with two other men.
Police later learned that Tabish and Murphy were romantically involved, and they were charged with Binion's murder.
After they were convicted, Bonaventure sentenced Murphy to a minimum of 22 years in prison and Tabish to a minimum of 25 years.
Tabish's attorney, Bill Terry, said he has no plans to file a motion for bail because the Supreme Court upheld the extortion conviction against Tabish so bail is not an option.
archive
