Defense begins its case; mayor not testifying

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Friday, Nov. 5, 2004 | 10:53 a.m.

After 14 1/2 days of testimony, prosecutors on Thursday rested their case in the retrial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish, accused of killing millionaire downtown casino figure Ted Binion.

Prosecutors are refusing to comment on the case until a verdict is reached, but defense attorneys came out swinging as soon as court adjourned late Thursday afternoon.

"I feel they (prosecutors) haven't proven their case," Murphy's lawyer Michael Cristalli said. "I feel confident in a not guilty verdict, confident without even calling a witness, as I feel the prosecution's witnesses have done nothing but support Sandy's (Murphy) innocence."

Murphy, who has remained relatively quiet thus far in the retrial, expressed confidence saying, "I'm looking forward to my day of vindication. It's been a long time coming."

Tabish's lead lawyer, J. Tony Serra, said he felt "very optimistic" because the prosecution's case is "purely circumstantial." He said the prosecution has "never got to first base" in the case because they have "never showed a homicide."

"We will be introducing medical evidence that will blow this case right out of court," Serra said.

Serra said Tabish would testify in his own defense. Cristalli said he's not sure yet whether Murphy will take the stand.

Tabish and Murphy had been lovers at the time of Binion's death, even though Murphy was living with Binion. In 2000 Tabish and Murphy were convicted of murdering Binion and were sentenced to life in prison, but the Nevada Supreme Court later overturned the convictions.

The prosecution alleges Murphy and Tabish suffocated Binion and staged the act as a drug overdose. Defense attorneys contend that Binion died of a drug overdose involving a lethal mixture of heroin, Xanax and Valium.

The defense was to open its case today without the anticipated testimony of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, who served as Murphy's attorney early in the case. Goodman was expected to testify that Murphy brought coins to his law office on Sept. 19, 1998, and that she asked him to hold them until she would retrieve them "a couple of weeks later."

Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said the prosecution and the defense had agreed to a stipulation regarding Goodman's testimony, and it has been determined there is "no reason for him to be called as a witness."

Cristalli said he was prepared to call Goodman to the stand, but under a stipulation reached with the prosecution it's "not necessary for him to testify."

Under the stipulation the jury will be told Murphy dropped off the coins to Goodman at his law offices and retrieved them weeks later.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure accepted the stipulation, saying Goodman's time could be better spent elsewhere "running the city."

"I don't know what he's (Goodman) doing here, maybe he (Goodman) could be out there getting us a baseball team," Bonaventure joked.

Prosecutors allege Murphy stole the coins from the home she shared with Binion, but the defense has argued she believed she was entitled to the coins and took them on the same day that a videotaped inventory of the home's contents was made -- the day after Binion's death at age 55.

The prosecution closed its case by focusing on Murphy and Tabish's phone records in the days leading up to the death of the 55-year-old scion of the Horseshoe's founding family as well as on the day of his death.

Robert Leonard, a former homicide detective for Metro Police who was hired by the Binion estate's private investigator Tom Dillard to look into the co-defendants' phone records, testified that that although Murphy and Tabish had typically called each other more than 15 times a day, there was only one call between them on the day of Binion's death.

Leonard said that one call was from Tabish to Murphy's car phone only seven minutes before she called 911 to report that Binion was dead on the floor of his Las Vegas home. Leonard also pointed out that Tabish made no outgoing calls and failed to answer seven incoming calls to his cell phone between 8:58 and 9:58 a.m. on the day of Binion's death.

Prosecutors are trying to make the case that Tabish was busy during that time -- killing Binion.

Dr. Lary Simms, the county medical examiner, and Dr. Michael Baden have testified that Binion died between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m on that day, but said the most likely time of death was between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Leonard also testified about several calls made between Tabish and Binion's Pahrump ranch manager David Mattsen on the day Binion died.

During the wee hours of Sept. 19, 1998, two days after Binion's death, Tabish, Mattsen and Tabish employee Mike Milot were arrested for burglary after Nye County Sheriffs caught the trio digging up a $7 million silver collection from the dead casino figure's vault in Pahrump.

Leonard also said the only call Mattsen ever made to Murphy's car phone during the period of January 1998 through the end of September 1998 was made at 1:55 p.m. on the day of Binion's death.

Leonard said beginning on Sept. 1, 1998, Murphy used a cell phone under Tabish's name to make a bulk of her daily phone calls.

Cristalli along with Tabish's defense team continually challenged allowing the phone records into evidence and Leonard's testimony, saying Leonard couldn't prove who used the phone's to make the calls referenced, but instead only who subscribed to the phone's service.

Bonaventure admitted the records saying the defense could question the validity of Leonard's conclusions via questioning and ultimately that the issue was up to the jury to decide.

Although he would later admit during Cristalli's questioning that he never saw or heard Murphy make calls on the phone "it was his logical assessment" that she made the calls based on the phone records.