Defense witness debunks burking

By Matt Pordum (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

A forensic toxicologist said the prosecution had no "medical or scientific" evidence to conclude Ted Binion's death was a homicide and further stated during testimony Wednesday that he was "99.9" percent certain Binion died of a drug overdose.

In testifying, Dr. Jack Snyder, a contractor for the Department of Health and Human Services, joined an ever growing list of medical witnesses whom defense lawyers have called to try to chip away at the testimony of the prosecution's chief medical expert, Dr. Michael Baden. Baden testified that Binion died from a type of suffocation known as "burking."

Baden previously testified that burking occurs "where the mouth and nose are obstructed and someone sits on the chest to prevent the diaphragm from moving up and down." He said it is usually done "to leave as little injury to the body as possible."

Snyder said he was unable to find any reported case of burking that had occurred in the past 50 years in the United States or in the world.

"Objective evidence is required (to prove burking)," Snyder said. "The burden is on the proponent because if they could prove it (burking) they would win a prize because it's that rare."

Based largely on Baden's conclusions, prosecutors allege Murphy and Tabish suffocated Binion and tried to make it look like an overdose. The defense contends Binion died of an accidental overdose of heroin, Xanax and Valium.

Snyder said he couldn't believe "any expert" could come to the conclusion reached by Baden that the two red marks found on Binion's chest were the result of pressure placed on the buttons of Binion's shirt. Snyder said such a determination could only be made if samples of the skin were taken and examined under a microscope.

Snyder said the marks were the result of dermatitis consistent with the amount of Xanax that was found in Binion's body. He went on to say that there was no "objective evidence " to suggest the marks found on Binion's knee, wrist and around his nose and lips were caused before Binion's death.

Snyder said Baden had "overstepped what science and medicine is capable of under the naked eye" in determining that the marks were injuries that occurred at or near the time of Binion's death.

Absent the use of a microscope to view actual samples, Snyder said, there was no basis for claiming that any of the marks on Binion's body happened before his death, nor was there any "objective basis to say it was a homicide.

"All of the changes to the body are caused due to postmortem manipulation of the body."

Snyder, who appeared to have the full attention of the jury during his morning-long testimony, was most demonstrative when defending his belief that Binion died as a result of a lethal combination of heroin, Xanax and Valium.

Illustrating his point with a diagram, Snyder drew up a "shifting dose curve" to show the jury that the more Xanax and/or Valium a heroin user ingests the less heroin is needed to ultimately cause death. He said "99.9 percent" of heroin overdoses involve the ingestion of multiple drugs, and more often than not, Xanax.

Heroin users take Xanax or Valium because they open more "drug receptors" in the brain, and as a result, when heroin is ingested "they get a bigger bang for the buck" regarding the "euphoria" they experience, according to Snyder.

Snyder said the "downside" to this reaction is that the respiratory system often slows down so much that users can no longer breath. He said this effect can happen regardless of what type of heroin is used and regardless of how it's ingested.

In testimony earlier in the trial, Baden said Binion's preferred method of ingesting heroin, called "chasing the dragon," couldn't cause an overdose. The method involves rubbing a lump of black-tar heroin onto a piece of aluminum foil and then heating it with a lighter so that the fumes can be inhaled.

Snyder said that while there may not be any documented cases of heroin overdoses occurring in users who "chase the dragon" in the U.S., he had found cases in Europe. The forensic toxicologist also rejected Baden's claim that Binion had a high tolerance and the effect of the drug combination wouldn't be lethal, saying tolerance didn't play a role.

Snyder further rejected a prosecution argument that a "lethal cocktail" of drugs was first forced down Binion's throat in an attempt to kill him. He said Xanax was not soluble in water, and if black tar heroin were it wouldn't easily be dissolved.

Although Snyder was solid on the witness stand, it will be left to the jury to ultimately decide if his experience and subsequently his opinions rival Baden's.

Baden, who is co-director of the forensics unit for the New York State Police Department, has performed more than 20,000 autopsies in his 38 years in the field. He is also the host of HBO's long-running show "Autopsy," and he testified in O.J. Simpson's murder trial.

Snyder is a former medical examiner for Virginia and has handled about 1,200 autopsies. He has, however, examined 2,500 drug-related deaths around the country since 1980.

Also Wednesday, Dr. Morris Westfried, a dermatologist, testified that the two marks found on Binion's body were in no way consistent with pressure being placed against the button of a shirt.

Westfried said after examining both the autopsy photos of Binion's chest and magnified photos of the chest he was unable to find any evidence of a rip in the skin. Although he couldn't determine the origin of the mark located higher up on Binion's chest, he said the larger, lower mark was skin cancer.

He said he couldn't be certain, however, without a biopsy on that segment of skin. In offering his opinion, Westfried contradicted the conclusions of a fellow defense witness, Suffolk County, N.Y., Chief Medical Examiner Charles Wetli, who testified two days earlier that the marks appeared to be a burn mark, probably left by Binion's cigarette when he was nodding off from his heroin use.

Westfried's testimony also contradicted the opinion of Dr. Martin Mihm Jr., who is the senior dermatopathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has issued a letter regarding the marks, but has not yet testified.

Mihm concluded that the marks were actually the result of dermatitis.

The remainder of Wednesday's testimony focused on the relationship between Murphy and Binion as both her father and stepmother took the stand.

Kenneth Murphy said he didn't approve of his daughter's relationship with Binion because the 55-year-old Binion was so much older than his daughter and yet his daughter had to be "a mother, not a partner" to Binion, catering to almost all of his needs.

Annette Lewis, a former personal assistant tp Sandy Murphy as well as a friend of Binion, testified that Murphy had to bathe, shave and even clean Binion after he had used the toilet.

Sandra Murphy said her daughter and Binion were in love, but that Binion physically abused Sandy. She recalled one beating during the summer of 1997, an event that caused the mother to come to Las Vegas. She said she found her daughter with a black eye, fat lip and bruises on her arms and she told Binion to "never do it again."