Columnist Jeff German: Binion jury feels strain of case

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004 | 11:05 a.m.

Jurors in the Ted Binion murder retrial didn't look like happy campers when they came to court Monday to hear testimony read back.

They sat with stern faces -- either looking down or straight ahead, but never at the defendants, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish -- as the court reporter read them the testimony of Metro Police fingerprint expert Ed Guenther.

The jurors had the look of people who were feeling the strain of sifting through a massive circumstantial case, which is something Arthur Spear Jr. understands.

As foreman of the jury in the first trial four years ago, Spear oversaw eight days of deliberations that ultimately led to the convictions of Murphy and Tabish. When his jury returned its verdict, several panel members wore sunglasses in court to cover up tears in their eyes. They later reported that they were exhausted and emotionally drained. Some said they never wanted to be on a jury again.

Like his colleagues, Spear, a retired aerospace engineer, put a lot of time and energy into the case. He has followed the retrial on television and has watched most of the new testimony, including Tabish's appearance on the witness stand.

Nothing, Spear said, has caused him to change his mind about the guilt of Tabish and Murphy.

With the reading back of testimony Monday, Spear said, it looked to him that the new jury also was headed toward a conviction.

The jury was scheduled to announce its verdict today after the Sun's deadline.

Guenther testified last month that he couldn't pick up Binion's fingerprints on the empty bottle of Xanax found next to his body on the floor of his den.

That the jurors wanted to hear that testimony again, Spear said, is an indication they are focusing on the prosecution's theory that the death scene at Binion's home was staged by his killers.

"I think they want to make sure that, if they're leaning toward guilty, they leave as few stones as possible unturned," Spear said.

If Binion died of an accidental overdose, as the defense contends, why wouldn't his fingerprints be all over that Xanax bottle?

Spear said he thought Tabish did a decent job of testifying on his own behalf.

"He was calm and collected and seemed to answer most of the questions to the satisfaction of his lawyers," Spear said.

Yet Tabish failed to persuade Spear of his innocence. There was too much other evidence contradicting the defendant.

Nor was Tabish being realistic, Spear said, by asking the new jurors to believe him over a series of prosecution witnesses who didn't know each other.

The defense this time brought in a new round of medical experts to rebut the prosecution's chief medical witness, well-known New York pathologist Michael Baden, who theorized Binion was pumped with drugs and suffocated.

But even those experts didn't change Spear's opinion.

Spear said he felt that the defense had hand-picked its experts to fit its overdose theory.

"I still believe Dr. Baden," Spear said. "He had the best credentials. His explanations were much more believable than the other witnesses."