Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.
A man who in the past had been one of the prosecution's key witnesses in the trial of the alleged killers of Ted Binion this morning tried to downplay previous testimony.
Kurt Gratzer, a former friend of one of the accused, Rick Tabish, was designated as a hostile witness this morning by District Judge Joe Bonaventure so that prosecutor Christopher Lalli could lead Gratzer through his prior testimony that Tabish planned to kill Binion and steal his silver.
Gratzer, a former Telepro employee, had previously testified that Tabish had asked Gratzer to kill Binion in exchange for $150,000 to $3 million garnered in an insurance settlement to Sandy Murphy and from the sale of other valuables such as Binion's silver.
On the stand this morning, Gratzer said the conversation with Binion was just Tabish "being a guy," that his claim to want to "kill Binion" was just "cynical humor" and that all of their discussions prior to Binion's death were just "hypothetical."
Before being deemed as a hostile witness, Gratzer also testified that Tabish had said Binion had asked Tabish to protect his silver for his daughter Bonnie. In previous statements, Lalli said Gratzer had testified that excuse would be an alibi Tabish would use and Lalli suggested Gratzer was presenting testimony "he's never said before today."
Gratzer repeatedly refused to answer Lalli or tried to offer more detailed explanations than Lalli required, claiming that the chief deputy district attorney was trying to "railroad" the process and was not allowing him to tell the "truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Gratzer told the courtroom he had told Lalli he didn't want to testify because of the "government's ability to control him."
Gratzer also said he was tricked in earlier proceedings to give testimony by now David Roger, the prosecutor in the first case who is now the Clark County district attorney. Gratzer said Roger "apologized to me afterward privately."
Lalli went on to lead Gratzer through previous testimony that Gratzer and Tabish had discussed making Binion's death look like a suicide so that Murphy would recieve the insurance money, and that they discussed how to shove drugs down his throat with a stick.
On Monday one of Tabish's former business associates had testified that during a May 1998 conversation Tabish said he would "pump him (Binion) full of drugs and that would do him in."
Leo Casey said Tabish, who along with Sandy Murphy is on trial for murder for Binion's September 1998 death, said the slaying would "give him access" to the millionaire casino figure's silver collection worth at least $7 million.
Casey also testified that Tabish told him that having sex with Murphy "would be a big break to him getting the silver."
Binion was found dead in 1998 in his home. Soon afterward, Tabish was caught digging up Binion's stash of silver in Pahrump.
Tabish is serving 18 to 120 months for the 1998 beating of Casey.
Tabish, John Joseph and Steve Wadkins kidnapped Casey, beat him with a phone book, put a gun in his mouth and placed a knife under his fingernails while trying to force him to turn over his interest in a sand pit he operated in Jean.
Joseph and Wadkins reached plea agreements with the state on related charges.
In 2000 Tabish and Murphy were convicted of murder in connection with Binion's death and were sentenced to life in prison, but the Nevada Supreme Court later overturned the convictions.
Defense attorneys argue that Binion died of a drug overdose.
In other testimony Monday, Tom Standish, a lawyer who represented Binion in his divorce from Doris Binion, said that on at least two occasions Binion told him "if anything happened to him (Binion) someone should go out and get his silver," and that once he said it in front of Tabish and the second time Murphy was present, but Standish also said he never heard Binion tell Tabish to dig up his silver.
Under cross-examination, Standish's testimony supported the defense's claim that red marks found around Binion's mouth, wrists and chest found on Binion's dead body were the result of dermatitis and not marks that indicated he had been asphyxiated and restrained as the prosecution alleges.
Standish said that during a deposition Binion gave in preparation for the divorce proceedings that Binion said he had suffered "chronic allergic dermatitis since (he was) in the military."
Also testifying Monday about the silver was Mark Goldberg, former president of the Superior Stamp and Coin Co. in Beverly Hills. He said Billy Marin contacted him in May of 1998 to come to Las Vegas to look at Binion's collection.
Goldberg said he was greeted at the airport by Tabish, who later introduced him to Binion and Murphy. Goldberg would later appraise the silver collection at $7 million and concluded the best way to sell it would be by auction.
The silver collection was packaged and five armored cars were secured to haul the collection to Beverly Hills, but Binion changed his mind after deciding "the price of silver had dropped too much to sell."
Goldberg said he was asked by either Murphy or Tabish to try to get Binion to change his mind, but he was unsuccessful.
Goldberg said a deal had been struck between Tabish and Marin for them to receive a finder's fee of 10 percent, so Tabish and Marin could have received as much as $700,000 from the sale.
A friend and former business partner of Binion named Jerry Keenan testified regarding a possible financial motive for Murphy to kill Binion.
Keenan, a jewelry dealer and operator of a failed jewelry store he opened with Binion in Portland, Ore., said in May or June of 1998 that Murphy began telling him of Binion's worsening physical condition.
Keenan said Murphy told him "Ted (Binion) was doing it again, H, for heroin. (She said,)'He's killing himself and I'm only going to get $1 million and it's not enough."'
Christopher Hendrick also testified Monday about Murphy. Murphy was one of Hendrick's clients when he worked at both Neiman-Marcus in the Fashion Show mall and at Gianni Versace at Caesars Palace in 1998. During a fashion show held at the Versace store, Hendrick said, Murphy said "things weren't going too well with Ted (Binion). They weren't sleeping in the same room, and there was someone pursuing her."
Hendrick said later at the fashion show Murphy selected $7,000 of items from the store, but instead of purchasing them on the spot she asked Hendrick to call Binion the next morning to tell him she wanted to buy the items.
Hendrick said when he called Binion, he laughed at Hendrick. The items Murphy tried to purchase were never sent. He said he later gave two statements to Binion estate investigator Tom Dillard.
During cross-examination of Hendrick, one of Tabish's lawyers, Anna Ling, suggested he only made the comments about Murphy for the reward money being offered. Hendrick said he received $5,000 from the Binion estate, but didn't provide his statements for the reward money.
Ling asked Hendrick if his story was true why did he contact Dillard asking for help and why did he call and write Binion estate attorney Richard Wright asking how much money would he be paid and when would it arrive. Hendrick said he needed the money. He said he lost his job after his name appeared in the newspaper in connection with the Binion case.
Hendrick also said that after the newspaper article appeared, Murphy asked him to come to her attorney's office and recant his statement.
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