Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 11:06 a.m.
Attorneys for Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy this morning explored the circumstances under which rewards were paid to witnesses in the 2000 trial on the death of casino executive Ted Binion.
Tabish and Murphy were convicted of killing Binion and have had their convictions overturned. A new trial is set for Oct. 11.
District Judge Joseph Bonaventure heard arguments this morning on more than a dozen pretrial motions during a six-hour hearing last month.
Tabish and Murphy are accused of murdering Binion in 1998. The former part-owner of Binion's Horseshoe was found dead in the Las Vegas home he shared with Murphy.
Tabish and Murphy's attorneys are questioning the criteria used by the Binion estate to pay about seven witnesses a share of $100,000 after the first murder trial concluded. Tabish's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, implied at the last hearing that the prosecution may have had a hand in "paying witnesses for their testimony."
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli said there was "absolutely no need for a evidentiary hearing" because the state had no role in the payments made to witnesses. Lalli said it was well documented in a letter written by Jack Binion in which he stated he relied on the expertise of former federal Judge Harry Claiborne to determine which witnesses deserved a reward. Claiborne has since died.
"That (paying witnesses) stinks, that's not right," Serra said at last month's hearing. "It can't be legal."
Lalli said the witness payments made by the Binion estate were not payments for testimony and were made after the trial.
Although Bonaventure said he didn't share Serra's sentiments on the subject, he did grant today's hearing.
Serra also convinced Bonaventure that enough questions remained as to how and why the shirt Binion was wearing at the time of his death was "lost or destroyed" as he successfully argued for an evidentiary hearing on the issue.
Serra said the shirt was a crucial part of the case because the prosecution alleges the buttons from shirt were the cause of the abrasions found on Binion's body.
At the first trial Dr. Michael Baden, a well-known forensic pathologist who was the chief medical witness for the prosecution, testified that circular red marks on Binion's chest were the result of pressure from someone trying to suffocate him by an 18th-century method called burking, in which pressure is put on the chest as the nose and mouth are covered.
"Was it (Binion's shirt) ordered destroyed?" Serra said at last month's pretrial hearing. "Or was it involuntary? Without the shirt Dr. Baden shouldn't be able to testify the abrasions came from a button."
Serra said the only way to effectively rebut Baden's theory would require a medical expert to examine the shirt.
Lalli argued the defense must show bad faith existed in how the shirt was lost, that the defendants "suffered undue prejudice" and that the importance of the shirt was realized before it was lost.
Lalli said because the initial coroner's report indicated Binion's death was the result of a drug overdose, the shirt was not secured in the same manner it would have been if the coroner had determined a homicide was the cause of death.
In granting the evidentiary hearing Bonaventure said he had to "put an end" to the debate over how the shirt was lost.
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