Columnist Jeff German: Courtroom drama set to unfold

Friday, Sept. 17, 2004 | 11:02 a.m.

Any sequel to a popular drama needs fresh faces to hold everyone's interest.

Next month's retrial of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish on charges of killing Ted Binion should have its share of emerging stars.

Several witnesses who didn't testify at the first trial four years ago could very well take center stage.

The most intriguing new face is likely to be Michael Milot who, hours after Binion's Sept. 17, 1998 death, helped Tabish dig up the casino executive's $6 million silver fortune from an underground vault in Pahrump.

Milot pleaded no contest to a grand larceny charge in the Pahrump theft four years ago. He paid a $2,000 fine and has kept a low profile ever since. But that's about to change, as the sequel to the "trial of the century" gets under way on Oct. 11.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers recently interviewed Milot, once a trusted Tabish employee, and, according to his lawyer Tony Sgro, he has something to offer both sides.

Milot, for example, recalls Tabish calling the sheriff in Pahrump to inform him that the duo was on the way to dig up the silver. That's consistent with Tabish's story that he sought permission to retrieve the silver and wasn't trying to steal it.

But prosecutors are excited about statements Milot made that could shoot down Tabish's alibi on the morning of Sept. 17. The prosecution has theorized that Binion died between 9 and 10 a.m. at his home after being pumped with drugs and suffocated.

Prosecutors have evidence that Murphy was at the home that morning, but they have nothing solid placing Tabish there. Tabish, a Montana contractor, contends he was at a company called All Star Transit Mix in North Las Vegas from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.

Milot also was at the cement plant that morning, but he has told both sides that he doesn't recall seeing Tabish there. This is big for the prosecution when you consider that Jason Frazer, a former Tabish business partner, testified at the first trial that Tabish tried to pay off All Star employees to vouch for his presence.

Both sides, meanwhile, are pursuing other potential new witnesses.

There has been a keen interest in Murphy's good friend, Linda Carroll, who spent time with Murphy in the immediate hours after Binion turned up dead. Last time prosecutors had a reluctant Carroll arrested in California, where she lives, on a material witness warrant only to not use her at the trial. This time she has been subpoenaed.

Both sides also are trying hard to interview Binion's former ranch manager in Pahrump, David Mattsen, who also was charged in the silver theft and who, like Milot, pleaded no contest to a grand larceny charge. Mattsen, claiming to have intimate knowledge of Binion's death, once sought the reward money offered in the case. He couldn't work out a deal with prosecutors, however.

This time Mattsen, according to his lawyer Bucky Buchanan, wants no part of the proceedings and is refusing requests for interviews. But prosecutors intend to subpoena him as a witness anyway.

Last week prosecutors subpoenaed someone dear to Murphy's heart, her wealthy 80-something benefactor, William Fuller, who has been bank-rolling her expensive defense. Fuller's right-hand man in the case, John Prendeville, also was slapped with a subpoena.

Prosecutors plan to call Fuller and Prendeville if another key witness, Steven Kurt Gratzer, goes south on them. If that happens they would ask Fuller and Prendeville to explain under oath why they took care of Gratzer's legal fees (as much as $35,000) in an unrelated case in Montana.

Now that would be drama.