New trial asked in silver-theft case against Tabish

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 8:54 a.m.

Rick Tabish's attorney says that if District Judge Joseph Bonaventure fulfills his promise to "stick to the facts of law," then Bonaventure on Friday will dismiss Tabish's conviction for stealing Ted Binion's silver.

On Nov. 23 a Clark County jury acquitted Tabish and Sandy Murphy in connection with the millionaire casino figure's death but found them guilty of conspiring to commit burglary and/or larceny as well as guilty of burglary and grand larceny.

Tabish and Murphy are scheduled for sentencing on Friday, but Bonaventure said he would first hear arguments and issue a decision on attorney Joe Caramagno's motion for a new trial.

Despite being chastised by Bonaventure on Jan. 27, Caramagno believes Bonaventure will be fair and consider his motion for a new trial, which Caramagno says "has teeth."

Carmagno received a tongue-lashing from Bonaventure after a letter written by Caramagno to Tabish's brother surfaced as part of Tabish's former lead attorney J. Tony Serra's motion to withdraw from the case.

The letter included disparaging remarks about Bonaventure and laid out a strategy to hire a high profile attorney to pressure Bonaventure into making a mistake.

In arguing for a new trial Caramagno said former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke perjured himself on the stand in the retrial, and subsequently made Tabish appear to be lying when he testified about Binion's silver vault in Pahrump.

"We have one of the state's witnesses saying when Wade Lieseke testified he perjured himself," Caramagno said. "This leads us to the conclusion that prior to the district attorney's putting Lieseke on the witness stand they knew he would do so."

In his testimony Lieseke acknowledged that Tabish called him three times the day after Binion's death, but Lieseke said Tabish never told him, as Tabish said he did, that he was going to Pahrump to dig up Binion's silver. Tabish contends that he was going to preserve the silver for Binion's daughter Bonnie.

Lieseke said Tabish never told him he was fulfilling Binion's wishes by unearthing Binion's $7 million worth of silver from an underground vault in Pahrump.

Additionally Lieseke testified that Tabish told him that "Ted liked me (Lieseke) quite a bit" and had left $250,000 in his will for Lieseke. He said he didn't believe Tabish because while "he was friends with Ted, he was certainly not that good of friends with him."

Nye County deputies arrested Tabish, his employee Mike Milot and David Mattsen, manager of Binion's Pahrump ranch, for burglary.

Carmagno said a sworn affidavit given by Nye County Sheriff Deputy Steve Huggins shows Lieseke lied when he said he knew nothing about Binion's silver vault in Pahrump.

"Lieseke testified he had no knowledge of Mr. Binion's vault in the middle of town when, in fact, Huggins' affidavit stated Lieseke not only knew about the vault, but joked about it to the deputies," Carmagno said.

The defense attorney said Lieseke's alleged act of perjury led directly to tabish's conviction.

"The key witness to Rick (Tabish) being convicted for the silver counts was Lieseke because he directly contradicted what Rick said on the witness stand," Carmagno said.

In 2000 Tabish and Murphy were convicted of killing Binion, but they were granted a new trial after the Nevada Supreme Court overturned their convictions.

Prosecutors at both trials alleged that Tabish and Murphy suffocated 55-year-old Binion on Sept. 17, 1998 and that the couple tried to make it look like a drug overdose. A day later Tabish tried to steal Binion's silver in Pahrump, prosecutors said.

The defense contended that Binion died of an accidental overdose of heroin, Xanax and Valium and that Tabish was simply following Binion's orders when he tried to recover and preserve the silver for Binion's silver.

Tabish and Murphy each face anywhere from probation to a maximum of 21 years in prison at sentencing, according to Clark County District Attorney David Roger.

Roger said conspiracy to commit burglary is a gross misdemeanor and carries a maximum sentence of one year at the Clark County Detention Center. The maximum sentence for burglary is 10 years and the grand larceny conviction carries a sentence of one to 10 years.

Tabish is currently serving an 18- to 120-month prison sentence for a kidnapping and extortion conviction that stemmed from the 1998 beating of a man at a sandpit in Jean.

Tabish was sentenced to 48 to 120 months in prison by Bonaventure for the silver counts after the first trial. Caramagno believes that if his motion for a new trial is rejected, Tabish should be sentenced to less time because he doesn't have a "murder conviction looming over him this time."

"He (Bonaventure) can't give him (Tabish) more than 48 to 120 months because at that point it would be simply be a vindictive sentence," Carmagno said.

A source close to the case said the Department of Parole and Probation has recommended Murphy get one to four years in prison for the silver counts. If Bonaventure were to follow the department's recommendation, Murphy would be eligible for parole in roughly two months due to credit for time served.

Murphy's lawyer, Michael Cristalli, has said he doesn't believe Bonaventure will sentence Murphy to prison time.

Cristalli has said Murphy will receive credit for the four years she has already served in prison and will not be subject to any additional punishment at sentencing.

Despite Cristalli's confidence that Bonaventure will not sentence Murphy to prison, he has filed a motion to allow her to remain out of custody on bail until her appeal is heard just in case she is sentenced to prison time.

Cristalli said he filed the motion simply as a measure of "the utmost of caution."

Murphy is currently in California where she is doing administrative work for William Fuller, the octogenarian mining executive who posted her bail and financed her defense at the re-trial.