Retrial on Ted Binion murder case underway in Las Vegas

[Awsi Dooger]

This was featured on UM, probably in '99. Sandra Murphy and Rick Tabish were suspected of murdering Ted Binion, former part-owner of Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas, at his home in '98. Murphy was Binion's girlfriend but was secretly having an affair with Tabish, a businessman from Wyoming who owned a construction company in Las Vegas but was in debt and under financial pressure.

Binion's death was originally attributed to drug overdose, but later changed to undetermined when Binion's family suspected foul play and Dr. Michael Baden looked at the autopsy photos. Baden believed Binion died of suffocation after being knocked out with zanax. Heroine was in his system but not enough, or the proper type of usage, to kill him. A highlight of the case was testimony regarding Tabish digging up Binion's silver from a vault Tabish had built for Binion on his property in Pahrump, Nevada. Tabish and cohorts had the entire vault emptied, estimated at $8-10 million in silver, into a huge truck before they were confronted by police just before leaving Binion's property at about 3 AM, a few days after Binion's death. Tabish claimed Binion wanted him to rescue the silver and have it turned into cash for Binion's only child.

Murphy and Tabish were convicted of first degree murder in 2000, but the verdicts were overturned last year by the Nevada Supreme Court, based on two rulings by Judge Joseph Bonaventure. The retrial began last week, with completely new prosecutors and defense attorneys but the same judge. One of Tabish's defense attorneys is remarkably eccentric, an old man with long and unruly hair and an extremely aggressive style, mocking the prosecution's case. How that helps Tabish I haven't figured out after watching the first week.