Saturday, November 20, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Fate of Murphy, Tabish in jurors' hands

Closing arguments end, deliberations begin in Binion case

Sandra Murphy tears up as her attorney, Michael Cristalli, tells of her love for Ted Binion during closing arguments in her murder retrial Friday. Photo by Gary Thompson. Defense attorney Michael Cristalli, who represents accused killer Sandy Murphy, delivers his closing argument in the Ted Binion murder trial Friday. Photo by Gary Thompson.

Sandy didn't kill Ted. Ted killed Ted.

This was the message Sandy Murphy's attorney, Michael Cristalli, harped on during closing arguments in the Ted Binion murder trial Friday as he argued Binion died of an accidental drug overdose -- not murder -- in September 1998.

"She is not a bad person," Cristalli said of Murphy. "She is a good person who got put in a bad situation.

"Ted Binion died of an accidental overdose," Cristalli told the jury. "The state's case fails to prove homicide beyond a reasonable doubt.

"Sandy didn't kill Ted," Cristalli said. "Ted killed Ted. Sandy didn't kill anyone."

But prosecutor Robert Daskas sharply disagreed with the defense attorney's assessment of the evidence in the case.

In his closing argument, Daskas acknowledged that if jurors were to look only at the medical evidence in the Binion case, it might be possible for one to conclude Binion did die simply from a fatal combination of the prescription drug Xanax and heroin.

But Daskas urged the jury to look at all the circumstantial evidence surrounding Binion's death, and not just the medical evidence. He said the jury should look at the lies Murphy's co-defendant, Rick Tabish, told when he was arrested digging up Binion's $7 million in silver less than 48 hours after Binion's demise.

"Lie after lie after lie," Daskas said.

Jurors, Daskas said, should contemplate the secret relationship Murphy and Tabish carried out behind Binion's back.

"A man's character is what he does when no one is looking. ... He (Tabish) held himself out to be Ted Binion's new best friend, then he's stabbing him in the back," Daskas said.

Daskas urged the jury to pay attention to the pattern of phone calls between Murphy and Tabish in the 24 hours before Binion's death.

"There is no legitimate explanation for these calls," Daskas said. "There is no legitimate explanation for Rick Tabish stealing the silver."

And, the prosecutor urged the jury to pay attention to the series of coincidences in the case -- namely, that Binion died the day he was scheduled to take Murphy out of his will, and that a litany of witnesses said Murphy and Tabish talked about Binion dying before it happened.

"What are the chances it happened Sept. 17, 1998, the same day Ted Binion was supposed to sign the documents to remove Sandy Murphy from the will?" Daskas said.

After hearing these arguments and six weeks of witness testimony, the jury of five women and seven men began their deliberations Friday around 2:30 p.m.

They were sent home for the evening by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure a little after 5 p.m., and they are expected to resume their deliberations at 9 a.m. today.

The pair are charged with murder, conspiracy, grand larceny and robbery in the death of the millionaire Binion, whose body was found in the den of his Palomino Lane home. Authorities allege Murphy, Binion's live-in girlfriend, and Tabish drugged and suffocated Binion, then staged the crime scene to look like an accident.

Cristalli and Tabish's attorney, J. Tony Serra, said the longtime heroin addict recklessly consumed heroin and Xanax and accidentally killed himself.

Daskas reminded the jury Friday how a former manicurist at a Neiman Marcus salon, Deanna Perry, said Murphy came into the salon at the Fashion Show mall a week before Binion's death and predicted Binion was about to die. Perry said Murphy talked about Binion dying of a drug overdose and of how her new boyfriend, Rick, was going to get Binion's silver.

Daskas ridiculed the defense attorneys' suggestions that Perry was motivated to lie by her receiving $20,000 in reward money from Binion's estate. He pointed out that Perry told a co-worker, Georgia Gastone, and others about Murphy's comments shortly after Murphy made them -- well before Binion's death and the establishment of any reward.

"Deanna Perry must have said to herself, 'I need to make myself more credible, so, seven days before Ted's death, I'm going to tell my co-worker, Georgia Gastone, about the things Sandy didn't say. ... That way, I'll sound more credible when they dole out the reward money for a death that hasn't occurred.' "

He said the same can be said for witness Kurt Gratzer, who testified Tabish talked to him about killing a Las Vegas casino owner named "Ted" prior to Binion's death.

"Either Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy are guilty, or Kurt Gratzer and Deanna Perry are somehow able to predict the future," Daskas said. "They talked about a death that had yet to happen."

Daskas said Gratzer, who acted strangely on the witness stand, can be believed despite his bizarre behavior.

"We didn't choose Kurt Gratzer," Daskas said. "Rick Tabish chose Kurt Gratzer.

"If you are going to solicit someone to commit murder, you look for two criteria," Daskas said. "You look for someone crazy enough to do it, and if they are caught, they are crazy enough that they might not be believed."

Daskas said Tabish's testimony from the witness stand last week cannot be believed because a series of witnesses contradicted him. In just one example, former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke Jr. said he never gave Tabish permission to dig up Binion's silver, which is what Tabish claimed on the witness stand.

"Either you believe the testimony of Rick Tabish, or you believe everyone else," Daskas said.

Daskas went on to say Murphy called Tabish repeatedly on cell phones in the days and weeks before Binion's death. The day before Binion's death, there were 24 calls. But on the day of Binion's death, there was only one call, which occurred eight minutes before Murphy called 911 and reported finding Binion's body.

Cristalli, however, said the medical evidence in the case points to reasonable doubt and therefore requires a not guilty verdict. He said Clark County Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms, who performed the autopsy on Binion, originally found no indication of trauma on the body.

A coroner's investigator testified that there was a slight stiffening in Binion's jaw when his body was discovered in the late afternoon hours of Sept. 17. Because the stiffening, known as rigor mortis, usually sets in the jaw within two to four hours of death, this throws off prosecutors' contentions that Binion died in the morning of Sept. 17, Cristalli said.

Cristalli said prosecutors were trying to sully his client in an attempt to shift jurors' attention away from the medical evidence. He said this is especially true if jurors take a close look at defense photos of red marks on Binion's chest.

Those marks, according to a prosecution expert Dr. Michael Baden, are button marks left by Binion's killers, who caused them by sitting on Binion's chest as they suffocated him.

But in the defense photos, the marks appear to be filled with bumps, and those bumps would not be found on pressure marks, Cristalli said.

"I'm not a medical expert, but that doesn't look like a button mark," Cristalli said. "It looks like some type of disease or infection."

Cristalli said prosecutors have also minimized the dangers of mixing Xanax and heroin because it does not fit with their theory of murder.

"This is not like smoking a joint and hanging out," Cristalli said. "This is morphine. This is heroin. ... It's a dangerous habit. It's risky behavior."

Cristalli went on to say that a toxicologist dismissed the idea that Murphy and Tabish somehow slipped Binion a lethal cocktail of heroin and Xanax, noting the two drugs are not soluble in water.

And, he said if Murphy really wanted Binion dead, she would not have repeatedly voiced her displeasure to witnesses about Binion doing heroin.

"If she wanted him dead, why did she care?" Cristalli said.