Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

BINION MURDER TRIAL: Defense: Tabish will testify

Attorneys for slaying suspect promise 'far more thorough' defense strategy in retrial

Sandy Murphy, left, her attorney, Michael Cristalli, Rick Tabish, and Tabish's attorney, J. Tony Serra, talk during the opening day of the Ted Binion murder trial. Murphy and Tabish are accused of killing the gaming executive in September, 1998. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

On the opening day of jury selection in the Ted Binion murder trial, attorneys for slaying suspect Rick Tabish promised their client will take the witness stand in his own defense.

"I will tell you right up front, he will testify," Tabish attorney J. Tony Serra announced Monday to a room full of prospective jurors.

Serra also told the Review-Journal that Tabish -- who declined to take the stand during the guilt phase of his first trial -- will also be the beneficiary off a "far more thorough and far more aggressive" defense strategy.

Serra said he intends to prove Tabish had nothing to do with Binion's death at his Las Vegas estate in 1998.

"He wasn't there," Serra said. "Easy as pie."

Serra's comments came during the first day of the second prosecution of Tabish and his co-defendant, Sandy Murphy, in the death of the millionaire gaming heir. Authorities allege Murphy, Binion's live-in lover, and Tabish conspired to kill Binion so they could rob him of millions in silver and gain part of his estate.

Tabish and two other men were found digging up Binion's silver from a vault on Binion's ranch in Pahrump two days after Binion's death. In 2000, a jury convicted Tabish and Murphy of murder, and each was sentenced to life in prison.

The convictions, however, were overturned on appeal last year, setting up the retrial in the courtroom of District Judge Joseph Bonaventure. The trial is expected to last six weeks to two months.

Throughout jury selection Monday, defense attorneys and prosecutors waded through a jury pool of 118 people, many of whom held highly negative opinions of the defendants.

"They were lovers, they killed for the money, and now they want separate trials," one potential juror, a female, wrote in a jury questionnaire. Bonaventure excused her from serving on the jury.

Others were excused by the defense teams. They included one woman who wrote: "The television program (I saw) made me question why they are still professing their innocence." Another juror who didn't meet the defense's standards, a male, had a succinct opinion: "Guilty," he wrote in his questionnaire.

But a series of potential jurors were found who said they had either no preconceived notions of Tabish and Murphy, or, if they did, they could set aside their opinions and judge the case only on the facts presented in court.

Two potential jurors even said they knew little, if anything, about the highly publicized case.

Murphy's attorney, Michael Cristalli, said he intends to argue to the jury that Binion, a longtime drug user, died of an accidental overdose of the prescription drug Xanax and heroin.

"It's our position, our theory, that this was not a murder," Cristalli told potential jurors. "Ted Binion died as a result of a drug overdose, and he died at the hands of Ted Binion."

In speaking to the jury pool, Serra did not deny that Tabish attempted to dig up Binion's silver.

"He believed he had every right to remove this silver, and that he did not (engage) in any crimes," said Serra, who did not represent Tabish at his first trial.

Tabish's former defense team said during Tabish's first trial that he was retrieving the silver on behalf of Binion.

Sitting in the rear of the courtroom Monday was Binion's brother, Jack. He declined to comment during a court recess, as did Tabish and Murphy.

Jury selection will resume this morning, and opening statements in the case could begin by Wednesday.