Murphy looking for another lawyer

Sandy Murphy has two weeks to find a new lawyer who will help with her quest for a new trial.

Prominent Las Vegas attorney Thomas Pitaro, the third lawyer who has worked on the motion, abruptly withdrew from the criminal case Wednesday.

Pitaro wouldn't explain the move publicly, but Assistant District Attorney Christopher Lalli accused Murphy and her supporters of using the longtime defense lawyer.

Pitaro and Lalli met with the judge in her chambers before the hearing.

"It's pretty obvious that the court has been lied to," Lalli told District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez after she returned to the bench.

The judge said she would give Murphy one last chance. Murphy has until Dec. 19 to hire a new lawyer.

Murphy, who was convicted and later acquitted of murdering former Las Vegas casino executive Ted Binion, is trying to overturn felony convictions that stem from the theft of Binion's $7 million silver stash. She already has completed her prison sentence for her role in the theft.

In court last month, Pitaro argued in favor of Murphy's motion for a new trial "based on newly discovered evidence." Lalli argued that Murphy had known about the evidence for years.

At the judge's request, Lalli later supplemented the record with detailed information about what had been disclosed to the defense before trial. Gonzalez held the thick document up for display as she sat on the bench Wednesday.

Attorney Michael Cristalli originally filed Murphy's motion for a new trial in November 2006. Cristalli, who continues to handle Murphy's appeal before the Nevada Supreme Court, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The appeal is based on a claim that prosecutors had insufficient evidence to convict Murphy.

Records show that attorney Herbert Sachs was handling Murphy's motion for a new trial in District Court as late as July.

Murphy was living with Binion, her boyfriend, in September 1998 when the gaming heir was found dead in his Las Vegas home. Authorities initially suspected that Binion had succumbed to a drug overdose.

But two days after Binion died, authorities caught Murphy's secret lover, Rick Tabish, and two other men digging up Binion's silver fortune at an underground vault in Pahrump.

Authorities subsequently charged Murphy and Tabish with murder, claiming the pair suffocated Binion.

Murphy's motion for a new trial contained what it described as new evidence suggesting that Wade Lieseke, sheriff of Nye County at the time, had given Tabish permission to enter Binion's vault and remove silver. Lieseke, who lost his bid for re-election in 2002, has denied he authorized Tabish to take the silver.

"After a full and comprehensive investigation of this case was completed, the office of the Clark County district attorney did not find any evidence whatsoever to suggest that Sheriff Wade Lieseke was in any way involved with the theft of Ted Binion's silver," Lalli wrote in the supplemental document.