Trial Set After Casino Figure’s Death; 2 Suspects Have O.C. Link

The live-in girlfriend of Ted Binion and her reputed lover have been ordered to stand trial in the death of the controversial gambling figure.

Sandra Murphy, an Orange County native, and Rick Tabish showed little emotion Monday afternoon when Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti in Las Vegas ordered them bound over on a variety of charges, including murder.

Four men arrested on charges stemming from Binion’s death were also ordered bound over for trial, among them John B. Joseph, a businessman from Orange.

Togliatti spent more than an hour reviewing the questions raised in a preliminary hearing for the six defendants, which wound up Sept. 1 after nearly three weeks.

Togliatti set arraignment for Sept. 27 in state District Court. The complex case is not expected to go to trial for months.

Clark County Dist. Atty. Stewart Bell said he and a committee from his office will meet in the next two weeks to determine whether to seek the death penalty for Murphy and Tabish.

Binion, a member of a prominent Nevada casino clan, was killed Sept. 17. Death was originally thought to be from an overdose of heroin and the prescription drug Xanax, but medical examiners now say it could have also been caused by asphyxiation.

Binion lost his gambling license because of drug use and association with unsavory characters.

Only Murphy, a former topless dancer, and Tabish, a former contractor from Missoula, Mont., were charged in Binion’s death. Prosecutors alleged that Tabish and Murphy were lovers and that Binion found out about the relationship and planned to cut her out of his will.

Murphy, Tabish, Steven Wadkins and Joseph are charged with kidnapping, assault and extortion in a kidnapping case involving sand pit operator Leo Casey. Casey was a prosecution witness in the preliminary hearing.

Murphy, Tabish, David Mattsen and Michael Milot are charged with the attempted theft of $7 million in Binion’s silver from an underground vault in Pahrump, Nev., two days after Binion’s death at his Las Vegas home.

In the preliminary hearing’s closing arguments Sept. 1, prosecutor David Roger said Murphy killed Binion because she wanted to end the relationship but still wanted the gambling figure’s money.

Roger contended that Murphy knew she had been written out of Binion’s will and that their relationship was on the rocks.

The prosecutor alleged that Tabish, Murphy’s new lover, needed money to buy into a sand pit operation, so the two plotted to kill Binion and steal his fortune.

Roger said Murphy and Tabish planned to overdose Binion on heroin and Xanax, but when they were interrupted, the two suffocated Binion.

“This wasn’t an accidental overdose. This was murder,” Roger said.

Defense attorneys, who have sought to portray Binion as a sick drug addict who overdosed, attacked the credibility of some of the hearing’s witnesses, including Casey, the 64-year-old Jean, Nev., sand pit operator.

Casey had testified that, on Joseph’s orders, Tabish and Wadkins tortured him until he gave up his interest in the pit.

Tabish was being held without bail, Murphy was released to house arrest. The other four are out on bail.