Sandy Murphy and the Ted Binion Case: Reversal and Acquittal

Sandy Murphy is the former Las Vegas dancer who was convicted in 2000 of murdering her boyfriend, casino heir Ted Binion, only to have the Nevada Supreme Court throw out that conviction in 2003 and a second jury acquit her of murder in 2004. The Sandy Murphy and Ted Binion case ended with Murphy free of the killing but convicted of stealing millions of dollars in silver from Binion’s underground vault in the Nevada desert. She was released in December 2004 and later resettled in Southern California.

Who Sandy Murphy Was and How She Met Ted Binion

Murphy moved to Las Vegas in February 1994 and met Binion, 28 years her senior, while working as a topless dancer at Cheetah’s.¹² Binion moved her into his 8,500-square-foot mansion on Palomino Lane.

Ted Binion was the son of Benny Binion, founder of Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, and he grew up in the gaming business, eventually becoming floor boss at the Horseshoe.³ He had a long-running black tar heroin habit and ties to alleged organized crime figures that repeatedly cost him his gaming license. In April 1998, the Nevada Gaming Commission permanently revoked it and ordered him to sell his 20 percent stake in the casino.⁴

The relationship with Murphy was volatile. During it, she began an affair with Rick Tabish, a Montana contractor whom Binion had hired for construction work, including an underground vault in Pahrump, Nevada.¹

How Ted Binion Died

On September 17, 1998, Murphy called police to report that Binion had stopped breathing. Paramedics found the 55-year-old dead on the floor of his den, lying on a sleeping bag surrounded by foil wrappers, half of a red balloon, and an empty bottle of Xanax. Evidence suggested Binion had obtained 120 Xanax pills from a neighbor the day before and had a dealer deliver 12 balloons of tar heroin.²

Clark County Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms initially ruled the death an overdose. The Binion estate then hired forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who concluded that Binion had been suffocated. In March 1999, the coroner officially changed the manner of death to homicide.⁴ In June 1999, Murphy and Tabish were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder and robbery.³

The Silver in the Desert Vault

In July 1998, Binion and Tabish had built an underground vault on property Binion owned in Pahrump to store roughly $7 million in silver bullion and rare coins.⁵ Only Binion and Tabish knew the combination.

Less than 36 hours after Binion’s death, Nye County authorities spotted a tractor digging at the vault site around two in the morning. They found Tabish and two other men at the scene with a truck loaded with silver.⁵ Tabish claimed Binion had told him to recover the silver for Binion’s daughter, Bonnie, if he died. Prosecutors treated the dig as evidence of a plot: kill Binion, take the fortune.

The 2000 Murder Conviction

The first trial ran in Clark County District Court from March 27 to May 18, 2000, before Judge Joseph Bonaventure, with Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger leading the prosecution and attorneys John Momot and Louis Palazzo representing Murphy and Tabish.⁶

The state’s theory was that Murphy and Tabish forced Binion to ingest lethal amounts of heroin and Xanax, then suffocated him. Dr. Baden testified that small red lesions on Binion’s chest showed “burking,” a method in which one person covers the victim’s mouth and nose while another presses on the chest.¹ Prosecutors also introduced hearsay from Binion’s estate attorney, James Brown, who said Binion had called him the day before his death and said: “Take Sandy out of the will, if she doesn’t kill me tonight. If I’m dead, you’ll know what happened.”⁷

The defense argued accidental overdose or suicide, and pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht testified the markings on Binion’s body were not consistent with suffocation.⁶

On May 18, 2000, the jury convicted both defendants of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and robbery, robbery, and the theft-related counts (conspiracy to commit burglary and grand larceny, burglary, and grand larceny).⁷ Murphy was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 22 years.⁶

Why the Nevada Supreme Court Reversed the Conviction

On July 14, 2003, the Supreme Court of Nevada reversed the murder, robbery, and conspiracy convictions for both defendants in Tabish v. State.⁷ The court identified two errors by the trial judge.

First, Judge Bonaventure should have severed four counts against Tabish stemming from a July 1998 incident in which he kidnapped, beat, and extorted a business associate named Leo Casey at a gravel pit. Trying those charges alongside the murder case was “manifestly prejudicial,” the court held, because it invited the jury to infer criminal propensity and allowed the stronger extortion evidence to bolster the weaker murder case.

Second, while James Brown’s hearsay account of Binion’s statement was admissible under a “state of mind” exception, the trial judge committed reversible error by failing to instruct the jury that it could not use the statement as evidence of Murphy’s conduct or intent.⁷ Tabish’s separate conviction on the Casey counts was affirmed.

The 2004 Retrial and Acquittal

The retrial ran six weeks in Clark County District Court, again before Judge Bonaventure, and ended on November 23, 2004.⁸ Bay Area attorney J. Tony Serra joined as Tabish’s lead counsel.

The evidentiary landscape had changed. Brown was permitted to testify only that Binion called him to discuss his will, not to repeat Binion’s specific accusatory statements about Murphy. The Casey extortion charges were tried separately. And the defense hit the burking theory hard, calling multiple experts who testified that the lesions on Binion’s chest were likely caused by dermatitis, skin cancer, or cigarette burns.¹

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated fewer than four days before acquitting Murphy and Tabish of all murder, robbery, and conspiracy-to-commit-murder charges. Jurors later cited the defense medical testimony as creating reasonable doubt and pointed to a botched initial scene investigation that had treated the death as suicide or overdose, breaking the chain of evidence.⁸

What Murphy Was Still Convicted Of

The same jury convicted Murphy and Tabish of conspiracy to commit burglary and larceny, burglary, and grand larceny for taking the silver from the Pahrump vault.⁹ Jurors concluded the two had decided to steal the fortune after Binion’s death, not before it as prosecutors alleged.⁸

Murphy was credited with more than three years already served across the two trials and was released from prison in December 2004. In 2008, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld her theft-related convictions and denied a rehearing.¹ Tabish served roughly ten years and was paroled in 2010.¹⁰

Fight Over Binion’s Estate

Binion’s will named Murphy to receive $300,000 and the Palomino Lane house. Brown testified Binion had called the day before his death to remove her, but whether the change was ever executed was disputed. Under Nevada law, a person convicted of murdering someone cannot inherit from the victim, so the estate fight was effectively frozen during the criminal proceedings.¹¹

After her acquittal, Murphy moved to pursue an inheritance estimated, with proceeds from the house sale and interest, at roughly $1.1 million.¹¹ She also had a pending palimony suit filed in May 1999, seeking $2 million for domestic and personal services, plus the house and $300,000; the estate argued a January 1997 cohabitation agreement barred that claim.¹²

She lost. In November 2007, a district judge dismissed three of Murphy’s four estate claims, ruling she had missed the three-year statutory limit after Binion’s death.¹³ In January 2009, the Nevada Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal as premature.¹⁴ Binion’s daughter Bonnie also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Murphy and Tabish that was still pending as of late 2004.¹¹

Her Malicious Prosecution Lawsuit

In December 2009, Murphy filed a lawsuit against the state of Nevada in Clark County District Court, alleging malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. She represented herself. The suit claimed her constitutional rights had been violated at the original trial because her attorney failed to call a Nye County sheriff’s deputy whose testimony, she said, would have shown that Tabish had Binion’s permission to take the silver. She sought to have her felony record cleared and at least $50,000 in punitive damages, arguing the felony had cost her employment opportunities.¹⁵ The Nevada Attorney General’s office said at the time it had not yet been served. No later reporting in the record shows a judgment or settlement.

Where Sandy Murphy Is Now

After her release, Murphy moved to Southern California. In April 2009, she married Kevin Pieropan, an art dealer, and the couple operated the Coast Gallery in Laguna Beach.¹⁶ A 2018 report indicated she remained married and living in Southern California.¹⁷ What actually killed Ted Binion has never been definitively resolved.

1
Orange Coast. Sandy Murphys Complicated Life
2
CrimeReads. Love and Death in the Desert
3
Oxygen. Casino Heir Ted Binion Death Sandy Murphy Rick Tabish Arrest Acquittal
4
Texas Monthly. Forget the Sopranos Meet the Binions
5
CBS News. 48 Hours Buried Secrets of Las Vegas
6
Encyclopedia.com. Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish Trial 2000
7
FindLaw. Tabish v. State
8
Nevada Appeal. Jurors Acquit Tabish Murphy in Death of Las Vegas Casino Heir
9
NBC News. Jury Acquits Murphy Tabish of Murder
10
Las Vegas Review-Journal. From Prison to a $1.9B Crypto Deal Rick Tabish Has Moved On
11
Nevada Appeal. Exonerated Murphy Mulls Legal Actions After Binion Acquittal
12
Las Vegas Sun. Murphy Filed Palimony Suit
13
Las Vegas Sun. Murphy Loses in Appeal to Collect From Binions Estate
14
Las Vegas Review-Journal. Murphy Loses in Binion Estate Appeal
15
Las Vegas Sun. Murphy Suing State Malicious Prosecution Binion Case
16
CBS News. 48 Hours Buried Secrets of Las Vegas
17
8 News Now. Former DA Talks About What Went Wrong During 2nd Trial