Buried Secrets of Las Vegas 48 Hours Mystery

Lonnie Theodore "Ted" Binion (November 28, 1943 – September 17, 1998) was a wealthy U.S. gambling executive and one of the sons of famed Las Vegas casino magnate Lester Ben "Benny" Binion, owner of Binion's Horseshoe. His death has been a subject of controversy; girlfriend Sandra Murphy and her lover Rick Tabish were initially charged and convicted in Binion's death, but were later granted a new trial and acquitted on the murder charges.

Ted Binion was found dead on a small mattress on the floor of his Las Vegas estate home, 2408 Palomino Lane near Rancho Drive and Charleston Boulevard, on September 17, 1998. Empty pill bottles were found near the body, and an autopsy and toxicology report revealed that he died of a lethal dosage combination of the prescription sedative Xanax and heroin, with traces of Valium. The day before, Binion had himself purchased 12 pieces of tar heroin from a street drug dealer, and had earlier gotten a prescription from his next-door neighbor, a doctor, for Xanax, and evidence introduced at trial showed that Binion personally took the prescription to be filled at a local pharmacy.

Binion's death was initially treated as a probable suicide. His live-in girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, said that Binion had been suicidal ever since losing his gaming license a few months earlier. His sister Barbara, afflicted with the same kinds of drug problems as her brother, committed suicide in 1977, which also helped contribute to the perception that Ted could have been vulnerable to suicide as well. However, his sister Becky discounted any talk of suicide, saying that in her conversations with him that he didn't sound despondent.

Las Vegas homicide detectives suspected that the scene had been staged, as his body didn't show the typical signs of a drug overdose. Also, the stomach contained heroin and the police thought that neither an addict nor a suicide would take heroin in that manner. However, despite the urgings of Becky Behnen and Jack Binion, they refused to open a full-scale homicide investigation. Six months later, chief medical examiner Lary Simms ruled Binion had died of a heroin and Xanax overdose. After six months, however, the Clark County Coroner's office reclassified Ted's death a homicide on May 5, 1999. Although there were no specifics, law enforcement sources cited evidence that the death scene had been staged, as well as witness statements implicating Murphy and Tabish. Detectives had suspected for some time that Murphy and Tabish had been romantically involved, and had learned that Binion suspected Murphy was cheating on him.

In June 1999, Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish were arrested for Binion's murder, as well as for conspiracy, robbery, grand larceny and burglary. The prosecution contended that Murphy and Tabish had conspired to kill Binion and steal his wealth, drugging Binion into unconsciousness and burking him, a form of manual suffocation. The suffocation, in this theory, which was presented at trial by forensics pathologist Michael Baden, who testified for the prosecution, was done because the overdose was taking too long, and the pair feared discovery. They were each charged with murder and burglary charges connected to the removal of his fortune from the vault on the desert floor in Pahrump.

A police report that was not used in the first trial by Rick Tabish's first attorney Louie Palazzo revealed that a drive-by shooting occurred on June 5, 1997, in front of Ted Binion's Palomino Lane home. Included in the police report about the late night incident is a statement by Ted Binion alleging that Chance LeSueur and Benny Behnen were the shooters.

The case attracted national media attention. After two months of trial, Murphy and Tabish were found guilty, after nearly 68 hours of deliberation. Tabish was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, while Murphy received 22 years to life.

Later that year, David Roger, who prosecuted the case, was elected Clark County district attorney, and David Wall, who second-chaired the prosecution, was elected district judge.

However, in July 2003, the Nevada Supreme Court overturned the murder convictions, ruling that Clark County District Court Judge Joseph Bonaventure erred in deliberation instructions to the jury. The justices found that Tabish should have received a separate trial for the assault and blackmail of another businessman. While the prosecution was never able to prove a link between this crime and Binion's murder, the justices said, testimony regarding the separate assault prejudiced the jury against Tabish. The justices also ruled that jurors should have been told to consider statements by Binion's estate attorney as statements of the attorney's mind, not fact.

The defendants were granted a new trial, which began on October 11, 2004 in Judge Bonaventure's courtroom.Murphy was sentenced to time served and did not return to prison.

Tabish was released on May 18, 2010.