Cropp admits that she lied for Murphy

Tanya Cropp said she never wanted to become involved in the murder investigation of Ted Binion.

But on Thursday, she turned into the prosecution's star witness, linking her onetime friend, Sandy Murphy, to attempts to obstruct the well-publicized probe.

The 24-year-old Cropp testified that she lied at Murphy's request last year to investigators probing the gambling figure's Sept. 17 death.

She also acknowledged that she perjured herself under oath Feb. 11 before a county grand jury investigating Binion's slaying, even though Murphy didn't ask her to lie to the panel.

Cropp's testimony, which was given without a grant of immunity, capped the ninth day of the preliminary hearing for Murphy and her reported lover, Rick Tabish, who are charged with killing Binion and stealing his valuables.

After the hearing, which was to resume today, Justice of the Peace Jennifer Togliatti will decide whether the defendants should stand trial.

Murphy, who was Binion's girlfriend at the time of his death, often glared at Cropp from the defense table, as her former friend testified against her.

Cropp firmed up the prosecution's claims that Murphy and Tabish were having a love affair at the time of Binion's murder, even suggesting Murphy may have had an abortion in the spring.

She testified that the 27-year-old Murphy told her she was having a personal medical procedure done in California and that Tabish was going with her. When she asked Murphy, if she was having an abortion, Murphy didn't deny it, she said.

Cropp was not asked about the nature of the romantic relationship, which she described as abusive to homicide detectives last month. Cropp told detectives July 14 that Murphy had confessed her love for Tabish even though he regularly beat her.

Under questioning from Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger Thursday, Cropp said Murphy asked her early in the Binion probe to give two false statements to private detective Tom Dillard, who was working for Binion's estate, and Bill Cassidy, an investigator for Murphy's own lawyers.

Cropp said she agreed to make the statements because she "didn't know what the outcome would be if (she) didn't."

She testified that she told the investigators she saw Binion give Tabish a large amount of money the day before his death.

Both Tabish and Cropp were at Binion's home Sept. 16. Cropp had just started her new job as Binion's secretary and was putting together a Rolodex of phone numbers for the former casino executive.

The money angle is important because Nye County sheriff's deputies found $1,600 in fresh $100 bills on Tabish when he was arrested Sept. 19 after he had dug up Binion's silver fortune in Pahrump. Prosecutors believe the bills were stolen from Binion, who had at least $20,000 in cash at his home before his death.

Cropp also testified that she falsely told investigators she had overheard Tabish the day after Binion died say he had to go "take care of something before Jim Brown gets his hands on that, too."

Brown, who was on the witness stand for several hours before Cropp, is overseeing Binion's estate, which he estimated Thursday now was worth more than $50 million.

The defendants have been using Tabish's reported remarks to corroborate the claim that Binion had instructed Tabish to dig up the silver in the event of his death. Murphy and Tabish also contend that Brown and Binion's 19-year-old daughter, Bonnie, stole his valuables.

Brown testified Thursday about a Sept. 16 phone call he received from Binion, his longtime friend, telling him to take Murphy out of his will "if she doesn't kill me tonight."

Brown also said he found no substantial amount of cash or any valuables in Binion's home after his death. There was nothing, he added, but one dime in his safe.

Cropp, meanwhile, said that sometime after Binion's death, Murphy gave her a seven-page handwritten list of coins police believe were stolen from Binion's 2408 Palomino Lane home. Binion kept an extensive coin and currency collection, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, at his home.

Murphy, Cropp said, asked her to fax the list, which Murphy has acknowledged writing, to Tabish's contracting business in Missoula, Mont., last November.

Cropp, once considered part of Murphy's inner circle, didn't agree to cooperate and disavow her previous statements until last month after the list wound up in the hands of prosecutors.

Cropp was present when Murphy and one of her lawyers videotaped the inside of Binion's home the day after his death in anticipation of a court battle with his estate.

Murphy is seen on the tape taking possible evidence, including a wine glass from a kitchen counter that police believe may have played a role in Binion's death.

Prosecutors have theorized that Binion's killers tried to pump him with drugs and then suffocated him in a plot to make it look as though he had died of an overdose. An autopsy found a liquid mixture of heroin and the prescription sedative, Xanax, in his stomach. Binion was known to smoke heroin, not ingest it.

Cropp testified that she asked Murphy after Binion's death about allegations that he somehow was poisoned, and she responded: "It was pretty funny that the police didn't take any glasses from the house."

Cropp also recalled an incident earlier this year, when another Murphy friend, Linda Carroll, showed up at her doorstep looking to talk to Cropp after her grand jury testimony.

Murphy, Cropp said, told her that Carroll had been "ranting and raving" and that she would "have to take care of the problem.

"She said she was afraid that Linda would open her mouth," Cropp testified.

Carroll, who like Cropp had spent much time with Murphy in the hours before and after Binion's death, later testified before the grand jury, but prosecutors weren't happy with what she had to say.

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