Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 5:51 a.m.
LAS VEGAS - Comparing the case to a complex jigsaw puzzle, a prosecutor says authorities are unsure if they will ever bring charges in the homicide of gambling figure Lonnie "Ted" Binion.
"There is nothing imminent, we're continuing our investigation," Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said Wednesday. "We may or may not be able to initiate charges in two weeks or two months or two years. It depends on whether the path leads to something or leads to a dead end."
Binion, son of gambling legend Benny Binion, was found dead at his Las Vegas home on Sept. 17. Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said Ted Binion died after ingesting lethal amounts of heroin and the prescription sedative Xanax. Flud ruled the death a homicide.
Lt. Wayne Petersen, head of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's homicide section, said his office had presented voluminous paperwork to Bell's office. The prosecutor has the final say on whether charges are filed.
Binion's body was found by his longtime girlfriend, Sandy Murphy.
Two days after the death, Rick Tabish of Missoula, Mont., was arrested with two other men, digging up some $4 million in silver and casino chips from a vault Tabish had built for Binion in Pahrump, Nev. The three men were charged with attempted theft.
Authorities have said they are looking at Murphy and Tabish in connection with Binion's death, although they have declined to classify them as suspects.
"We never name suspects," Petersen said Wednesday, adding "It's fairly obvious who had motive and opportunity."
"Murphy and Tabish are certainly among the people being looked at," Bell added. "That said, we look at people as much from the point of view of not being involved. We're looking at several people as to whether they should be eliminated or charged."
Bell called the case complex because of the nature of the death.
"It's certainly more complex than three shots to the head from a .44," the prosecutor said. "But that's just a part of it. It's a very complex set of facts."
He compared the case to a jigsaw puzzle.
"You can buy a jigsaw puzzle for a child that has 10 pieces and is very easy to put together," Bell said. "You can also buy a puzzle that has 5,000 minute pieces and it's hard to know what it's going to look like, and how it goes together. This case is a lot like the latter."
Bell said there were lethal amounts of both heroin and Xanax in Binion's system, "meaning either of these substances could have caused death."
Binion had lost his gambling license over drug problems, but Bell said the overdose that killed him was not intentional.
"People who take drugs take them to get high, not to kill themselves," he said.
Bell said the investigation into Binion's death would continue "until there is enough to initiate charges, or there can't be and we tell the public and remove any cloud that might be hanging."
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