Friday, April 7, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.
Despite the fact he claims he was beaten, cut and knocked to the ground during an altercation with Ted Binion murder suspect Rick Tabish, a former sand pit owner told jurors this morning he showed no outward signs from the incident.
Leo Casey took the stand again this morning in the fifth day of testimony in the murder trial of Tabish and Sandy Murphy. The pair are accused of killing Binion in September 1998 to gain control of his assets.
Casey claims Tabish and Steven Wadkins kidnapped and tortured him two months before Binion died to force him to sign over his shares of a sand pit and equipment company.
On Thursday Tabish's attorney Louis Palazzo asked Casey to re-enact the alleged assault, and this morning, he asked Casey if anyone noticed his disheveled appearance later that day -- when he was signing asset transfer papers in an attorney's office.
"Didn't anyone indicate to you you had bruising on your face?" Palazzo asked. "Didn't anyone indicate to you you had swelling on your face?"
Casey said no.
"Didn't anyone indicate to you you had abrasions and scratches on your arms or that you had dirt, oil, muck or grease on your clothes?" Palazzo said.
Again, Casey said no.
Tabish, 35, and Murphy, 28, his girlfriend, are accused of forcing Binion, the former casino co-owner to ingest heroin and Xanax and suffocating him so they could get their hands on his $50 million estate. Binion, 55, died Sept. 17, 1998.
Defense attorneys claim Binion died as the result of a drug overdose, either accidental or intentional. Murphy and Tabish, they say, are the victims of Binion's family, who don't want Murphy, Binion's longtime live-in girlfriend, to profit from his estate.
In addition to being on trial for the death of Binion, Tabish faces kidnapping, assault and extortion charges in connection with the alleged July 1998 assault of Casey, 64.
Casey told jurors that as a result of a secret agreement with businessman John Joseph, he ended up owning shares of a $10 million sand and gravel pit located near Jean. In addition, he also owned shares in an equipment company that was a subsidiary of the gravel pit.
The alleged attack took place on July 28, 1998, Casey said. Tabish and Wadkins forced him to sign over his shares of the companies and confess to embezzling from Joseph.
Wadkins and Joseph face similar charges in a separate trial.
MRT Transport, one of the financially struggling companies owned by Tabish, had a contract with the sand pit company to haul gravel. Authorities believe Tabish wanted to buy into the sand pit company and that was part of the reason he conspired with Murphy to kill Binion.
Casey told jurors that Tabish and Wadkins forced him to drive to the sand pit at gunpoint and placed thumb cuffs on him.
"Rick took the phone book, the Yellow Pages, and began violently beating me on my head from one side to the other and on top of my head," Casey said.
During the next 60 to 70 minutes, Casey said Tabish and Wadkins beat him with the phone book, stuck a knife under his fingernails and put a gun in his mouth and ears to get him to sign away his shares.
Once Wadkins dug a hole with a front-end loader and threatened to bury him in it. Casey said he eventually agreed to sign the documents.
After writing out what Tabish wanted him to and having it notarized at an attorney's office, Casey said he was told he and his family members would be killed if he didn't leave Las Vegas. He withdrew $250,000 from the bank and left for California.
Palazzo pointed out that Casey never called police and only gave a statement after they came to him eight months later, in March 1999.
"Didn't you have a terrible experience?" Palazzo asked sarcastically.
Again and again Palazzo asked why Casey didn't go to the police after such a "terrible" experience with Casey repeatedly saying he was too scared.
"I was threatened to be killed by that man sitting right over there," Casey said, pointing at Tabish, his voice rising.
"I appreciate the histrionics," Palazzo said dryly.
Palazzo then asked Casey the true reason he left for California.
"Weren't you fearful of being prosecuted for embezzlement?" Palazzo asked.
"No, I never embezzled," Casey said.
"Weren't you fearful of being prosecuted for embezzlement?" Palazzo asked again.
"No, I never embezzled," Casey insisted.
Palazzo's request for the re-enactment captivated everyone in the courtroom Thursday afternoon.
When Casey asked how hard he could hit him, the courtroom erupted in laughter.
Casey then pretended to hit him.
After being hit with the phone book, Casey said Wadkins stuck a 5- or 6-inch knife under his fingernails. Palazzo said he guessed being struck with a telephone book a dozen times wasn't enough to get him to confess.
"Maybe if you were struck 25 times, maybe then you would have signed the documents?" Palazzo said.
"Can you imagine what it was like?" Casey asked.
"I can imagine," Palazzo said. "You can imagine too, can't you?"
The remark prompted an objection from Deputy District Attorney David Roger and an admonishment from District Judge Joseph Bonaventure.
When asked to produce "one slip of paper" to prove his ownership of the sand pit or the equipment company, Casey said he couldn't, his garage was burglarized in November 1998.
On another matter, Bonaventure told an alternate juror he would agree to dismiss her on Monday if all of the other jurors showed up.
The woman, known as Alternate Juror No. 4, had given Bonaventure a handwritten note saying her time on the jury would prove to be too much of a financial burden. Bonaventure said he wishes she had told him that during jury questioning.
Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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