Thursday, July 27, 2000 | 11:23 a.m.
The jury foreman in the Ted Binion murder case defended his panel Wednesday against allegations of misconduct raised by defense lawyers.
Arthur Spear Jr., a retired aerospace engineer, told the Sun he believed the 12 jurors conducted themselves properly during the eight days of deliberations that led to the convictions of Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish in Binion's September 1998 death.
"Anything that we did in that deliberation room, as far as I'm concerned, was done under the letter of the law as we knew it," Spear said. "We were given specific instructions from Judge (Joseph) Bonaventure, and the instructions were mainly descriptions of various charges and counts.
"There were no instructions on how we conduct our business and our deliberations and what we can and can't do."
In a 69-page motion for a new trial, Tabish's lawyer, William Terry, Wednesday charged that the jurors relied upon documents not placed in evidence during their deliberations, had unauthorized contact with a court bailiff and ignored Bonaventure's admonition to avoid media reports about the case.
Terry also charged that one juror used a Palm Pilot, a hand-held computer, during the trial that may have had access to the Internet and news reports.
The allegations of jury misconduct were raised by Joan Sanders, a Las Vegas resident for 30 years who was identified as Juror No. 10 during the trial.
Sanders, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, disclosed her concerns about the deliberating process in an interview with Murphy's lawyer, John Momot, a couple of weeks ago.
Spear said the errant juror had broken away from the rest of her panel members right after trial and had let it be known she would like to write a book.
"We didn't know why she did that," Spear said. "We were hoping that she would stay with us. But after the trial is over, everybody is free to do as they please."
Spear, who would not discuss the specific misconduct allegations against the jury, said defense lawyers appeared to be "grasping at straws" in their campaign to win a new trial.
"All of the jurors worked very long hours and tried to do the best job they could to come up with the verdicts that we did," Spear said.
Terry said Sanders reported that the jurors were given only one copy of the lengthy instructions from Bonaventure in the deliberating room and that many relied upon a "confusing" unofficial summary of those instructions.
The jurors, Sanders told defense lawyers, also relied upon a timeline of the Binion slaying written by Spear. Sanders provided defense lawyers with a copy of the timeline.
Sanders also reported that after their third day of deliberations, the court bailiff pulled Spear aside and told him that Bonaventure wanted to know how they were coming along.
The next day Spear sent the judge a letter on their progress, saying they were a "cohesive unit" and were "moving on the right direction."
"It is suggested that this is not the normal procedure for the jurors to simply send a note to the judge that all is going well," Terry wrote.
Terry said Sanders overheard jurors talking about incidents that happened outside their presence during the trial, such as the tongue-lashing Bonaventure gave a Golden Nugget bellman for yelling out, "they're not guilty" as the jurors went to lunch one day.
The jurors, Terry said, repeatedly were warned by Bonaventure not to watch, read or listen to any news reports about the case.
Terry also alleged in his motion that the district attorney's office conspired with detention center officials to plant jailhouse informant David Gomez next to Tabish and steal confidential notes related to his defense.
In February Gomez, a reputed member of the Mexican Mafia, cited his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify about the alleged scheme. Bonaventure subsequently found no merit to the defense claims.
But Gomez later told defense investigator Jim Thomas about the plot and said he didn't testify in court because he feared for his life.
Gomez told Thomas that he stole Tabish's notes. He also reported that jail officials wanted him to wear a wire and get close to Tabish.
Chief Deputy District Attorney David Roger, who obtained the convictions against Murphy and Tabish, said this morning he wasn't worried about the new defense claims.
"We are confident that when the smoke clears, the guilty verdicts will remain in tact," Roger said.
Roger said Gomez has "no credibility."
He described him as a "three-time convicted felon" who recently pleaded guilty to perjury.
"We had no desire to use informants in this case," Roger said. "We never had contact with Gomez, nor did we ask jail officials to enlist Gomez to assist us."
Roger also said he doubted the defense would get anywhere with the allegations of jury misconduct.
"The court is not allowed to delve into the thought processes of the jurors," he said. "The only thing that can be considered is whether there were any outside influences."
Bonaventure has scheduled an Aug. 11 hearing on Terry's motion for a new trial. "Anything that we did in that deliberation room, as far as I'm concerned, was done under the letter of the law as we knew it."
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