Monday, May 22, 2000 | 10:15 a.m.
Now that Sandy Murphy has been convicted of killing Ted Binion, state law prohibits her from inheriting any portion of his $55 million estate.
"The statute (NRS 134.007) seems pretty clear that she can't inherit anything," said District Judge Michael Cherry, who is overseeing the disbursement of Binion's estate in probate court.
That means the 28-year-old Murphy, who lived with the wealthy gambling figure for three years, no longer can lay claim to his $900,000 home, its contents and $300,000 in cash.
Two months before his slaying, Binion had added Murphy to his will. But his close friend and estate lawyer, James J. Brown, testified during the trial that the former casino executive instructed him a day before his death to disinherit Murphy.
"My primary directive is to fulfill Ted's last directive to me that Sandy not get anything in that will," Brown said Sunday. "I'll be personally satisfied when that's accomplished."
Bruce Judd, another Binion estate lawyer, said he expects to file papers looking to bar Murphy from receiving the house as soon as he gets a certified copy of her conviction. That likely won't happen until after her sentencing in about six weeks.
He said he also will seek to have a $2 million palimony suit filed by Murphy dismissed.
Murphy claimed in the suit that she earned the $2 million for providing "unique and extraordinary services" to the 55-year-old Binion while she lived with him.
On another front, attorney Harry Claiborne, who represents Binion's daughter and chief heir, Bonnie Binion, said he plans to seek a judgment against Murphy and her convicted co-defendant, Rick Tabish, in Bonnie's wrongful death lawsuit.
"Now we will activate the whole case, and we'll do what we have to do," Claiborne said.
The younger Binion filed suit against Murphy and Tabish last October, accusing them of "engaging in a secret sexual relationship" while plotting her father's death. The estate filed a similar wrongful death claim against the two convicted killers.
All of the civil cases, consolidated under Cherry's supervision, have been on hold during the murder trial, which began March 27.
Claiborne said he intends to revive efforts in the wrongful death suit to ensure that proceeds Murphy and Tabish might make off a movie deal go to the estate.
"There are indications out there that there is a movie deal," Claiborne said.
The Sun reported in November that Joseph Cusumano, a reputed associate of slain Chicago mob kingpin Anthony Spilotro, had been working on a movie deal with Tabish, who once bragged that he was going to earn between $200,000 and $300,000 by selling the rights to his story.
But since that report, sources said, there are strong indications that Tabish has backed out of the agreement.
Claiborne and others associated with Binion's estate said they now are attempting to determine whether Murphy's latest benefactor, William Fuller, a wealthy 84-year-old Nevada mining executive, has secured a movie deal for the two defendants.
"We're going to put people on it now to establish the truthfulness of all of the rumors," Claiborne said.
Claiborne also for the first time publicly responded to claims by defense attorneys during the trial that Murphy and Tabish were railroaded by the "Binion Money Machine."
"Let's set the record straight," Claiborne said. "There was no Binion Money Machine. I am the attorney for Bonnie Binion, the daughter of the victim, Ted Binion. When her father died, she rightly felt that she was entitled to know how her father died."
Claiborne said Bonnie Binion directed the executor of her father's estate, her uncle, Jack Binion, to hire a private detective to investigate his death. Tom Dillard, a former homicide cop, drew the assignment.
"The money paid Mr. Dillard for his excellent services came from Bonnie's inheritance," Claiborne said. "No other Binion family member paid one red cent toward this investigation. No other Binion family member directed the activities of Mr. Dillard or participated in the investigation. Not one red cent came from the Horseshoe (hotel-casino).
"Bonnie Binion was entitled to closure," Claiborne added. "She was entitled to answers to the puzzling questions surrounding her father's death. She should be applauded rather than censured for loving her father enough that she was willing to spend her own money to establish the cause of his death. God bless her for that.
"The money spent by Bonnie on this investigation would pale in comparison to the money spent by the defendants in their defense for their five lawyers, six expert witnesses, two private detectives, two consultants, one expert jury selector, many televised image creations, TV programs and polls.
"So would these lawyers for the defendants," Claiborne said, "please reveal what 'money machine' they had that paid this enormous defense bill."
Dillard -- who estimated that he has been paid about $300,000 for his work and the work he farmed out during his investigation -- took things a step further.
"I think the Fuller Money Machine played more of a role in this case than the Binion machine," he said. "I find that more unusual and more bizarre than my involvement. I was hired to do a job that my employers thought I was capable of doing.
"This gentleman, to my knowledge, has no relationship with either of the defendants, and he poured a substantial amount of his funds into the defense."
One well-known Milwaukee lawyer, James Shellow, reportedly was paid as much as $130,000 by Fuller to cross-examine the prosecution's star medical witness, celebrated New York pathologist Michael Baden. Murphy's lead attorney, John Momot, also reportedly received a six-figure legal fee.
Fuller, who said last July that he came to Murphy's defense because he believed in her innocence, has since shied away from talking to reporters.
Well known in his native Ireland, he has said he met Murphy at a local upscale restaurant a couple of months before her June 24, 1999, arrest.
Claiborne, meanwhile, said no one has claimed part or all of the $100,000 reward money offered by the Binion estate for information leading to the conviction of Binion's killers. The reward, he said, won't be paid if no one steps forward.
And Brown said he expects to ask District Judge Joseph Bonaventure after Tuesday's penalty hearing to return control of Binion's $6 million silver fortune to the estate so that it can be sold.
Bonaventure barred the estate from liquidating the 48,000 pounds of silver bars and coins during the trial because it was considered evidence.
Tabish and Murphy were convicted of conspiring to steal the silver from an underground vault in Pahrump two days after Binion's death.
Brown said it's costing the estate $200 a day to store the silver under tight security.
The estate, he said, also plans to lay claim to 100 pounds of silver coins turned over to authorities by Tabish's brother-in-law, Dennis Rehbein.
Prosecutors alleged during the trial that the silver coins were stolen from Binion's safe at his home following his death. Rehbein was given immunity to testify that Tabish had given him the coins as collateral for a $25,000 loan two months after Binion died.
Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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