Officer describes silver theft

By Matt Pordum

Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

Was Rick Tabish caught red-handed stealing Ted Binion's $7 million silver collection from the dead casino figure's vault in Pahrump or simply carrying out Binion's request to preserve it?

In the murder trial of Tabish and his former lover Sandy Murphy, Nye County Detective Sergeant Ed Howard testified Monday that he discovered Tabish and two other men equipped with an excavator and a "belly dump" trailer digging up Binion's silver around 2 a.m. the day after Binion died.

Howard said he was talking to fellow officers in the parking lot of the Terrible Herbst Casino toward the end of his shift when he began hearing "scraping on the ground caused by machinery." He said he then saw lights and realized the sound and lights were coming from the piece of property where he knew Binion's vault was located.

Howard said he drove down an access road to the property, and after he parked, the manager of Binion's Pahrump ranch, David Madsen, approached his driver's side window and asked him what he wanted.

After asking Howard where then-Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke was, Madsen, in a "brief, matter of fact" way, told Howard that he and the other men were moving ammunition off the property and would be done in a few minutes.

Howard then talked to Tabish, who "said they were removing concrete off the property and they were going to put it in the low boy (trailer)," Howard said. "He (Tabish) told me he had talked to Wade (Lieseke) and he knew everything about it."

Howard said he then called for backup and asked Tabish, Madsen and one of Tabish's employees, Mike Milot, for identification. When Dean Pennock, who was a deputy sheriff at the time, arrived at the scene, Howard let Pennock handle the identification checks and walked over to the "belly dump."

Howard said Tabish told him nothing was in the trailer, and when he banged his flashlight against the belly of the trailer "it sounded hollow." He said Tabish told him to look into the trailer by shining his flashlight on the bottom of the belly saying "if there was anything in it you'd be able to see it through the cracks."

Howard looked at the belly and saw nothing, but he did notice a canvas top covering the opening of the trailer. He asked Tabish if the top rolled back and Tabish said, "No it's broken." Howard said Tabish's response raised his suspicion because, as he walked to the trailer, Tabish told him the trailer was brand new. Howard decided to make Pennock climb on top of the trailer and look inside.

Howard said that after the deputy came down from the trailer he said there was a "load of silver inside," which caused Tabish to look at Howard and say "Okay, I lied."

Howard said Tabish then told him a new story.

"He said he put the vault in for Binion and that Ted told him if anything ever happened, to take it out and turn it into cash for his daughter so his ex-wife wouldn't get it."

Howard said Tabish told him Wells Fargo was supposed to take the silver to Los Angeles and that Binion told him he could take "$100,000 or so for expenses." He said Tabish also said he was "supposed to get a hold of Rick Wright, but he didn't."

Howard said Tabish also "said he was at Ted's (Binion) house the day he died and that he (Binion) was going to take a whole bottle of Xanax and when he woke up he would be cleansed of heroin."

Howard said that on the night he discovered Tabish unearthing the silver, he had known Binion was dead, but hadn't known that Xanax may have played a role in his death.

Tabish and Murphy were convicted in 2000 of murdering Binion and were sentenced to life in prison, but the Nevada Supreme Court later overturned the convictions.

Now in the second week of the retrial, defense attorneys contend that Binion died of a drug overdose involving a lethal mixture of heroin, Xanax and Valium.

On Sept. 18, 1998, in Pahrump, Howard testified Monday, Tabish told Howard that he had called Lieseke three times and that the sheriff knew Tabish would be unearthing Binion's vault. Lieseke would later arrive on the scene and tell Howard not to arrest Tabish, Madsen and Milot saying, "You don't have a case." Howard arrested them for burglary and took the vehicles, tractors and trailers into custody.

At that point Howard discovered that in a wallet belonging to Milot there were 11 "crisp" sequentially numbered $100 bills. After calling the detention center, he would later find Tabish had been discovered with 15 sequentially numbered $100 bills that seemed to be in the same series as those recovered from Milot's wallet.

Prosecutors contend the bills were stolen from Binion, who had obtained them from the bank two days before his death.

Tabish's lawyer, J. Tony Serra, asked Howard why someone would use equipment with their company name all over it in an area frequented by police and decide to flash light and make noise if they were doing something "under the cloak of darkness in the center of town in an open and notorious manner."

Howard agreed with Serra's description of the scene.

Serra also asked why Howard's initial police report on the incident, which was filed some 30 to 35 hours after the arrest, never included the alleged comments made by Tabish in relation to Binion taking a bottle of Xanax. Howard said he simply forgot and added it into the report later the same day as a supplement.

Serra is expected to continue his questioning of Howard this morning. District Judge Joseph Bonaventure is limiting the trial to just half a day today to ensure that everyone involved has an opportunity to vote.

Prior to Howard's testimony several drivers who worked for Tabish said they witnessed Tabish and Milot changing the trailers from one tractor to another during the late afternoon of Sept. 18.

Earlier Monday Richard Wright, a longtime attorney and friend of Binion who testified previously, was recalled to the stand to discussed his interaction with Murphy and Tabish in the hours after Binion's death.

Wright said Murphy was hysterical as she was wheeled out of Binion's home and taken to the hospital in an ambulance. He said Tabish arrived shortly after Murphy had been taken away.

Wright said Tabish told him he was on his way to the airport, but "rushed over" to Binion's home upon hearing of his death. He said Tabish volunteered some additional information.

"He (Tabish) said he wished he'd been successful on getting Ted (Binion) to go to Montana with him for fishing or recreation to help him dry out so this would not have happened," Wright testified.

At the time Tabish made those comments to Wright, no one had been informed that Binion suffered from a drug overdose, prosecutors said. Wright said Tabish then went to Valley Hospital to find Murphy, only to return 20 minutes later "agitated" saying the police had cleared Murphy's room and "they were interrogating her."

He said Tabish asked him to go back to the hospital with him and "do something about it."

Wright said he arrived at the hospital and went to Murphy's room, where she recognized him and grabbed his arm saying "I'm so sorry, tell Harry (Claiborne) I'm so sorry I should have never left him (Binion) alone. He asked me to stay. I'm so sorry."

Claiborne was Wright's law partner and longtime friend of the Binion family. Wright said Claiborne, who died Jan. 19, was essentially "a one-man committee" and made all of the decisions about the dissemination of the reward money offered by the Binion estate to those who provided information leading to an arrest and conviction in Binion's death.

After it was agreed that Binion's neighbor Janice Tanno would take care of Murphy at her home for the evening, Wright left the hospital with Murphy in Tabish's car. He said once in the car Murphy was no longer crying or hyperventilating, but instead asking questions about Binion's house and property.