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Binion Verdict: His Sister, Becky Behnen, Had Immediately Asked Police to Investigate the Death

Prosecutors said the greed of both defendants fed off of each other and resulted in the plot to kill Ted Binion, who had returned to using drugs after Nevada gaming regulators in March 1998 revoked his license and forced him to sell his 20 percent interest in his family-owned Horseshoe Club, a popular downtown gambling joint founded by his late legendary father, Benny Binion.

Binion's body, Chief Deputy District Attorneys David Roger and David Wall charged, was laid out in a "mortuary pose" on the floor of his den surrounded by an empty bottle of Xanax with no fingerprints on it and other personal items to make it look as though he had committed suicide.

At first police thought Binion had indeed died of an overdose because of his known drug use and the lack of signs of foul play at the death scene.

But in a Sun story the next day (Sept. 18, 1998), Binion's sister, Horseshoe Club President Becky Behnen, urged police to investigate her brother's death. Other friends and employees also raised suspicions about Binion's death in interviews with the Sun. And on Sept. 19, 1998, Nye County sheriff's deputies arrested Rick Tabish and two other men after they had dug up Binion's silver fortune in Pahrump.

Two days later Binion estate lawyers Richard Wright and Jim Brown asked Metro homicide detectives to probe Binion's death. But detectives informed the lawyers that they wanted to wait for the results of drug tests on his body before entering the case.

At that meeting, Brown related a conversation he had with Binion the day before his death in which he was instructed to take Sandy Murphy out of the former casino executive's will. Brown said Binion predicted Murphy might try to kill him.

Shortly after that meeting, Wright and Brown hired private detective Tom Dillard to investigate Binion's death on behalf of the $55 million estate. Homicide detectives later entered the case after drug tests found lethal levels of heroin and Xanax in Binion's system.

But it wasn't until March 15, 1999, when Clark County Coroner Ron Flud changed the manner in which Binion died from undetermined to homicide. Three months later on June 25, 1999, Murphy and Tabish were arrested and charged with killing Binion.

Throughout the investigation, Murphy and Tabish continued to insist that Binion had committed suicide.

And suicide was their defense during the trial even in the face of testimony from renowned New York pathologist Michael Baden, who insisted Binion was the victim of the 19th century suffocation method known as "burking," in which pressure is exerted on the victim's chest and his mouth and nose are covered, leaving few marks.

Defense attorneys paraded a string of medical experts during their case hoping to discredit Baden, including his good friend Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh, who enjoys a similar celebrity status in the world of forensic pathology. Wecht testified that he saw no signs of suffocation and that Binion had died of a self-induced overdose of heroin and Xanax.

But under cross-examination, Wecht was forced to acknowledge that defense lawyers never gave him access to statements from the dozens of prosecution witnesses who had detailed the murder conspiracy. Wecht essentially came to his conclusions in a defense-created vacuum.

Complicating matters for prosecutors, however, was the testimony of Clark County Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms, who performed the autopsy on Binion's body. Simms testified that he also did not see signs of suffocation. But Simms agreed with Baden that Binion was the victim of a homicide. He said he died of a forced overdose of heroin and Xanax.

Prosecutors called about 90 witnesses to the stand in a streamlined case that took five weeks to present. They originally had listed 276 witnesses, but decided at the last moment to go with a leaner case to avoid confusing the jury.

The trial was sped along by District Judge Joseph Bonaventure, a "no-nonsense" jurist with more than 21 years of experience on the bench. Bonaventure ruled the trial with an iron hand but a touch of humor that often put the jury at ease under the watchful eye of the media.

Following the verdict, John Momot - Murphy's lawyer -- complimented Bonaventure of the way he handled the case, noting that the judge had complete control of the trial.

Much of the trial was aired live on Las Vegas 1, a local cable news channel, and Court TV, a national legal network. The trial attracted interest from such network magazine shows as "20/20" and "Dateline," as well as the tabloids, "Inside Edition" and "Hard Copy." Reporters from as far away as London and Dublin also took an interest in the proceedings.

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