Ted Binion's divorce attorney cast doubt on defendant Tabish's claims that the casino mogul wanted him to remove the silver fortune from his desert vault.(Court TV)

By Laura Barandes
Court TV

Minutes before Sandy Murphy hysterically summoned an ambulance to the scene of Ted Binion's death, secret lover Rick Tabish placed a call to her cell phone, telephone records introduced Tuesday indicate.

The records, a key part of Las Vegas prosecutors murder case against Tabish and Murphy, show a one-minute call from the Montana businessman's cell phone to Murphy's cell phone on Sept. 17, 1998 at 3:47 p.m. By 3:55 p.m., Murphy had dialed 911 and was tearfully telling an operator that her "husband" was not breathing.

Number of Cell Phone Calls Made from Sandy Murphy to Rick Tabish: September 1998 Sept. 1: 18 Sept. 2: 15 Sept. 3: 12 Sept. 4: 14 Sept. 5: 12 Sept. 6: 15 Sept. 7: 6 Sept. 8: 31 Sept. 9: 27 Sept. 10: 16 Sept. 11: 31 Sept. 12 -13: 0 (prosecutors allege Tabish and Murphy spent the weekend together at the Peninsula Hotel in L.A.) Sept. 14: 19 Sept. 15: 8 Sept. 16: 26 Sept. 17: 0 (date of Binion's death) Sept. 18: 4

Prosecutors claim that Tabish and Murphy killed casino mogul Binion in a plot to steal his silver fortune and free Murphy from an allegedly abusive relationship with him. The state alleges that the pair suffocated Binion and staged his death to look like a drug overdose. The defense maintains the millionaire, a long-time heroin addict, died from a self-inflicted overdose.

In an effort to show an escalating murder conspiracy, prosecutors introduced a long catalogue of phone records showing frequent communication between Murphy, Tabish and several other alleged co-conspirators. In the two and a half weeks leading up to Binion's death, Murphy telephoned Tabish as many as 31 times a day.

Defense attorneys made multiple objections during testimony by telephone record expert Robert Leonard, arguing that the records show only the activity of certain telephone numbers and not the people who actually answered or placed the calls.

Judge Joseph Bonaventure overruled their objections, telling the defense they could raise the issue during cross examination of Leonard. Still, defense attorneys managed to draw attention to the fact that Leonard obtained the records from prosecutors and was hired by controversial private investigator Tom Dillard.

Dillard, a private investigator hired by the Binion estate, Dillard has been characterized throughout the trial by the defense as a "hired gun" who, with the backing of the "Binion money machine," turned a simple drug overdose into a homicide investigation.

The defense also attacked omissions in the records presented to the jury. On cross examination, Leonard acknowledged that prosecutors had instructed him to leave out some calls, including two Murphy placed to her sister in California shortly before she reported Binion dead.

The defense also countered state suggestions that Murphy and Tabish had talked at 3:47 p.m. before she called 911 by contending that the number dialed from Tabish's telephone corresponds to a car phone. When it rang, the defense argued, Murphy didn't answer because she was inside the house finding Binion.

The defense even pointed Leonard to his own report, where he noted that at 3:40 p.m. Murphy was back in her car calling her sister. At first, Leonard insisted the number wasn't a car telephone, but then admitted that he only knew that because the prosecution told him so.

Also on the stand Tuesday morning was Binion's divorce attorney, Tom Standish. Standish said that he drafted a cohabitation agreement between Binion and Murphy in January 1997, and that Murphy never seemed satisfied with it.

"She was never happy about the cohabitation agreement," said Standish. Prosecutors claim that the cohabitation agreement and Murphy's constant dissatisfaction is further evidence that she was always after Binion's money.

However, when defense lawyer John Momot asked if Murphy was unhappy because she wanted Binion to marry her, Standish confirmed that the millionaire had told him as much. Standish also said that Binion once spoke to him about having children with Murphy.

Momot also elicited more testimony that Murphy expressed concern about Binion's drug habit. Several witnesses have testified that Murphy asked them for help during the months preceding Binion's death, though none could say they gave her any.

Standish said that Murphy once called, quite upset, and told him that "now she had no life with him [Binion]" because he was still addicted to heroin. "She was almost crying," Standish testified, and told him that Binion was no longer interested in or capable of engaging in a sexual relationship with her. The defense contends that Murphy was a caregiver to Binion, left completely alone by the Binion family and friends to deal with her 55-year-old boyfriend's addiction.

Prosecutors did score a few points when Standish testified that the Pahrump property where Binion buried his silver was not an issue of dispute between the millionaire and his ex-wife.

"She did not have a claim to the land," said Standish. "The issue was done."

The defense had tried to argue that one of the reasons Binion allegedly wanted his silver unearthed immediately after his death was because he did not want Doris Binion to gain possession. Tabish was arrested by Pahrump authorities less than two days after Binion died, caught digging up the treasure at 2:00 a.m. with several associates. He claimed that he was acting on orders from Binion.

Standish acknowledged that Binion once said someone should go get the silver if he died, but he emphasized that the millionaire "was just talking."

Standish characterized the conversation, which to his recollection happened twice, as just "silly talk," and certainly not orders directed at Tabish. He testified that he made it clear to Tabish and Binion that it would be against probate law for someone to go get the silver if Binion died because it had to be handled through the estate. He also testified he told Binion that burying the silver was a bad idea.

However, admitted Standish on cross-examination, Binion did not always follow the advice of his lawyers.