Probate lawyer Gardner Jolley said Sandy Murphy may be entitled to everything in the casino mogul's Palomino Lane house. (Court TV)

By Laura Barandes
Court TV

Sandy Murphy had no reason to rob lover Ted Binion's house after his death because under the terms of his will, she already owned it and all of its contents, according to the first defense witness in the Las Vegas "Millionaire Murder" trial.

Probate lawyer Gardner Jolley said Thursday that under the terms of the dead casino mogul's will, Murphy was entitled to $300,000, the Palomino estate and everything in it.

"That includes coin collections and cash," Jolley testified. Prosecutors claim that Murphy and her lover, Rick Tabish, stole valuables, including silver coins, from Binion's house. The pair are accused of killing Binion in a bid to steal his money and free Murphy from an allegedly abusive relationship with him.

Jolley testified that he was hired by Murphy's original attorneys to handle the petition for probate filed on behalf of the Binion estate. James Brown, the estate lawyer, had contested the will as written because he claimed Binion told him over the phone to change it.

Brown, a key witness for the state, testified that Binion called him the day before he died and said, "'Take Sandy out of the will, if she doesn't kill me tonight. If I'm dead you'll know what happened.'"

The will was never formally changed, but Brown petitioned the court to honor his client's alleged order. The court disagreed, instead supporting Jolley's argument that "the first codicil [granting Murphy the house, its contents and $300,000] was valid, and couldn't be revoked by a telephone call." A will and its amendments could only be changed through a formal request that concluded with the signatures of two people witnessing the transaction.

Had Brown won, the entire Binion estate, estimated by Jolley to be "as much as $55 million," would have gone to Bonnie Binion, the millionaire's daughter.

But Murphy's defense attorney, John Momot, was not the one who asked the million dollar question. Lead prosecutor David Roger asked Jolley if a beneficiary would be entitled to the gifts if convicted of murder.

"If they are convicted of first degree murder, they are not," said Jolley.

The defense has argued that Murphy is a victim of the "Binion money machine," which never accepted her in the family, and wanted her to get nothing. Prosecutors insist Murphy is a skilled manipulator who was always after Binion's fortune.

The second witness for the defense was William Bacon, a friend of Binion who frequently came over to the house. Momot used Bacon to introduce a 1998 videotape the witness took inside the house Binion and Murphy shared.

The videotape, which is of extremely poor quality, shows Murphy playing classical music at the piano while Binion sits eating in the kitchen. As Bacon panned the room, there is a brief view of ceiling-to-floor white drapes — which are closed. Though Momot never asked Bacon about these drapes directly, the videotape seemed to address prosecution witnesses' statements that the drapes were never closed except the day that Binion died.

Prosecutors claim Murphy and Tabish closed the drapes that day to hide their murderous activities. The defense argues that it was not so unusual for the drapes to be drawn, considering Binion's paranoia from an earlier drive-by shooting at the house.