LAS VEGAS — In yet another apparent finale to the saga involving the death of casino mogul Ted Binion, Sandy Murphy walked out of the Nevada Women's Correctional Facility Thursday with her discharge papers, a free woman at last.

The discharge was a mere formality for Murphy, who has been out on a $250,000 bond since her conviction last November of attempting to steal a horde of silver that Binion, her live-in boyfriend at the time of his death, kept stashed in an underground desert vault.

Phone calls between Murphy and her then-lover Rick Tabish tied her to the silver heist.

During the same retrial, Murphy and her former secret lover Rick Tabish were acquitted of murdering Binion, who was found dead in his Las Vegas mansion on Sept. 17, 1998, his stomach full of black tar heroin and sleeping pills.

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After emerging from the facility, the former topless dancer, who befriended Binion at a Las Vegas strip club and moved in with him shortly after, described her release for local TV News station KLAS.

"I went in. I didn't have to be strip-searched this time. I was patted down, fingerprinted and discharged. And I signed all my paperwork and they released me," Murphy said.

She also said she was happy to put the threat of prison time behind her: "It's good to be free, let me tell you."

Murphy and Tabish had been convicted of suffocating Binion and then attempting to steal his silver in a 2002 trial. But that decision was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court and the six-week retrial took place last fall.

At a February hearing Judge Joseph Bonaventure sentenced Tabish to two consecutive one- to five-year prison terms and Murphy to a single one- to five-year term.

During the hearing, Bonaventure told a tearful Murphy that she might want to pull a "Martha Stewart" and serve the time as soon as possible to get it out of the way.

But she decided to appeal the theft conviction and remained free on bond.

Murphy served 46 months in prison after her conviction from the first trial. Her attorney Michael Cristalli successfully convinced the Department of Corrections that, with time served, Murphy was eligible for discharge for the burglary conviction despite remaining free on bail.

With the threat of prison behind her, Murphy and her attorneys will focus on trying to get money and property left to her by Binion's estate and on appealing the theft convictions.

Rick Tabish, meanwhile, remains behind bars on theft charges as well as for unrelated convictions of extorting and assaulting a former business associate.

Tabish has also appealed the theft convictions, although his lawyer, Joseph Caramagno, postponed a hearing that was set for Monday morning.

Prosecutor Christopher Lalli, who showed up to argue against the motion to dismiss the theft convictions Monday morning, said he was unaware the hearing had been postponed.

"This is the third time that he [Caramagno] has filed this or a similar motion," Lalli complained to Bonaventure. "When is enough enough?"