Dr. Jack Snyder testified that Binion died of a "triple whammy" overdose of heroin, Xanax and Valium. (Court TV)

By Laura Barandes
Court TV

Prosecutor David Wall went head to head with another defense pathologist Thursday, and emerged bruised in the Ted Binion murder case.

"I believe that Mr. Binion is the victim of three drugs," said Dr. Jack Snyder, a forensic pathologist with additional degrees in toxicology, chemistry and even law.

Read Dr. Snyder's Complete Pathology Report

"The drugs are sufficient to explain the cause and the manner of death here," Snyder testified, and "that makes it totally unnecessary to invoke foul play or intervening factors as causes or hasteners of Mr. Binion's death."

Prosecutors allege that Binion did die as the result of foul play, specifically at the hands of Sandy Murphy, his live-in girlfriend, and Rick Tabish, her lover. According to the prosecution, Murphy and Tabish forced a potent mixture of heroin and Xanax down Binion's throat and then suffocated him when the gardener arrived unexpectedly. The motive was money, and Binion had a lot of it.

Snyder was the last in a long line of experts who testified in the Binion case, and he, like the rest, disagreed with parts of every other expert's testimony. So far, Dr. Michael Baden, the state's star pathologist, is the only medical expert to argue that Binion was murdered by suffocation, based on purely medical evidence.

Dr. Lary Simms, the prosecution's other expert and the medical examiner who actually performed Binion's autopsy, could not even say that. He changed his conclusion on manner of death from "undetermined" to "homicide" based on non-medical information he received from police and investigators.

Snyder testified that Binion died from taking a "triple whammy" of heroin, Xanax and Valium. "That's a recipe for disaster, as far as I'm concerned," said Snyder.

He dismissed the bruise on the knee, the marks on the chest and the scrapes on both wrists as inconsequential injuries that occurred after Binion's death. "I believe they can all be explained by post mortem manipulation of the body," said Snyder, suggesting that paramedics or other people who found Binion moved the body.

And like every expert but Baden, Snyder said he found no evidence of petechiael hemorrhaging in Binion's eyes. The small red spots might have been an indication of suffocation.

On cross-examination, prosecutor David Wall tried to undermine Snyder by pointing out that Snyder had only done 1,000 autopsies compared to the more than 25,000 Baden has conducted.

Wall also referred to Baden's testimony that he had never seen or heard of a heroin death from "chasing the dragon." This method of heroin use, favored by Binion, involves spreading the tar form of the drug on a piece of foil, heating it from underneath and inhaling the smoke that rises. Prosecutors claim that "chasing the dragon" is the safest form of heroin use because so much of the drug escapes into the air.

But Snyder insisted on making clear to the jury that death by "chasing the dragon" alone "doesn't apply to this case." Snyder continued to stress, much to Wall's exasperation, that Binion had two other drugs in his system: Xanax and Valium.

Snyder testified that each of the drugs alone could have caused death, in the levels found in the Binion's body, but that the three working synergistically were more than enough.

When Wall suggested that non-medical evidence of murder might change Snyder's opinion, the pathologist answered that "nothing about a plan or a conspiracy or anything else is going to change that." He added, "I've not been provided with any objective evidence."

The defense presented two other witnesses Thursday afternoon and plan to rest their case after a short witness Friday morning. The prosecution is planning a rebuttal case.