Former sheriff's deputy Steve Huggins, originally a witness for the state, was the last witness called by the defense. (Court TV)

By Laura Barandes
Court TV

The last day of testimony in the Ted Binion murder trial began with attorneys fighting about the prosecution rebuttal case. Visibly exasperated, Judge Joseph Bonaventure finally threw up his hands and shouted, "I don't care what you do!" and brought in the jury.

The prosecution called four witnesses Friday to rebut parts of the defense case. The first two were emergency medical technicians who arrived at Binion's house on Sept. 17, 1998 in answer to a call of respiratory and cardiac arrest.

Ken Dickinson supplied the most important testimony for the prosecution, telling the court that he did not give Binion a "sternum rub" at the scene. The defense has argued that two marks on Binion's chest, in the shape of buttons, were caused by the vigorous rub often applied by paramedics to revive a patient.

Prosecutors, however, contend that the marks were made by defendants Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish as they sat on or put a knee into Binion's chest to keep his lungs deflated. Murphy, Binion's live-in girlfriend, and Tabish, her lover, are accused of killing Binion in a bid to steal his money and free Murphy from an allegedly abusive relationship with him.

According to the state, Murphy and Tabish fored a potent mixture of heroin and Xanax down Binion's throat and then suffocated him by a method called "Burkeing" when the gardener arrived at the house unexpectedly.

"Burkeing" is defined as suffocating a person by covering the nose and mouth, and putting pressure on the chest to restrain the physical act of breathing.

The defense had relied on Dickinson's testimony from a preliminary hearing to show that a sternum rub was applied to Binion at the scene. But on the stand Friday, Dickinson said he had only meant to explain the "standard procedure" typically followed by paramdics, not that he had actually done every part of it to Binion.

Under examination by prosecutors, Dickinson said that in Binion's case, a sternum rub was not necessary, "because he was obviously dead."

On cross-examination, defense attorney Louis Palazzo elicited from Dickinson that paramedics called out to rouse Binion, checked for a pulse, felt for his temperature and even took an EKG to measure the output of his heart — it was flatline. If, Palazzo asked, they had done all of these other parts of "standard procedure," why would they not have done a sternum rub?

Dickinson reiterated that it was "not necessary in this case," because they were sure Binion was dead. Palazzo made his point, put prosecutors had also made theirs. A second medic testified similarly.

The prosecution also recalled Rick Wright, one of Binion's lawyers, back to the stand to testify he never saw Binion wear a watch. The defense had suggested that a watch might explain why Binion was found with scrapes on his wrists. However, defense attorneys still have testimony from their last forensic pathologist that the scrapes most likely occurred after death, from manipulation of the body.

And before court finished for the day, the defense also had one more witness. Palazzo called former sheriff's detective Steve Huggins to the stand, who was actually a witness from the state's case. Huggins testified Friday regarding an interview he took from Tabish the day after he was arrested in Pahrump for digging up Binion's silver.

When Huggins initially took the stand, he said Tabish had told him he was at Binion's house the day the millionaire died. Palazzo, however, played parts of a taped police interview in which Tabish says he was at the Binion home on Sept. 16, 1998, the day before Binion died.

Huggins Friday tried to clarify his earlier testimony. The detective affirmed that Tabish had told him he was at the Binion home Sept. 17. But, claims Huggins, Tabish made the revelation during an off-the-record conversation.

Both sides have rested their cases, and closing arguments are expected to stretch over Monday and Tuesday. Then the jurors, who have listened in silence for six weeks, will have their say.