The Nevada Supreme Court ordered a new trial Monday for the Las Vegas lovebirds convicted of killing casino mogul Ted Binion in a bid to steal his $8 million fortune of silver and rare coins.

In a split decision, the state's highest court threw out murder, burglary and robbery verdicts reached in the 2000 trial of Binion's live-in girlfriend, former stripper Sandy Murphy, and her married paramour Rick Tabish, ruling that errors by a judge prejudiced jurors against the defendant.

The decision sent shockwaves through Las Vegas, where the six-week, 115-witness trial had been followed as closely as dice on the craps table.

"It's a score! The over and under on this was fantastic. It's great," rejoiced John Momot, Murphy's former trial attorney and current confidante. He and Herb Sachs, Murphy's current lawyer, said the 31-year-old, now serving a minimum 22-year sentence, was thrilled with the success of her appeal and eager to be released on bail.

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, who argued Murphy's appeal before the high court, said he was preparing a "very different" defense for the retrial and had scientific experts lined up to discredit the prosecution's case.

"We'd like to be back in court in 60 days. We're ready," said Dershowitz.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger, who was elected to his current post with the help of the recognition he gained while prosecuting Murphy and Tabish, said his office was scrutinizing the decision and weighing whether to ask for a rehearing.

"We're going to see if there's any glimmer of hope, but my gut is that there is not," said Roger.

Lonnie "Ted" Binion, whose family owns the downtown Horseshoe casino famed for its World Series of Poker, was found dead in his suburban mansion Sept. 17, 1998. The 51-year-old Binion had a long history of heroin addiction, and police initially believed he died of an overdose. His family, however, conducted its own investigation focusing on his much younger girlfriend. Six months after his death, armed with evidence that included information gathered by a Binion family private investigator, police detectives arrested Murphy and Tabish, a 38-year-old struggling businessman with a wife and children in his native Montana.

During the trial, prosecutors suggested Binion had discovered Murphy's affair with his acquaintance Tabish and was about to cut her off financially. Tabish and Murphy, the prosecutors told jurors, either suffocated Binion or forced him to overdose on his own drugs and then planned to make off with millions in silver bars and antique coins.

The defense countered that Binion's death was either a suicide or an accident.

A jury convicted the pair after eight days of deliberations.

Murphy (left) and Binion

The four-justice majority said Judge Joseph Bonaventure erred in two key areas: in his decision not to hold a separate trial for Tabish on charges he assaulted and blackmailed another businessman, and his instructions to jurors concerning testimony about a conversation between Binion and his estate lawyer the night before his death.

The majority justices said prosecutors never persuasively linked the July 1998 attack on Leo Casey, a partner with Tabish in a $10 million sand pit project, with Binion's death two months later, but the graphic testimony concerning the extortion and torture had a "substantial and injurious effect" on the guilty murder verdicts for both defendants.

Interestingly, the justices let stand Tabish's conviction on extortion and assault charges stemming from the Casey attack even as they overturned the murder finding.

The justices also took issue with the way the testimony of attorney James Brown was presented to jurors. In an eve-of-death phone call, Binion told Brown of his youthful girlfriend, "Take Sandy out of the will if she doesn't kill me tonight. If I'm dead you'll know what happened."

The justices said Bonaventure should have instructed jurors to consider statements only as evidence of Binion's state of mind, not as fact. "The prejudicial impact was great: The statement strongly implied Murphy killed Binion," the justices wrote.

Both Murphy and Tabish, housed in separate prison facilities, apparently learned of their court victory from other inmates.

"He was just sitting in his cell and someone told him," said Bill Terry, Tabish's appellate lawyer. Tabish had been serving a 25-year sentence.

Tabish is not eligible for bail because he must still serve at least 18 months for the Casey assault.

Roger said he would oppose bail for Murphy and would argue at a bail hearing, probably later this summer, that she should not be released because of her behavior while serving house arrest prior to the first trial. Then, Murphy violated the judge's orders by going on several shopping sprees and painting her monitoring bracelet to match a miniskirt she planned to wear to a court appearance.

Since her conviction, a wealthy Irish businessman who lives in Las Vegas has been footing the bill for her appeals lawyers.

It was unclear whether he would continue to cover her fees and whether Dershowitz would represent her during the trial.

"I will be involved. That's all I can say," Dershowitz said.

The prosecution team will also change for the new trial. Prosecutor David Wall is now a judge, and Roger said Monday that his administrative duties will prevent him from trying the case. He has assigned two other prosecutors, Robert Daskas and Christopher Lalli, to the case.

Bonaventure's role is also unclear. Defense lawyers could ask the judge to recuse himself from the case.