Lawyer Calls for Retrial in Vegas Killing

LAS VEGAS — The convicted murderers of casino executive Ted Binion deserve a new trial because prosecutors relied on a jailhouse snitch who stole notes about the case from the jail cell of one of the defendants, a defense attorney argued Wednesday.

In a brief seeking the retrial, attorney William B. Terry said convicted felon David Gomez was given access to defendant Rich Tabish’s cell by jail guards and took the notes, intended for defense lawyers. Gomez turned them over to guards and a representative of the Clark County district attorney’s office, Terry said.

Prosecutors flatly denied the allegation Wednesday, saying they had nothing to do with Gomez, because he had no credibility.

Tabish, 35, and Sandy Murphy, 28, were convicted in May of drugging and suffocating Binion in a plot to loot the $50-million estate of the onetime Horseshoe Casino executive.

The trial fascinated Las Vegas, unveiling a tale of greed, drugs, sex, betrayal and a treasure hunt for $7 million in silver that Binion had buried in a nearby town.

The prosecution alleged that Murphy, a local topless dancer, became Binion’s lover but then two-timed him by pursuing Tabish, a trucking contractor. The two then plotted to kill Binion, 55, a heroin user, and trying to make it look as if he died of a drug overdose.

Tabish was arrested 48 hours after the murder when he was caught by sheriff’s deputies in Pahrump, digging up the vault containing the silver.

Gomez’s alleged role as a snitch would not be new. As an inmate in Los Angeles County after the 1997 murder of Ennis Cosby, he furnished letters in which defendant Mikail Markhasev appeared to confess. Later, in an unrelated case, Gomez testified that he had forged those letters and sold them to the National Enquirer for $10,000.

Last year, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge refused to overturn Markhasev’s conviction, saying there was other substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict without the supposed letters of confession.

In the Binion case, allegations about Gomez’s role were first made in February, when he supposedly produced documents that he said Tabish had provided to him. A handwriting expert testified that the documents were not in Tabish’s handwriting, but the Las Vegas judge rejected a defense motion that charges against Tabish be dismissed.

In Wednesday’s briefs, Tabish’s attorney says Gomez admits participating in a jailhouse plot to gather information about Tabish in exchange for favored treatment.

David Roger, one of the Clark County deputy district attorneys who prosecuted Tabish and Murphy, rejected the allegation that Gomez helped the case.

“David Gomez is a three-time convicted felon from the state of California. Recently he pleaded guilty to perjury in federal court in Nevada. We did not place David Gomez in Rich Tabish’s module.

“We were confident the evidence we had would be sufficient to convict Ted Binion’s killers,” Roger said. “We had no desire to use snitches during our case.”

In addition to saying the case had been compromised by Gomez, attorney Terry also asked for a retrial for other reasons, including allegations that improper contact occurred between jurors and a bailiff, that some jurors read news accounts of the trial despite the admonition to avoid them and that a juror used a Palm Pilot to download e-mail notes from home.

A hearing to debate the motion for a retrial is scheduled for Aug. 4.