All language subtitles for Blood.&.Money.S01E10.A.Casino.Tycoons.Hidden.Treasure.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

In the criminal
justice system,

detectives and prosecutors
face daunting challenges

when money
is the motive for murder.

[dramatic sting]

The Binion family,
they have a long legacy here.

Investigators find
a rich casino mogul

dead from an overdose.

Looking at the body,
there was remnants

of some foam on his lips.

To me,
it looked like an overdose.

It wasn't until they got
the toxicology report back

that we knew something
was seriously wrong.

Ted Binion had $8 million
in silver buried in a vault.

It appeared they killed Ted
for his money.

Without hard evidence,
prosecutors use

inventive testimony
to convince a jury

this wasn't an overdose.

You have all these
little pieces that you build

to look like,
this is actually murder.

He said, "If I'm dead,
you'll know what happened."

These men and women dedicate
their lives to law in order.

To this day, clarity
as to what really happened

to Ted Binion is suspect.

These are
their true stories.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Nine County
Sheriff's deputies say

they found several holes dug
in the Pahrump property,

once owned by casino heir
Ted Binion.

They say a former employee
broke in looking

for buried silver bars.

Neighbors say,
"It's nothing new."

It's a 20-year-old rumor

that many locals
are familiar with,

that there's precious metal buried

on Ted Binion's old ranch here.

Employees and neighbors
saying they're

constantly chasing people
off coming in armed

with metal detectors
and shovels,

hoping to find
Binion's jackpot.

♪ ♪

I never dreamed that this
case would go on for six years

after that first night
on September 17, 1998.

I sometimes wonder why this
case keeps coming back up,

why there's so
much interest in it

because it's not unusual
for notable people

to meet their demise
in Las Vegas

through unfortunate circumstances.

The interesting thing
in this case is,

they thought their greed
was helping them

or doing something good
for them,

and every step of the way,

the greed ended up
making things worse

and exposing everything.

So it sticks
in people's minds.

[dramatic sting]

[phone ringing]

[woman sobbing]

[phone line beeping]

I was right here when I got
the call for a cardiac arrest

on Palomino Lane.

Flipped on the lights
and siren, took off,

and we were there
in less than a minute.

Parked right here
next to that gate.

Walked through that gate
towards the front door.

There's
a beautiful young woman

that identified herself
as Sandy Murphy,

the wife of the victim.

[tense music]

She told us,
"He's not breathing."

I asked her,
"Can you take us to him?"

We went right through the
front door and turned right.

♪ ♪

She had come home from lunch
or wherever she was

and found him dead
on the floor on a sleeping bag

with a blanket over him.

I reached
to his carotid artery

to see if there was a pulse.

And I felt rigor mortis
in his jaw.

I ran an EKG on him anyway.

[beeping]

I got three flat lines.

His heart was not
beating anymore.

There were marks on his chest.

He had a little drool
coming out of his mouth.

There was a Xanax pill bottle
underneath his right shoulder.

To me, it looked
like an overdose.

So called dispatch,
said send police officers.

♪ ♪

If we'd have a dead body
in this neighborhood,

you kind of know
something's up.

[radio chatter]

The scene immediately
got locked down.

A police officer walked
through the door and said,

"That's Ted Binion, who runs
the Binion's Horseshoe."

♪ ♪

Ted Binion was known
for Binion's Horseshoe.

He was the brand ambassador
at public events,

well-known with politicians.

Ted was very well-liked.

And so he was the face
of the casino.

It was Ted's job to run the
world-famous poker tournament

every year, and he
was worth around $500 million.

He lived comfortably.
He lived well.

But he also spent his money
on some of his vises.

At the time,
it was well known

he enjoyed going
to strip clubs.

He also started
into hardcore heroin use.

Ted and I became acquainted
when I was probably 16

here in Las Vegas,
and I was aware of the fact

that he took heroin
for 20 years.

But I was never
around him and thought

that he was under
the influence of a narcotic.

I never saw signs of it.

[camera snapping]

Looking at the body,
there was, it looked like,

remnants of some foam
on his lips,

which is indicative to us
of an overdose.

We saw some things that were
in the adjacent bathroom.

I think it was a little
piece of balloon,

a little piece of foil.

That becomes significant
because balloons

are the transport mechanism
for heroin

and the foil is how
you would use it.

It starts to look like this is

a pretty routine
drug overdose.

We still try to document
as much as we can,

interview who we can.

So of course, Sandy was the
person we needed to talk to.

Ted Binion was 55 years old.

Sandy Murphy was 26 years old

and came from a different
background than Ted.

Sandy worked in the adult
entertainment industry

in Las Vegas.

Investigators learned
that Ted had met Sandy

three years prior
at Cheetah's Strip Club.

She was his live-in girlfriend
who often referred

to herself as his wife.

She did say,
"He was a drug addict.

"He finally did it.

I knew this was gonna happen,"
type thing.

Sandy was inconsolable
and extremely upset.

Sandy was hyperventilating.

They had to treat her.

As they were wheeling her,
TV cameras caught her.

She lost her emotions
and had to be taken

to the hospital.

I make telephone contact
with Lieutenant Peterson.

My working relationship
with William Peterson

was probably one of the best
working relationships

with the lieutenants
they had in homicide.

Normally, I would never get a
call of a drug overdose death,

but this was Ted Binion,
so obviously,

this is gonna make the news.

This may possibly be
an ingestion error on drugs.

We have not seen
any signs of foul play.

It's not unusual, and we
have encountered in the past

where people,
they over-medicate,

and that falls into the sort
of definition of a suicide.

We have to wait
for confirmation

or additional information
from the coroner's office.

I received a call
and was told Ted had died.

I was sobbing.

It took me probably 45 minutes
or an hour before I could

actually leave the office.

As news
of Ted Binion's death

spread through Las Vegas,

detectives knew
their investigation

could be heavily scrutinized

due to Ted's
high profile status.

Ted Binion was
the son of Benny Binion.

Benny opened the Horseshoe.

Benny Binion had five children.
Jack was the oldest.

I think Teddy was
second oldest,

and they had three daughters,

one of which was
Becky Binion Behnen.

Becky, with Ted,
ran Binion's Horseshoe.

She was the one that was
handling the nuts and bolts

and keeping
the company profitable

and keeping the casino open.

[soft music]

At 21 years old,
Ted had taken over managing

the Horseshoe Casino floor.

Later on, Ted met Doris.

They went together
probably 8-10 years,

and then she got pregnant
with Bonnie,

and then they married.

Despite his family life

with his wife Doris
and daughter Bonnie,

by 1994, Ted's drug use
was at an all-time high,

and his mistress,
Sandy Murphy,

had become a fixture
in his life.

Ted's relationship
with Sandy

more or less prompted
Doris to leave.

Sandy quickly moved
into Ted's home

and started calling
herself Mrs. Binion.

She was young, in her
early 20s, when they met.

Certainly,
Ted, with all his money,

would be a real prize
for Sandy Murphy.

Ted had given her a Mercedes
and gave her a credit card.

It was a continuous
$10,000 line

that he took care of
every month.

And it was a time that
partying went on day and night,

and he was still
involved in heroin.

[dramatic sting]

While investigators
awaited Sandy's release

from the hospital,
they learned

that Ted had been suffering
from depression

over a recently lost appeal

to the Nevada State
gaming board.

In 1994, Ted lost
his gaming license

because there was allegations
that his drug use

had gotten worse.

Probably the saddest
comment in that hearing,

he said, "This is all I am."

I thought I'd come
in here this year.

It is my, like, my whole life,
my whole job.

He was basically
out of income

with not having
a gaming license.

Becky now has to ensure
that her own brother

can physically not come into
a casino that he grew up in.

Ted was forced to remove
all of his personal belongings

from the casino,
including a large collection

of silver bars.

He had $8 million worth
of silver in there.

He felt a bank was just
too expensive to hold it,

and that's when he came up
with the idea

of building
his own underground vault.

[tense music]

It took trucks--
not truck, trucks--

to move this silver,
to move it out to Pahrump

and bury it in the desert.

♪ ♪

Ted still had a ton
of money at the house,

irrespective of the money in Pahrump.

Everybody knew that he
always had money at hand,

always had a lot
of money at hand.

The morning after Ted died,
Ted's family and his lawyers

conducted an inventory
of Ted's home.

They had one
of the safes drilled

by locksmiths to get it open.

And there should have been
probably tens of thousands

of dollars in there.

And they found just one
silver coin at the bottom.

There was a rubber bottom
with indentations

from the weight
of money in the safe.

We have no idea
where the money went.

Whoever removed what
was inside that safe

did it before the police
responded to the scene.

The revelation
raised questions

for Ted's sister Becky.

Becky Behnen was insistent
that he was not the type

to commit suicide,
that he wasn't depressed,

that he was looking forward
to trying to get

his gaming license back.

He would never have any
kind of accidental overdose,

and I know it wasn't suicide.

Becky told police
and told the media

he'd been taking drugs
since his teenage years.

So he couldn't possibly have
OD'd because he knew better.

He knew how to do it.

Would you please treat
this as a homicide

till proven otherwise?

Becky expressed her concerns
that Sandy Murphy

was involved in Ted's death.

His relationship
with Sandy Murphy

was falling apart.

He said, "If I'm dead,
you'll know what happened."

Why are there giant trucks
out here

digging into the ground?

The sergeant discovered
silver coins falling out--

You have all these little
pieces that you build

The day after deceased
Horseshoe casino owner

Ted Binion's home safe
was found empty,

his sister, Becky,
and his lawyers

wanted investigators to
consider his death a homicide.

[musical sting]

[phone ringing]

Becky and two of Ted's
attorneys came to my office

after his death,
Richard Wright and James Brown.

They expressed their concerns.

After three years of dating,
Sandy had asked Ted

to include her in his will.

Ted had previously
been married,

and he had a daughter
named Bonnie.

Sandy started putting
a guilt trip on him that,

"If you die, your family is
gonna throw me in the street.

I won't have any place
to live."

So he agreed to give her the
house in the event he died.

And he called me and had me
put that in the will,

give Sandy the house
and $300,000,

and the remainder
goes to Bonnie.

But the day before he died,
he called me.

He said,
"Take Sandy out of the will

"if she doesn't kill me.

If I'm dead,
you'll know what happened."

It kind of sent chills
in my spine.

And I scratched out Sandy

so that Sandy
would get nothing.

Based upon what he told me,

I thought
it was virtually impossible

that his death was an accident.

Binion's family believed
that foul play was involved

and that Sandy's desire
to protect her inheritance

of Ted's million dollar home
and lay claim

to the cash in his safe
was surefire motive.

The only people that would
have had access to that safe

are Sandy Murphy
and Ted Binion.

Certainly, Becky Behnen
had her suspicions

about what had happened.

Because the relationship
with Sandy Murphy

was falling apart,
Becky had been clued in

to so many of their fights
and the way things were going,

she was definitely gunning
for his girlfriend,

without any question.

[dramatic sting]

The day after he died,
I had arranged to meet

at the house to get pictures
for the funeral.

And I saw Sandy
standing by the house.

She has a lawyer there, Knudsen.

And I said, "can I help you?"

And he said,
"She's going in the house."

I said, "Wait a minute.

"Ted called me yesterday,

"told me to take her
out of the will.

"It's his house.

"There are millions
of dollars of value

"inside that house
that's part of his estate

that has to be protected."

Because Sandy had lived
with Ted in his home,

until Brown could
obtain a court order

to block Sandy's access,
legally, his hands were tied.

Knudsen had a video camera.

He says
"We're gonna take a video

of everything in the house."

I said, "Fine,
as long as I get a copy."

I'm gonna take my bar gift,
and my Luther Gunter,

and I've already taken my other
piece of art that was in here.

She was just opening
every drawer saying,

"This is mine.
That's mine."

She lifted up the piano,
there was a pistol in there.

She said, "I bet you didn't
even know that was in there."

You can get a picture
of the money missing.

There was money in there?

Well, there's $20,000 in the
house, and it's not here now.

When she made reference,

the money's gone
from the safe,

I felt something was amiss,
without a doubt.

[tense music]

In the video of Sandy
going through the house,

she did not seem
to be grieving at all.

The circumstances
and the suspicions

were starting to mount.

[dramatic sting]

It wasn't until they got
the toxicology report back

that we knew something
was seriously wrong.

In the stomach contents,
the levels of the Xanax

was well
into the lethal range.

The level of morphine, which
was a byproduct of heroin,

was in the toxic range.

And as the drug circulates
through the blood

of the stomach,
it usually doesn't get trapped

there at any very high levels.

And the fact that he had
high levels in his stomach

would indicate
that he had ingested it.

Somehow this lethal dose
of Xanax and heroin

got into Ted's stomach.

For a heroin user,
that would have

been a waste of good heroin.

Ted was known to smoke heroin.

This concentration
inside his stomach

would never have happened
by Ted just smoking heroin.

We conclude
the manner of death

was alprazolam
and heroin intoxication

and left the manner of death
open and undetermined,

pending police investigation.

We needed more information

before we could call it
a homicide.

[musical sting]

[ominous music]

It was on a Friday night,

and it was right
before the Harvest Festival.

We were putting out barricades
for the festival parade.

We all thought it was a little
bit weird that there was

somebody over in the field.

We kept seeing lights
out there.

[vehicle beeping]

This is a quiet,
little rural community

where construction equipment
running at 2:00 a.m.

is going to attract
some attention.

The Sergeant went over there
and discovered silver coins

falling out of the belly dump.

Nye County law enforcement
are suddenly saying,

"Why are there giant trucks
out here,

"digging into the ground,

Two days after Ted Binion's
suspicious death,

Sheriff's deputies
in Pahrump, Nevada,

discovered three men
were digging up

the former casino owner's
buried silver collection

worth $8 million.

[dramatic sting]

♪ ♪

One of the officers approached

and talked to the people.

33-year-old Rick Tabish
explained he was a friend

of the deceased
multimillionaire Ted Binion.

And then as part
of their explanation,

they started name dropping,
oh, well,

the Nye County Sheriff
knows about us,

just all different stories.

There was a famous
restaurant on the strip

where all the movie stars
go to,

elite people from Vegas.

And Ted met Rick
in the restroom

of that restaurant.

Ted took a liking to him,
and when Ted decided

to build the vault,
he called Rick to do it

because Tabish was
in the construction business.

And only Tabish would know
that it's even there.

Tabish's story
to Nye County deputies

was that Ted had instructed
him to--if anything happened

to Ted that Tabish was
to go get the silver

and make sure that it's safe
so that it could be given

to Ted's daughter.

That's what he said
in justifying why he was

caught taking all that silver.

So ultimately,
when the dust settled,

they were arrested
for grand larceny

and booked
into the Nye County Jail.

The Sheriff's deputies,
they took the silver,

and they had no place
to put it.

So they had guards
just standing around,

all night long guarding it.

We had that transported
to a storage,

where it remained
until the estate sold.

With the arrest
of Rick Tabish,

yet another player joined
Ted's family and Sandy Murphy

in laying claim to millions.

Two days later,
an alliance became clear

when Rick bonded out.

Sandy Murphy
took all the money

that she can grab very,
very quickly,

including her two-seat Mercedes
that Ted had given her.

She puts all of that up
in order to bail out

a friend of Ted's who was
caught removing his silver.

There's no way that you can
take this and put it together

in a way that looks favorable.

[dramatic sting]

The Binion family wanted
this case to go forward.

We hired Tom Dillard,
who was a former Las Vegas

Police Department
Homicide detective

and had a detective agency.

Tom Dillard
got on it immediately.

Tom Dillard gave us
an extra set of eyes and ears.

We found
that Sandy Murphy is living

with Rick Tabish in Henderson.

Before and after
Teddy's death,

it came to light that Sandy
and Rick had actually gone

to Beverly Hills and checked
into a very upscale hotel

under the name
Mr. and Mrs. Tabish.

[dramatic music]

It turned out
they were having an affair

for some time before this,
so the plot thickened.

I just became
good friends with the guy,

and I'm real shocked.

Really soft spoken,
compassionate guy,

and I'm real surprised.

I know he was trying
to do everything he could

to straighten his life out
and get back on track,

and this is a real tragedy.

It was ultimately
learned that Rick Tabish

was outside
the house that night

that Ted was found dead.

And we never had
any contact with him.

Certainly, Rick Tabish was
much younger than Ted Binion,

was better looking
than Ted Binion.

So Sandy Murphy
and Rick Tabish

to get together
was no surprise.

The gardener, the maid,
everybody is aware

that something is going on with
Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy.

And Ted came
to know it as well.

And that's when Ted said, "I'm
writing her out of everything.

I'm getting rid of everything."

Sandy reveled
in the fact that she

was in this upper echelon,

money,
associating with high society.

I mean, she knew
she was on her way out.

She wasn't about to take
that loss lying down.

I was certain that Sandy was
involved, and Tabish probably.

Sandy Murphy
and Rick Tabish had motive,

opportunity, and means.

In December of 1998,
we presented the case

to the district
attorney's office,

and they were gonna
take it to the grand jury.

As a prosecutor
looking at this case,

there were a number
of red flags.

The fact that the heroin that
was found in Ted Binion's body

had actually been ingested,
rather than having been smoked,

which was known
to be his practice.

You also have developing
evidence relating

to Sandy and Rick's
relationship.

And so you have all these
little pieces of knowledge

to make the investigators case
at this point look like,

this is actually murder.

March 1999, the coroner
called a news conference

and announced that he was
changing the manner of death

from unknown to homicide.

♪ ♪

That made it stronger for us.

The district attorney's
office presented it

to the grand jury.

When the grand jury came back,
they indicted Rick and Sandy,

and we were able
to get an arrest warrant.

♪ ♪

We were able to find
Rick and Sandy

at this grocery store
in Henderson.

Certainly, Rick and Sandy
did not seem surprised.

I think they knew
it was coming.

By March 1999, Ted Binion's
death was ruled a homicide,

and three months later,
Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish

were arrested and charged
with murder.

[dramatic sting]

It was called at the time,
"Vegas' trial of the century."

Biggest media attention
they'd ever seen.

I think the trial was
considered sensational.

It had everything.

It had lover's triangle, money.

It had all the makings
of a good story.

[ominous music]

♪ ♪

It was a circumstantial case
from the outset.

You didn't have somebody
saying, "I saw X shooting Y."

The prosecution had
to help the jury understand

that these are the reasons,
this is the evidence.

And this is why it all points
to these two individuals.

Prosecutors David Wohl
and David Rogers

delivered opening statements.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the evidence will prove

beyond a reasonable doubt
that Ted Binion was murdered.

He was murdered for lust,
for greed.

He was murdered by someone
who he trusted

and her new companion.

The prosecutors present
to the jury

Sandy's background
as having worked at Cheetahs,

and then she begins
to date Ted and is introduced

to a lifestyle
that would have otherwise

been well beyond her means.

Tabish ingratiated himself
with Ted Binion.

After that,
he got close to Sandy.

She was buying
Rick Tabish lavish gifts,

utilizing Ted's credit card,
and showing that she'd actually

flown Rick out to Los Angeles.

They'd registered at a hotel
together as husband and wife.

But what did
the guest request?

It says upon arrival,
guests should have in room

a bottle of red wine,
and that's a Barbaresco 706

and two dozens
of long stemmed roses,

and this should be billed
to the room,

and it says it's a surprise
to her husband.

They're telling the jury,
look, this is someone who had

this relationship going on.

She's using Ted's money
to further that relationship.

Thank you.

That concludes
direct examination.

Thank you, Mr. Roger.

The defense said
that you could take

the exact same facts, his
relationship with Sandy Murphy

falling apart and finding out
about Rick Tabish, and say,

that's not evidence
of a homicide.

It's evidence for why a man
would commit suicide.

- Anything else?
- Nothing, Your Honor.

But prosecution presents
evidence to the jury

that Rick is up
to his eyeballs in debt.

He is bouncing
checks all over town.

In fact, there was
one check for $29,634.54

returned on September 2, 1998.

Yes.

He has an IRS
back payment due of $337,000.

He has a $200,000
Nevada State Bank loan

that's coming due
in the next few days.

His company in Montana has
defaulted on a $75,000 loan.

And then separately,
his equipment company

down here has also defaulted

on $67,000 in equipment.

September 17, 1998,

Mr. Tabish
owed close to $300,000.

Yes.

And all of these debts are
coming due at the same time.

David Roger used that
masterfully to show

that Tabish was desperate.

So that desperation calls
for desperate measures.

[dramatic music]

My name is
Steven Kurt Gratzer.

My last name is
spelled G-R-A-T-Z-E-R.

The prosecution called
a witness, Kurt Gratzer,

who was Rick's friend
from Montana.

Kurt was also
an ex Army Ranger.

Did you and Mr. Tabish
discuss killing a man?

Yes.

He told me that there
was a former casino owner

in Las Vegas he had
some business arrangements with

and owed him some money
and wasn't paying it.

And he wanted to utilize
my services to help him

in killing this man.

♪ ♪

Kurt proposes
to Rick that they

force Ted to consume
a lethal combination

of heroin and Xanax.

There was discussion
about it.

And I really didn't know
how to go about that.

Kurt calls a pharmacist
friend of his in Montana

and asks that friend
how much Xanax is needed

to deliver a lethal dose.

The pharmacist
in Montana confirms

that, in fact, that
conversation did take place.

And just days
before his death,

Sandy Murphy
had told a manicurist

at the Neiman Marcus
salon that Ted

had a serious drug problem.

She testified that she
had told them that Sandy was

expecting to receive
Ted's $3 million home soon

because she anticipated
that he was going

to die of a drug overdose.

What was her demeanor?

Just happy
and joking around, but--

- Did you find it funny?
- No.

The prosecution
is establishing

the premeditation
of the crime.

The fact that they
are going to murder Ted

and they've been planning it
for a while.

Have a seat, sir.

State your name
and spell your last name.

James J. Brown.

B-R-O-W-N.

All I had
was feelings of anger,

but I was there to testify as
to the facts and what I knew.

I wrote down to the best that
I could the conversation I had

with him less than 24 hours
after I found out

that he was dead.

And tell us
about the conversation.

He said,
"Take Sandy out of the will

"if she doesn't kill me tonight.

If I'm dead,
you'll know what happened."

I said, "All right, Ted."

My name is Chris Sowell.

I was juror number six
in the Ted Binion trial.

When James Brown
made that comment

based on his conversations
with Ted Binion,

you had to kind of stop
and go, wow.

You know,
it's almost like having

somebody speak from the grave.

That's, like,
a foreboding of one's demise.

You swear the testimony
you are about to give

in this action shall be
the truth,

the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth,

so help you God?

Tom Loveday, who was
Ted Binion's gardener,

plays an important role
for the prosecution's case.

Had you ever seen
those curtains closed before?

No.

Based on what you told us,
was that around 10:00 now?

Pretty close, yes.

What'd you do after
you mowed the front yard?

Well, I was wondering
where Mary was.

Mary is the maid for Binion.

She's always there by 10:00.

In subsequent testimony
by the maid,

she talked about,
oddly enough, on that morning,

Sandy called her and said,
you know,

"Ted's not feeling well.
He's sleeping.

You know, don't bother
coming in today."

So there were definitely
some irregularities

that were transpiring
in association with the day

of Ted Binion's death.

The prosecution asserted
the coroner believed

that by noon, Ted was dead
and Sandy was busy

cleaning and staging
the scene.

The prosecution
also presented

through the phone evidence
that Rick actually

calls Sandy at 3:47 p.m.

And it's actually just seven
minutes later that Sandy

then makes the call to 911.

[sobbing]

[phone line clicks]

With respect to their theory
of how the murder went down,

prosecutors presented to the jury

Sandy had mixed up a cocktail
of Xanax, Valium, and heroin.

Sandy and Rick forced Ted
to consume the cocktail.

- May I play this video?
- Yes.

You can play the videotape
then to the jury.

When investigators
first start really turning

a critical eye to this case,
one of the things

that they noticed, ironically,
Sandy gives to them.

She had a walkthrough done
with her attorney

through the home
that was recorded.

I'm gonna take my bar gift
and my Luther Gunter,

and I've already taken
my other piece

of art that was in here.

And it just happened, one of
the problems that the defense

faced was that when Sandy
Murphy goes through the house,

there's a wine glass
with a little bit

of liquid in the bottom of it,

and she grabs it
and hides it away.

And the glass,
in fact, is never found.

But to have video footage
of Sandy taking a wineglass

and putting it in her purse
is gold, essentially,

from a prosecutor perspective

because you present that
to the jury and say, look,

she's hiding a specific glass
in a home

that, in theory, is hers.

And why is this glass
so important?

Well, she used a wine glass
to mix her cocktail of drugs

that she forces Ted to take.

[tense music]

But prosecutors
contended that what

had really, ultimately, killed
Ted Binion was suffocation.

My opinion is that he died
from some obstruction

to his nose and mouth,
couldn't breathe in,

and pressure on his chest.

Is there another
name for that?

Yes, that's specifically
called "burking."

Michael Baden has testified

in a number
of high profile cases,

including the OJ Simpson trial.

He testified that there
was bruising on his chest

in a circular form, consistent
with the buttons on his shirt

because while one person
is pinching closed the nose

and mouth,
another person is actually

sitting on the victim's chest.

And together,
they suffocate the victim.

The killers in this case
are the two people he trusted,

who stole everything Ted Binion
had, including his life.

That's Rick Tabish
and Sandra Murphy.

Thank you.

So the prosecution rests,
and the defense begins

to present their case.

There was no crime committed
by Sandy Murphy,

and there was no crime
committed by Rick Tabish.

You want to fault them
for a relationship,

fault them for a relationship.

The defense argued that Ted
Binion died of a drug overdose

and there was
no physical evidence

to show that Ted had died
through the crime of murder.

The defense, of course, calls
their own expert, Cyril Wecht,

who testifies that,
in fact, it's not suffocation

because the congestion
under the eyelids

is linear and not circular,
and therefore,

that's not consistent
with suffocation,

and that, similarly,
the bruising on the chest

was likely the result
of the first responders trying

to resuscitate Ted Binion.

With that said,
I would ask you

to do what's just
and equitable in this case,

and that is find
the defendants not guilty.

Thank you.

[dramatic sting]

[ominous music]

Have you arrived
at a verdict?

Yes, we have, Your Honor.

After two months
of testimony,

the 12-person jury had spent
four days in deliberation.

Ms. Murphy and Mr. Tabish,
will you please stand up?

♪ ♪

All right, please hand
the verdicts to the bailiff.

Judge Bonaventure
kind of looked at it,

and I wasn't sure if I
caught him kind of go, Oh, OK.

A little surprised.

♪ ♪

All right.
Hand that to the foreman.

Mr. Foreman, would you
read the verdicts aloud

starting from the
very top, on down?

State of Nevada
versus Richard Bennett Tabish,

the verdict,

guilty of murder
of the first degree.

We the jury,
in the above entitled case,

find the defendant Sandra
Renee Murphy as follows,

guilty of murder
of the first degree.

Of course, they went through
each count, the robbery,

all the way down.

It literally--
it kind of sucks the air

out of the courtroom.

It is guilty on all counts
for both Sandy and Rick.

I was elated.

I was elated that they
were found guilty.

You watched Sandy Murphy
and Rick Tabish's legs

kind of get a little bit weak
underneath them.

Sandy is sentenced
to 22 years to life,

and Rick is sentenced
to 25 years to life.

♪ ♪

[dramatic sting]

Rick Tabish and Sandy Murphy
immediately began

working on their appeals.

Three years
after their convictions,

the Nevada Supreme Court
issued a decision.

The Nevada Supreme Court determined

this hearsay statement
from Ted Binion

to his lawyer, Jim Brown.

He said,
"Take Sandy out of the will

"if she doesn't
kill me tonight.

If I'm dead,
you'll know what happened."

That statement was
improperly admitted

without a limiting instruction.

Therefore,
the Nevada Supreme Court

actually overturned
the verdicts.

The trial needed to be redone.

In a shocking move,
Sandy and Rick

hired a brand-new
defense team,

Michael Chris Talley
and Tony Serra.

I am an obsessive
jury trial specialist.

Although the evidence
was somewhat overwhelming,

I saw big reasonable doubt.

That's why I took the case.

This is a case
I believed I could win.

The courtroom this morning
is packed,

filled with Binion
family members,

as well as the defendants'
family members.

Everyone is hanging on every
last word of this trial.

[dramatic sting]

[tense music]

Going into that
second trial,

the prosecutors still believe

they have a good case
and that legal technicalities

are what allowed
Sandy and Rick to get

out of that first verdict.

We worked
for the Clark County

District attorney's office.

Beyond a reasonable doubt,
this was a homicide.

In the first case,
they didn't want to concede

that he died
of a drug overdose.

That persisted
in the second trial also.

But Tony Serra doubled down
on Ted Binion's drug use,

arguing the heroin, Xanax,
and Valium found in his system

was a lethal combination.

Michael Baden said, "This
isn't the way it happened.

He was burked."

There was impression
of a button that shows

that someone
was sitting on him.

The button has to be,
in some way, against the skin.

And if it's twisted over,
I can take this button

and just twist it
against my skin

and make it very nice mark,
which I just did.

I showed the marks weren't
the same distance apart

as buttons on a shirt
would have been.

So it couldn't
have been buttons.

Your fantasy theory goes
out the window, doesn't it?

Your theory goes out
the window, doesn't it?

♪ ♪

Ted had severe skin disease

that could have accounted for
marks that were on his chest.

Baden's whole theory dissolved

when it looked like those were

not marks
from any pressure applied,

but marks
that pre-existed his death.

Over several weeks,
prosecutors continue

to present their case,
but without a key portion

of James Brown's testimony.

The Judge allowed
James Brown,

who was Binion's estate lawyer,
to say he was called

to take Sandy out of the will.

He scratched out the bequest
to Miss Murphy, is that true?

That's correct.

Not that,
"She's gonna kill me tonight."

♪ ♪

I was disappointed
that Bonaventure

didn't allow my statement,
"If I'm dead,

you'll know what happened."

I believe it could
have made a--

could have made a difference.

[dramatic sting]

After deliberating
for two days,

the jury had reached
a decision.

Sandy was scared to death
that she was going

to be convicted again
because she was losing it.

The second jury decided
that Sandy and Rick

were innocent of murder.

You could just hear the awes.

It was just unbelievable
when it came back not guilty.

Any time you get
an acquittal on murder,

it's a good verdict.

Subsequent discussions
with this second jury

revealed that whereas,
in the first trial,

Dr. Baden's testimony had
swayed the jury to convict.

In the second trial, the jury
was not at all compelled

by Dr. Baden's testimony.

Burking, as a whole,
I think everybody got.

I think they understood that.

But it's only a theory.

Jurors have to have
beyond a reasonable doubt.

Sandy and Rick
are actually released

the day that the trial ends

with the not guilty
on the murders

with credit for time served.

I was upset.

It didn't make any sense to me
that they would reverse it.

It's been 24 years.

There are incidences
where I still miss Ted.

He was just a good guy.

[soft music]

♪ ♪

From what I know now, Sandy
is living in Laguna Beach.

She married an art dealer and
is living the high life there.

After he was paroled,
Rick saw a new fortune

could be made crypto mining.

And he did that in North Dakota
and made a fortune.

♪ ♪

This case is
surprisingly polarizing

because even on the police department,

there are groups of detectives
who think it wasn't a murder.

There were other detectives who
were convinced it was a murder,

and they're both looking
at the same information.

And that carried over
into the community.

Based on the first trial,
most of Las Vegas

that had watched the trial,
saw it day to day,

thought that they
got away with murder.

The Binion family
got the silver.

Ted's daughter, Bonnie,
ended up getting it.

There's still supposed
to be a ton of silver

buried at his Pahrump ranch.

The unfortunate thing for
the Binion family and friends

is that, to this day,
clarity as to what

really happened to Ted Binion
was not found in the courts.

♪ ♪