KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasBinion's Realtor Testifies in Murder Retrial

Binion's Realtor Testifies in Murder Retrial

(Oct. 22) -- Murder suspect Sandy Murphy told one of Ted Binion's friends that "he wouldn't be making a meeting" that was scheduled to happen on the day after Binion died. Did Murphy know that Binion was going to die when she made that statement? That's what the prosecution implied when that witness took the stand Friday.

Ted Binion's realtor testified that she had an important meeting with Binion the day after he died. But when the realtor called the Binion home to confirm the meeting, she got an unusual response from murder suspect. Barbara Brown, Binion's realtor, recalled, "She said, 'No Barbara, he's out of it.' She was hysterical."

That was the response that Brown received when she called Ted Binion's home on Sept. 17, 1998. The call was placed just after noon that day. Brown was calling to confirm a meeting that Binion had with an owner of some land that Binion was interested in purchasing to build a strip club.

Brown said that Murphy was upset and complained about "a mess" she had to clean up at the home. Barbara Brown recalled Murphy saying, "No one understands what it's like to live with a drug addict. I don't think he will make it tomorrow."

The prosecution believes that Murphy knew that Binion wasn't going to make that meeting because he was already dead when Brown had placed that call. But the defense tried to show that Murphy believed that Binion had overdosed on heroin because she thought the meeting was that afternoon. She told Brown she would try to get Binion ready for the meeting.

The prosecution is also trying to show, with Barbara Binion's testimony, the time of death of Ted Binion was, and they believe, between the morning and early afternoon of Sept.17, 1998.