Last of four Binion defendants to enter pleas

LAS VEGAS - The last of four defendants awaiting trial on charges related to the Ted Binion murder case has agreed to a plea arrangement.

The decision means all the remaining Binion defendants will appear before District Judge Joseph Bonaventure on Thursday to enter pleas to gross misdemeanor charges. They each could be sentenced to 200 hours of community service or a $2,000 fine.

None of the defendants will admit wrongdoing, but instead will enter a plea that acknowledges prosecutors have sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction.

John B. Joseph's attorney told prosecutors Monday that his client would accept the deal and bring an end to the cases surrounding the death of wealthy gambling figure Binion, who was found dead in his home Sept. 17, 1998. The prosecution said he was forced to ingest a lethal dose of heroin and the prescription anti-depressant Xanax, then was suffocated.

Joseph and Wadkins are charged with the July 1998 torture-extortion plot against Leo Casey, owner of a sand pit in Jean.

Prosecutors allege Wadkins, Joseph and Rick Tabish coerced Casey into turning over his interests in the sand pit two months before Binion was killed.

Tabish, 35, and his lover 28-year-old Sandy Murphy, Binion's live-in girlfriend, were convicted in May of killing Binion and plotting to steal his fortune. Both are serving life sentences.

Tabish also was convicted in May on charges related to Casey and the sand pit.

David Mattsen and Michael Milot are charged in the attempt to remove Binion's silver fortune from a Pahrump vault less than two days after the gambling figure died at his Las Vegas home.

Both Tabish and Murphy were found guilty in the silver theft.