Binion Murder Trial
John Momot, Attorney for Defendant Sandy Murphy

Representing Sandy Murphy is John Momot, a 1968 graduate of Seton Hall Law School and New Jersey native. After graduation, he spent two years in the U.S. Army, serving one year in the Vietnam War. In 1974, Momot reportedly came to visit a friend in Las Vegas and, after only 15 minutes, fell in love with the glitzy town. He's been a resident ever since.

Defense Attorney John Momot
Momot has extensive experience in murder cases, many of them death penalty cases. He says he's never lost a client to death row. In one high-profile, racially-charged death penalty case, he won an acquittal for a young black man accused of murdering an elderly white woman. Momot also is known for his work representing mob figures.

In the Binion case, Momot portrayed Murphy as a victim of the "Binion money machine," which has failed to come to terms with the possibility that its famous casino son simply overdosed.

Momot described Murphy as the one person in Binion's life who was not an enabler of Binion's damaging habits. Momot says he is incensed that prosecutors did not charge Peter Sheridan, the man who sold Binion 12 balloons of heroin the day before his death, with murder. He also maintains that his client, though working at Cheetah's Topless Bar, never danced topless, but instead sold costumes to the dancers. Momot argued that Binion, a known heroin addict, died of a self-inflicted drug overdose.