By Ken Ritter, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury in Nevada has found a Democratic former Las Vegas-area politician guilty of murder in the killing of an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of his conduct in elected office.
Robert Telles hung his head, shaking it slightly from side to side as the verdict was read Wednesday in Clark County District Court. Jurors deliberated for nearly 12 hours after hearing eight days of evidence in his trial, which began Aug. 12.
Telles, 47, has been jailed without bail since his arrest several days after Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard of his home on Labor Day weekend 2022.
Jurors now will hear evidence on the penalty phase of trial.
In the penalty phase, the jury that found Telles guilty may hear additional testimony and see more evidence before deciding what prison sentence he should receive. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. The judge will impose a sentence at a hearing scheduled at a later date.
Telles, 47, could face life in prison without parole, life with parole eligibility at 20 years, or 20 to 50 years in prison.
A conviction also for use of a deadly weapon would add one to eight years to his sentence.
Telles denied killing German. He alleged a broad conspiracy of people framed him for German’s killing in retaliation for his effort to root out corruption he saw in his office.
“I am not the kind of person who would stab someone. I didn’t kill Mr. German,” he testified. “And that’s my testimony.”
Defense lawyer Robert Draskovich showed the jury an image during closing arguments Monday of a person whose profile didn’t look like Telles’ driving a maroon SUV that evidence showed was key to the crime. He noted that none of German’s blood or DNA was found on Telles, in his vehicle or at his home.
He asked jurors to ask themselves, “What evidence is missing?”
Prosecutor Christopher Hamner told jurors that finding Telles guilty would be like “connecting the dots” based on overwhelming evidence they heard — including DNA that matched Telles found beneath German’s fingernails.
Hamner maintained that German fought to the death with his attacker and that Telles blamed German for destroying his career, ruining his reputation and threatening his marriage.
Todd Leventhal, a former prosecutor-turned-Las Vegas defense attorney with over 20 years of experience and no connection with the case, said he thought Draskovich’s closing made “at least one but maybe two” jurors question the evidence they received. Other jurors may be “detail-oriented and want to go through everything,” he said.
“They are taking their jobs as jurors serious and that’s fantastic,” Leventhal said. “Realistically there is no hurry, and the man is facing life in prison.”
Telles lost his primary for a second elected term after German’s stories appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May and June 2022. They described turmoil and bullying at the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office and a romantic relationship between Telles and an employee.
Hamner said Telles learned from county officials just hours before German was killed that the reporter was working on another story about that relationship.
Prosecutors presented a timeline and videos showing Telles’ maroon SUV leaving the neighborhood near his home a little after 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022, and driving on streets near German’s home a short time later.
The SUV driver is seen wearing a bright orange outfit similar to one worn by a person captured on camera walking to German’s home and slipping into a side yard where German was attacked just after 11:15 a.m.
A little more than 2 minutes later, the figure in orange emerges and walks down a sidewalk. German does not reappear.
Evidence showed Telles’ wife sent him a text message about 10:30 a.m. asking, “Where are you?” Prosecutors said Telles left his cellphone at home so he couldn’t be tracked. Telles told the jury he took a walk and then went to a gym in the afternoon.
German, 69, was a respected journalist who spent 44 years covering crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas. About a dozen of his family members and friends have watched the trial. They’ve declined as a group to comment.
Telles is an attorney who practiced civil law before he was elected in 2018. His law license was suspended following his arrest. He faces up to life in prison if he’s found guilty.
Weckerly and Hamner presented 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and video. Telles and five other people testified for the defense. No Telles family members were called to the stand or identified in the trial gallery.
German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has records of 17 media workers killed in the U.S. since 1992.
Associated Press videographer Ty O’Neil contributed to this report.
