LAS VEGAS — A Democratic former Las Vegas-area politician is because of study Wednesday how lengthy he’ll serve in Nevada state jail after being convicted of killing an investigative journalist who wrote articles that criticized his conduct in workplace and uncovered an intimate relationship with a feminine coworker.
A jury in August convicted Robert Telles of homicide for ambushing and killing Las Vegas Evaluate-Journal reporter Jeff German exterior German’s house throughout Labor Day weekend 2022. The jury set Telles’ sentence at 20 years to life, and a choose on Wednesday can invoke a number of sentencing enhancements to make the minimal as much as 28 years earlier than Telles, 47, turns into eligible for parole.
German, 69, spent 44 years overlaying crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas. On the time of German’s demise, Telles was the elected administrator of a Clark County workplace that handles unclaimed property and probate property instances.
Telles misplaced his main for a second time period in workplace after German’s tales in Could and June 2022 described turmoil and bullying on the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian workplace and a romantic relationship between Telles and a feminine worker. His regulation license was suspended following his arrest.
Police sought public assist to determine an individual captured on neighborhood safety video driving a maroon SUV and strolling whereas sporting a broad straw hat that hid his face and an outsized orange long-sleeve shirt. Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly confirmed footage of the particular person sporting orange slipping into the facet yard the place German was stabbed, slashed and left lifeless.
At Telles’ home, police discovered a maroon SUV and cut-up items of a straw hat and a grey athletic shoe that seemed like these worn by the particular person seen on neighborhood video. Authorities didn’t discover the orange long-sleeve shirt or a homicide weapon.
Telles testified for a number of rambling hours at his trial, admitting for the primary time that stories of the workplace romance had been true. He denied killing German and stated he was “framed” by a broad conspiracy involving an actual property firm, police, DNA analysts, former co-workers and others. He instructed the jury he was victimized for crusading to root out corruption
“I’m not the sort of one who would stab somebody. I didn’t kill Mr. German,” Telles stated. “And that’s my testimony.”
However proof towards Telles was robust — together with his DNA beneath German’s fingernails. Prosecutor Christopher Hamner stated Telles blamed German for destroying his profession, ruining his status and threatening his marriage.
Telles instructed the jury he took a stroll and went to a health club on the time German was killed. However proof confirmed Telles’ spouse despatched textual content messages to him about the identical time killed asking, “The place are you?” Prosecutors stated Telles left his cellphone at house so he couldn’t be tracked.
The jury deliberated practically 12 hours over three days earlier than discovering Telles responsible. The panel heard pained sentencing listening to testimony from German’s brother and two sisters, together with emotional pleas for leniency from Telles’ spouse, ex-wife and mom, earlier than deciding that Telles might be eligible for parole.
Clark County District Courtroom Decide Michelle Leavitt can add as much as eight years to Telles’ sentence for utilizing a lethal weapon in a willful, deliberate, premeditated killing; as a result of German was older than 60 years outdated; and for mendacity in wait earlier than the assault.
German was the one journalist killed within the U.S. in 2022, in accordance with the New York-based Committee to Shield Journalists. The nonprofit has data of 17 media employees killed within the U.S. since 1992.
Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator on the committee, stated in August that Telles’ conviction despatched “an vital message that the killing of journalists won’t be tolerated.”
Telles’ lawyer, Robert Draskovich, has stated Telles intends to enchantment his conviction.
