Closing arguments in trial of Las Vegas Democratic politician accused of murdering journalist
Closing arguments are made in the trial of a Las Vegas Democratic politician accused of murdering an investigative journalist. (Credit: The Associated Press)
A jury on Wednesday found a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician charged with murder in the slaying of an investigative journalist who had written critical stories about him guilty.
Jurors began deliberating Monday to determine if they agreed with prosecutors' claims that Robert Telles, 47, stabbed veteran investigative journalist Jeff German to death in September 2022, just months after German wrote stories critical of Telles and his workplace conduct, including allegations of an inappropriate romantic relationship with a female coworker.
Las Vegas jurors deliberated for about four hours Monday before breaking for the evening. The panel of seven women and five men deliberated for about six hours on Tuesday following a two-week trial. Attorneys gave closing arguments on Monday morning.
On Monday, they sent the judge a note seeking more notepaper and a court technician to show them how to zoom in on laptop video while in the jury room.
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A jury is resuming deliberations on Tuesday in the trial of a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician, Robert Telles, left, who is accused of murdering an investigative journalist, Jeff German, bottom right. Prosecutor Christopher Hamner, top right. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Pool, main and top right, Elizabeth Brumley/Las Vegas Review-Journal via Getty.)
Prosecutor Christopher Hamner said during closing arguments Monday that German wasn’t finished in his work of exposing Telles, which ultimately led the politician to taking out the veteran journalist.
Telles lost his Democratic primary for a second term after German’s first stories for the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May 2022 about Telles’ conduct heading an obscure county office that handles unclaimed estates. He practiced civil law before he was elected in 2018 and his law license was suspended following his arrest several days after German was killed.
"And he did it because Jeff wasn’t done writing," Hamner said. "It’s like connecting the dots. He murdered him because Jeff's writing destroyed his career. It destroyed his reputation. It threatened probably his marriage. Exposed things that even he admitted he did not want the public to know."
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Defense attorney Robert Draskovich argued that the prosecution’s case did not meet the legal standard and reminded the jury of Telles’ argument on the stand that he was being framed for fighting corruption in the industry. He has maintained his innocence.
"Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest standard in this country," Draskovich said. "It's not presumption. Preponderance of the evidence. It's not clear and convincing. It's proof and reasonable doubt. This concept was borrowed from the Old English common law. Our founding fathers thought that it'd be better to let ten guilty men go free than to wrongfully convicted an innocent person."
German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
The day before German was stabbed to death, Telles learned that Clark County officials were about to provide German with email and text messages that Telles and the woman shared, in response to the reporter’s request for public records. Another story was in the offing, Hamner said.
German was killed the next day.
Prosecutors say Telles blamed German for writing stories that destroyed his career, ruined his reputation and threatened his marriage.
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A surprise text message presented at the murder trial of former Las Vegas Democratic politician Robert Telles appears to cast mystery on his whereabouts on the day of the slaying. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)
German was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard outside his home, where Telles is accused in a criminal complaint of "lying in wait" for German to come outside.
Telles was arrested days later after police circulated video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide-brimmed straw hat toting a shoulder bag and walking toward German’s home.
Prosecutors said they presented strong evidence, including DNA believed to be from Telles found beneath German’s fingernails and cut-up pieces of a straw hat and shoes found at Telles' house that resembled those worn by the person seen on video outside German's home.
Hamner acknowledged that two key pieces of evidence were never found: The orange work shirt and the knife used to attack German. He wondered why people out to frame Telles would have left them out of the evidence inventory.
During the trial, the jury heard that Telles had hundreds of photos of German’s home and neighborhood on his cell phone and computer.
Other photos taken from Telles' devices included an image of a single gray athletic shoe with a distinctive black pattern and a shot of Telles' work computer at the Clark County Public Administrator and Guardian office with results of internet searches through a password-protected site that retrieved German’s name, home address, vehicle registration and date of birth.
Hamner noted for jurors that the photo was taken Aug. 23, 2022 — less than two weeks before German was found dead in a pool of blood.
Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, right, talks to Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his Las Vegas office, on May 11, 2022. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV like one that a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home several days after the killing. It was driven by a person wearing an orange outfit and a big straw hat.
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly presented a timeline and videos of 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 was 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.
Telles himself referred several times on the stand to that person as German’s killer.
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An evidence photo of Robert Telles' Yukon Denali SUV. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
An unearthed text message – allegedly deleted from his phone but recovered via his wife’s Apple Watch – shrouded the mystery of the defendant's alibi as the message shows her asking where he was around the time of the murder.
Prosecutors told the jury they believe Telles didn’t respond because he left his cellphone — and its ability to track him — at home.
Robert Telles washes his car outside his home, Sept. 6, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
About a dozen German family members sat silently together in the hushed courtroom on Monday.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. Telles faces life in prison without parole, life with parole eligibility at 20 years, or 20 to 50 years in prison.
Fox News Digital's Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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