Opening statements got underway Wednesday in the trial of a Las Vegas-area politician accused in the 2022 murder of an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him.
The death of reporter Jeff German, who spent 44 years covering the city, its government and its courthouses, and the arrest several days later of Robert Telles, the former Clark County public administrator accused of killing him, stunned Sin City and the world of journalism.
A 12-person jury and several alternates were finalized Tuesday.
K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool
Telles, 47, has pleaded not guilty to murder and could face life in prison if convicted. He has said he didn’t kill German, was framed and that police mishandled the investigation.
The killing on Labor Day weekend 2022 made national headlines. German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. among 69 news media workers slain worldwide that year, according to data by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
German, who lived alone, was found slashed and stabbed to death outside his home. He was 69.
Police quickly circulated video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide straw hat walking toward German’s home on the day of the killing. Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV like one that a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home days later. Telles was arrested the following day and has been jailed ever since.
Prosecutors say articles that German wrote for the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early 2022 about Telles and a county office in turmoil provided a motive for the killing. Telles ran as a Democrat in 2018 to become Clark County administrator of estates. He lost his elected position after his arrest.
In court Wednesday, prosecutors screened surveillance video that they say showed Telles dressed in a neon jacket and gardener’s hat before he allegedly stabbed German seven times.
A hat and sneakers were shown to the jury, which prosecutors say were worn by Telles and found in a search of his property. DNA evidence discovered under German’s fingernails matched that of Telles, according to investigators.
“This case isn’t about politics, it’s about murder,” Clark County Deputy District Attorney Pam Weckerly told the jury.
Defense attorneys painted Telles as a devoted family man and public servant who worked to weed out government corruption.
“These articles were not a motive for murder,” defense attorney Robert Draskovich argued in court. “Killing a journalist does not kill a story.”
The defense also alleged Telles was framed, a claim Telles also made in a jailhouse interview with “48 Hours” earlier this year.
“That evidence, or so-called evidence was planted, along with other items that were allegedly found in my house as well. And we will go ahead and prove that at trial,” Telles told “48 Hours.”
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who knew German, said in a statement Monday that “the state of Nevada is looking forward, on behalf of Jeff and his family, to finally seeing that justice is achieved.” Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
German’s relatives have not spoken publicly about the killing and declined through a family spokesperson and friend to comment on the trial.
Progress toward trial was delayed in part by a legal battle the Review-Journal took to the state Supreme Court to protect public disclosure of confidential sources on German’s cellphone and computers.
