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Former Nevada politician Robert Telles was found guilty of murder in 2022, the death of a prominent Las Vegas investigative reporter for unflattering articles he had written about Telles’ leadership in office.
The jury of 12 returned the verdict on Wednesday, two days after closing arguments on Monday.
Telles, dressed in a black suit and yellow tie, appeared somber as he awaited the verdict. As he was finally being read, he bowed and shook his head.
Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, 69, was found stabbed to death outside his home in the Bronze Circle neighborhood of Las Vegas on September 3, 2022, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said said then.
Telles, 47, who had served as Clark County Public Administrator, was identified as the suspect in the case and arrested on September 7. charged with open murder with a deadly weapon.
The German had written stories accusations of bullying and favoritism in Telles’ office. He also said allegations that Telles had a romantic relationship with a female employee — which Telles admitted for the first time in court Thursday were true.
The politician was apparently angry that the German was looking for other stories of possible misdeeds, police said.
Telles narrowly lost his bid for re-election to his office, which oversees the estates of Clark County residents who die without legal relativesin the summer of 2022. After losing his position, he took to social media to criticize the German reports and the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Telles has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
In the trial that began with opening arguments on August 14, prosecutors said that Telles was motivated by revenge for the German’s reports on his leadership. Telles, who testified in his own defense, claimed that he had been charged and that the police had mishandled the investigation.
The jury was shown security video that showed a person wearing a bright orange suit and a straw hat enter Germano’s backyard, where they were “waiting” for Germano. When German opened his garage and entered that side yard, he was attacked and brutally stabbed. Another video showed a person in orange getting into a brown SUV, similar to a Telles family vehicle.
When investigators searched Telles’ home with a warrant shortly after German’s murder, they found it partially destroyed shoes and cut pieces of a straw hat it looks like the suspect’s clothes.
Prosecutors also said Telles’ DNA was found under German’s fingernails. When asked about it, Telles said he believed it was planted.
Prosecutors too presented a text from Telles’ wife who said, “Where are you?” That text came at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022 — the same time security video showed the brown SUV in German’s neighborhood.
Telles proclaimed his innocence when he took the stand.
When asked about the articles the German had written, he said, “I wasn’t happy about them,” but added, “I don’t know that I ever hated them.”
Telles named colleagues in his office, real estate agents and business owners who he claimed framed him for the murder of Alemano in retaliation for his claimed efforts to root out corruption when he was a public administrator.
However, Telles could not provide an explanation for how the people he claimed conspired to frame him for the murder were able to plant key pieces of evidence in his home.
“You know, the idea that Mr. Germano’s throat was cut and his heart was stabbed. … I’m not the type of person who would stab somebody. I didn’t kill Mr. Germano,” Telles said. said “And this is my testimony.”
