Former Democratic elected official Robert Telles of the Las Vegas region was sentenced on Wednesday to at least 28 years in Nevada state prison for the murder of investigative journalist Jeff German.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter revealed an intimate relationship with a female coworker and penned articles criticizing Telles’ behavior in the workplace two years ago.
A jury in August found Telles guilty of murder, and a judge used sentencing enhancements for factors like the use of a dangerous weapon and the reporter’s age to add eight years to the minimum 20-year term.
Telles spoke to German’s family during the punishment and expressed his sympathies, but he insisted that German was innocent, according to 8newsnow.
Telles, 47, had provided testimony in support of him. His DNA under German’s fingernails was one piece of compelling evidence against him.
Telles was arrested and imprisoned without bail a few days after German’s murder in September 2022. Telles was the administrator of a county office that deals with probate and unclaimed estate disputes. A few weeks later, he lost his elected post.
According to evidence presented to the judge by prosecutor Pamela Weckerly, Telles killed German because “he didn’t like what Mr. German had written about him. He felt that Mr. German had cost him an elected position.”.
“This type of violence, this sort of political violence,” the prosecutor stated, “is unacceptable and dangerous for a community as a whole.”
Robert Draskovich, Telles’ defense lawyer, informed the judge that Telles plans to appeal his sentence and requested mercy for Telles. Draskovich left his position as Telles’ defense attorney after the sentencing was announced.
“The sentence was not surprising,” Draskovich stated. “We fulfilled our defense obligation. We parted on good terms. (Telles) preserved all his rights for appeal.”
German was sixty-nine. He was a well-respected journalist who covered corruption, justice, and crime in Las Vegas for forty-four years.
After German’s stories in May and June 2022 detailed chaos and harassment at the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office, as well as a love relationship between Telles and a female employee, Telles lost his primary for a second term in office.
After his arrest, his legal license was suspended.
Police asked the public for assistance in identifying a man seen on local surveillance footage walking and driving a maroon SUV while sporting an oversized orange long-sleeve shirt and a large straw hat that obscured his face.
Weckerly played video that showed the orange-clad individual sneaking into the side yard where German was stabbed, slashed, and assumed to be dead.
Police discovered a maroon SUV at Telles’ residence, along with sliced fragments of a straw hat and a gray athletic shoe that appeared to be those worn by the individual captured on local CCTV. Neither a murder weapon nor the orange long-sleeve shirt were discovered by authorities.
When Telles took the stand to defend himself, he was unable to explain his DNA being found on German or the components of the disguise that were discovered on his home.
For the first time in her lengthy testimony, Telles acknowledged that the office romance was real.
He alleged he was “framed” by a large-scale conspiracy that included police, a real estate firm, DNA experts, former coworkers, and others, and he denied killing German. He informed the jury that he was a victim of his fight against corruption.
“I am not the kind of person who would stab someone. I didn’t kill Mr. German,” Telles stated. “And that’s my testimony.”
During the trial, Wolfson and the prosecution rejected the allegations as untrue. “The jury squarely and soundly rejected all of that,” Weckerly stated during the sentencing hearing. She referred to the accounts of Telles as “hollow claims.”
According to prosecutor Christopher Hamner, Telles was implicated by German in hurting his job, damaging his reputation, and endangering his marriage.
Telles told the jury that at the time German was killed, he went to the gym and went for a walk. However, there was proof that Telles’ wife texted him, asking, “Where are you?” about the same time he was killed. According to the prosecution, Telles was unable to be traced because he left his phone at home.
After three days and almost twelve hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Telles.
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Before determining that Telles would be eligible for parole, the tribunal heard testimony from German’s brother and two sisters regarding his punishment, as well as heartfelt requests for leniency from Telles’ mother, wife, and ex-wife.
Given that German was older than 60 and that Telles used a deadly weapon in a willful, purposeful, premeditated homicide, Judge Michelle Leavitt of the Clark County District Court was able to consider sentencing enhancements that would have added time to Telles’ sentence.
Telles will be available for parole when he is almost 73 years old, having already served two years in jail.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, German was the only journalist assassinated in the United States in 2022. Records of 17 media professionals killed in the United States are kept by the nonprofit since 1992.
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