A former Clark County, Nevada elected official is facing life in prison after he was found guilty of murdering investigative Reporter Jeff German.
A jury found Robert Telles guilty of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon (and against someone 60 or older) after two days of deliberation. He killed Las Vegas Review-Journal Jeff German in September of 2022 in retaliation for German’s negative coverage of Telles’ actions as an administrator for Clark County.
German had published a series of stories reporting on allegations against Telles from his staff, including that Telles created a hostile work environment and had struck up an “inappropriate relationship” with one of his employees. The reporter was set to put out a follow-up story the week after Telles ended up killing him.
Investigators got their first clue about who the murderer might have been when they reviewed video footage from a house near German’s. This footage showed a person in strange garb going in and out of German’s yard, and walking down the street. The person depicted in the video was unrecognizable, being dressed in an orange safety vest and wearing a huge straw hat, sunglasses, and gloves. Needless to say, this is not an ordinary outfit, let alone for a place as consistently hot as Clark County, Nevada.
Telles stabbed Clark to death, but then denied his involvement during subsequent police interrogations.
He kept up the denial on the witness stand (it’s unusual for murder defendants to testify on their own behalf), claiming bizarrely that he had been framed for the killing. Who did claim actually did it? A better question would be, who did he not claim killed German. Telles wove a difficult to believe story of a conspiracy to murder German and then blame it on Telles. He claimed that everyone from his former staff to business owners, real estate agents, and the police themselves were part of this conspiracy.
At one point, Telles told the courtroom he was “not crazy” and that he was “not trying to avoid responsibility.”
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly said otherwise, characterizing Telles as “lying in wait” for Jeff German to emerge from his house. When he came outside from his garage and went into the side yard, Telles attacked and killed him.
When police caught up with Telles and arrested him they found a cut-up straw hat and partially destroyed shoes that matched the outfit worn by the person seen in the neighbors’ surveillance video.
Telles may be sentenced to anything from 20 to 50 years in prison, with or without parole.
