Trial of ex-politician accused of killing investigative journalist in Las Vegas ends

LAS VEGAS — A jury that heard a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician insist that evidence, including DNA linking him to the murder of an investigative journalist, was tainted, planted or flawed — and that he was the victim of a massive conspiracy — will hear closing arguments in the trial Monday.

Robert Telles will not return to the witness stand until the jury of seven men and seven women is reduced to 12. They will have to decide whether they all believe Telles stabbed, slashed and murdered Jeff German, a longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter. Two of them will be appointed as alternates.

“I’m not crazy. I’m not trying to avoid responsibility,” Telles said Friday, ending his second and final testimony before the prosecution and defense finished their testimony. “I did not kill Mr. German and I am innocent.”

Telles is accused of plotting to kill German, 69, a respected journalist who spent 44 years covering crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas, after German wrote several articles for the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a county bureau in turmoil under Telles’ leadership.

Those articles included allegations that Telles had a romantic relationship with a female employee, which Telles admitted for the first time Thursday was true. German was working on another report about that relationship when he was killed.

Telles, 47, is a lawyer who practiced civil rights before being elected in 2018. His law license was suspended after he was arrested several days after German’s killing. He lost his bid for a second term in the 2022 Democratic primary and subsequently derided German and the Review-Journal on social media.

“I wasn’t happy about those articles,” Telles told prosecutor Christopher Hamner, referring to the articles. “I don’t think I ever disliked him,” he said of German.

Telles faces life in prison if convicted.

Jurors were attentive throughout the trial, watching Telles on the stand for two days. He spoke softly, said he had waited two years in prison to tell his story, shifted in his seat, resting his chin on one hand and then the other, and spoke haltingly from one topic to another and from one denial to another.

He cited office colleagues, real estate agents and business owners he accused of “framing” German’s murder. He said it was retaliation for his crusading effort to root out corruption that he saw as an elected administrator in the county’s office that handles probate and unclaimed estates.

Telles addressed the jury directly using a narrative method that relieved defense attorney Robert Draskovich of the responsibility of guiding him through the usual question-and-answer format.

“I’m not the kind of person who would brutally murder another man,” Telles said Friday, “and then go to the gym and then pick up my kids. I can’t imagine being that kind of person.”

Telles’ whereabouts at the time German was killed remained a focus for two weeks as prosecutors Pamela Weckerly and Hamner presented 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and videos.

Friday’s key testimony focused on a text message from his wife asking “Where are you?” that Hamner cited late Thursday. It was found in a photo of Telles’ wife’s Apple Watch taken by police, indicating a time of about 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022, around the time evidence showed German was killed.

Hamner had suggested the message may have been deleted from Telles’ phone. But on Friday, Matthew Hovanec, supervisor of Las Vegas’ digital forensics unit, said there was no way to determine whether the message had been deleted.

Telles and five others testified for the defense during the trial. No members of the Telles family were called to the stand or identified in the courtroom.

One witness was a forensic analyst of cellphone data. Another, a forensic psychologist, testified that the self-inflicted cuts on Telles’ wrists when he was found in a bathtub at home and arrested by police should not be interpreted as a sign of guilt. It may have been an attempt to garner sympathy, he said.

In the courtroom, about a dozen members of the German family sat together in silence throughout the trial. Each day, they declined to comment.

The killing has drawn widespread attention. German is the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has records of 17 media workers killed in the United States since 1992.

Jurors heard that a brown SUV similar to the Telles family’s was spotted in German’s residential neighborhood around the same time German was fatally stabbed in a side yard of his home. That was the Friday before Labor Day weekend 2022.

The driver of the SUV was seen wearing a bright orange outfit similar to one worn by a person filmed walking toward German’s home and slipping into a side yard.

“This person is waiting, lying in wait, to find Jeff German,” Weckerly said, showing a video during his opening statement Aug. 14. “Mr. German opens his garage, walks into the side yard and is attacked.”

German’s body was found the next day and Telles’ DNA was found under German’s fingernails. When asked about the DNA, Telles said he believed it had been implanted.

Earlier, Telles himself had expressed to the jury his horror at the “horrific” way in which the 69-year-old investigative journalist had been killed.

“You know, the idea that Mr. German’s throat was slit and his heart was stabbed … I’m not the type of person who would stab someone. I did not kill Mr. German,” Telles said. “And that’s my testimony.”

The jury heard about cut-up pieces of a straw hat and a gray athletic shoe found at Telles’s home that resembled those worn by the person wearing the orange outfit. The orange shirt and murder weapon were never found.

On Friday, the prosecutor listed several people and entities that Telles referred to in his testimony — a real estate company, detectives, the Clark County prosecutor, DNA analysts, former colleagues and others — and asked whether Telles believed they were all involved in “a grand conspiracy” to murder German and pin the blame on Telles.

“I don’t know,” Telles said, nodding as each was named. “I can’t rule it out. Can you rule it out? I can’t say who’s involved and who’s not.”

“In the end, you’re just the victim, aren’t you?” Hamner asked.

“Yes,” Telles said, nodding once more.