By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) -A Las Vegas, Nevada jury on Wednesday found a former elected county official guilty of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him, a case that highlighted rising threats to journalists in the U.S.
Robert Telles, former Clark County public administrator, was convicted of murder with a deadly weapon. The jury deliberated for more than 10 hours. Prosecutors accused him of stabbing reporter Jeff German, 69, to death outside German’s home on Sept. 2, 2022.
“He took the life of an individual who was simply doing his job,” said county prosecutor Christopher Hamner in closing arguments to the two-week trial.
Telles bowed his head as a court clerk read that the jury found the former Democratic official guilty of lying in wait to commit willful, deliberate and premeditated first degree murder. Telles now faces a possible life sentence with no parole.
In the public gallery, German’s family members wept and hugged one another. Employees from the Clark County public administrator’s office, some of whom asked German to investigate Telles, embraced one another and wiped away tears, all wearing red shirts and pins showing the reporter’s face.
“Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Las Vegas Review Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said in a statement.
“In many countries the killers of journalists go unpunished,” Cook added. “Not so in Las Vegas.”
The journalist spent months reporting for the newspaper on complaints that Telles oversaw an abusive workplace and had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
The state’s evidence against Telles included his DNA found underneath German’s fingernails and video of the attacker’s car that matched a vehicle registered to Telles’ wife.
Prosecutors showed surveillance video of the assailant disguised in a straw sun hat and red reflective work shirt, walking in German’s neighborhood, alleging he had the same gait as Telles.
In unusual narrative testimony, which allowed defense lawyer Robert Draskovich to let Telles testify even if he knew he was not telling the truth, the former official told the court he was framed after trying to expose an alleged kickback scheme tied to a real estate company.
In cross examination, Hamner asked Telles how images of German’s house got on his phone, how a shoe identical to that worn by the killer ended up under his couch, and how his DNA got on German.
Telles, 47, said the evidence was planted in a conspiracy.
“The DNA evidence under the defendant’s fingernail is an insurmountable bit of evidence,” said Las Vegas defense attorney and former prosecutor Robert Langford.
Soon after one of German’s stories on Telles was published in June 2022, the former official failed in his re-election bid, losing in a Democratic primary to a rival from within the public administrator’s office.
Mobile phone messages show Telles said he was “distraught” after the primary loss. Roberta Lee-Kennett, the office colleague Telles had an affair with, testified that Telles “hated” German. He denied that in court.
Telles learned the day before German’s murder that the reporter had obtained evidence on his relationship with Lee-Kennett through a public records request.
German was well known in Las Vegas for decades of reporting on government corruption and organized crime in Nevada’s largest city.
He was the only journalist murdered in the U.S. in 2022 among 69 media workers and journalists killed worldwide, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a press rights group.
The U.S. dropped 10 places to 55th place in a 2024 ranking on journalist safety, according to the World Press Freedom Index published by advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
The study cited shrinking public trust in the media and antagonism from political officials as factors in the decline.
(Reporting By Andrew Hay; Editing by David Gregorio)
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