Published on August 29, 2024
A Las Vegas politician has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering an investigative journalist who had written critical articles about his department.
Robert Telles, a former Democratic public administrator, ambushed 69-year-old reporter Jeff German outside his suburban home and fatally stabbed him on September 2, 2022.
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“Justice has been served,” Clark County prosecutor Steve Wolfson said to reporters.
“Today's verdict should serve as a clear message that attempts to silence or intimidate journalists will not be tolerated.”
Telles, 47, bowed his head as the clerk read the verdict of first-degree murder, which carries a life sentence without parole. He was later sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.
In the public gallery, German's family members wept and embraced each other. Clark County public administrator’s office employees, some of whom had urged German to investigate Telles, also shed tears, wearing red shirts and badges with the reporter’s image.
“Jeff was killed for doing the work he was passionate about: his reporting held an elected official accountable and empowered voters,” said Glenn Cook, executive editor of German’s newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“In many countries, journalists' killers go unpunished. Not in Las Vegas.”
Telles was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years [KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP Photo.
DNA Evidence Deemed ‘Insurmountable’
During the two-week trial, it was revealed that veteran Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German had spent months investigating claims that Robert Telles managed an abusive workplace and had an improper relationship with a staff member.
The article was published in June 2022, a month before the election in which Telles was seeking re-election. He denied the allegations but lost his bid for another term in the primaries.
The jury, consisting of seven women and five men, learned that an enraged Telles had driven to German’s home, hid in the bushes, and then launched a frenzied and fatal knife attack. DNA evidence was found under German’s fingernails, and video footage of the attacker’s car matched a vehicle registered to Telles’s wife.
Telles denied committing the murder, claiming that the police had overlooked evidence pointing to other possible suspects and that he had been framed.
Las Vegas defense lawyer Robert Langford, who was not involved in the case, described the DNA evidence found under German’s fingernails as “an insurmountable bit of evidence.”
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 15 media workers have been killed in the United States in connection with their work since 1992. German was the only journalist murdered in the US in 2022, among 69 media workers and journalists killed worldwide that year, as reported by the CPJ.
“The conviction sends an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated,” said Katherine Jacobsen, US, Canada, and Caribbean coordinator for the CPJ.
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