Robert Telles: Former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician gets at least 28 years in prison for killing reporter

Las Vegas
AP
—

A former Las Vegas-area Democratic elected official was sentenced Wednesday to at least 28 years in Nevada state prison for killing an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of his conduct in office two years ago and had an intimate relationship with one colleague revealed.

A judge cited sentencing enhancements for use of a deadly weapon and the reporter's age to increase the minimum sentence of 20 years that a jury set in August after convicting Robert Telles of first-degree murder by eight years to extend.

“The judge couldn't sentence him to another prison sentence,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after telling reporters that the sentence represented justice for the community. “She gave him the maximum.”

Telles, 47, testified in his defense in court and denied stabbing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in September 2022. But the evidence against him was strong – including his DNA under German's fingernails.

Telles was the administrator of a county office that handles unclaimed estates and probate cases when he was arrested and held without bail a few days after German's killing. Weeks later he was stripped of his elected office.

As Telles stood before the judge in shackles on Wednesday, he expressed his “deepest condolences” to German's family but again denied responsibility for the reporter's death.

“I understand the desire to seek justice and hold someone accountable,” he said. “But I didn’t kill Mr. German.”

Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly told the judge that the evidence showed 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 type of political violence,” the prosecutor said, “is unacceptable and dangerous to the entire community.”

Telles' defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, asked for leniency for Telles and told the judge that Telles planned to appeal his conviction. After the verdict was announced, Draskovich withdrew as Telles' defense attorney.

“The verdict was not surprising,” Draskovich said outside court. “We fulfilled our duty to defend ourselves. We parted on good terms. (Telles) retained all his rights of appeal.”

German was 69 years old. He was a respected reporter who covered crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas for 44 years.

Telles lost his primary for a second term after German described turmoil and bullying in the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian's office and a romantic relationship between Telles and an employee in his May and June 2022 reports. After his arrest, his law license was revoked.

Police sought public assistance to identify a person captured on neighborhood security video driving a maroon SUV and walking while wearing a wide straw hat that obscured his face and an oversized orange long-sleeved shirt. Weckerly showed the jury footage of the person in orange slipping into the side yard where German was stabbed and slashed, leaving him dead.

At Telles' home, police found a maroon SUV as well as cut pieces of a straw hat and a gray athletic shoe similar to those worn by the person shown in the video. Authorities did not find the orange shirt or a murder weapon.

Telles testified for several hours during his trial, admitting for the first time that the reports of the office romance were true. He said he was “framed” for the crime by a wide-ranging conspiracy involving a real estate company, police, DNA analysts, former colleagues and others. He told jurors he was victimized because of his commitment to fighting corruption.

Wolfson and prosecutors at trial dismissed those claims as unreliable.

“The jury rejected all of this clearly and emphatically,” Weckerly said when announcing the verdict. She called Telles' accounts “hollow claims.”

Other evidence against Telles was strong. Prosecutor Christopher Hamner told jurors that Telles blamed German for destroying his career, destroying his reputation and threatening his marriage.

Telles told the jury that he was taking a walk and visiting a gym at the time German was killed. But evidence showed that around the same time he was killed, Telles' wife sent him text messages asking, “Where are you?” Prosecutors said Telles left his cellphone at home so he couldn't be tracked.

The jury deliberated for nearly 12 hours over three days before finding Telles guilty. The panel heard painful hearing testimony from German's brother and two sisters, as well as emotional pleas for leniency from Telles' wife, ex-wife and mother, before deciding that Telles could be eligible for parole.

Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt could consider sentence enhancements that would add up to eight years to Telles' sentence for using a deadly weapon in a premeditated, intentional homicide because German was over 60 years old.

“This defendant has shown absolutely no remorse, no acceptance of responsibility,” said Wolfson, the Democratic regional prosecutor. “And in fact his behavior is such that I believe he poses an extreme danger to the community if he is ever released.”

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022. The nonprofit organization has records of 17 media workers killed in the United States since 1992.

“The conviction of Robert Telles represents a significant milestone in the pursuit of justice,” Katherine Jacobsen, program coordinator for the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean on the committee, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. “While Telles’ imprisonment cannot undo the murder of Jeff German, it can serve as an important deterrent to potential attackers of journalists.”