LAS VEGAS — A jury resumes deliberations Tuesday in the trial of a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician accused of killing an investigative journalist prosecutors say he blamed for writing stories that destroyed his career, ruined his reputation and threatened his marriage.
Robert Telles, the former elected county administrator of unclaimed estates, is charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of reporter Jeff German two years ago. Jurors deliberated for about four hours on Monday and will begin working toward a verdict again on Tuesday.
Telles “did it because Jeff wasn’t done writing,” prosecutor Christopher Hamner said during closing arguments on Monday. “It’s like connecting the dots.”
Jurors sent the judge a note late Monday asking for a court technician to show them how to zoom in on laptop video while in the jury room, then remained an hour past the usual 5 p.m. court closing time.
That came after Telles’ defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, presented a surprise image at closing arguments of a silhouette of a person who did not look like Telles driving a maroon SUV that evidence showed was key to the crime.
Telles lost his Democratic primary for a second elected term after German’s stories about him appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May 2022. The reports described turmoil and bullying at the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office and a romantic relationship between Telles and a female employee.
The day before German was stabbed to death, Telles learned that county officials were about to provide German with email and text messages that Telles and the woman shared, in response to the reporter’s request for public records.
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly presented to the jury a timeline and videos of Telles’ maroon SUV leaving the neighborhood near his home a little after 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022, and driving on streets near German’s home a short time later.
In some photos drawn from security camera video, the SUV driver was seen wearing a bright orange outfit similar to one worn by a person captured on camera walking to German’s home and slipping into a side yard.
“That person stays, lying in wait,” Weckerly said, playing again a video from a neighbor’s home showing German’s garage door rise and German walk into the side yard where he was attacked just after 11:15 a.m.
A little more than 2 minutes later, the figure in orange emerges and walks down a sidewalk. German does not reappear.
Weckerly also focused on a text message from Telles’ wife, which he failed to answer, asking, “Where are you?” about 45 minutes before evidence showed German was killed. Hamner and Weckerly told the jury they believe Telles left his cellphone at home so he couldn’t be tracked.
German’s body was found the next day, but no murder weapon was recovered. Telles’ DNA was found beneath German’s fingernails.
In his testimony, Telles named office colleagues, real estate agents, business owners and police he accused of “framing” him for German’s killing. He said it was retaliation for his crusading effort to root out corruption he saw in his office of about eight employees handling probate property cases.
“I’m not crazy. I’m not trying to avoid responsibility,” Telles told the jury on Friday. “I didn’t kill Mr. German, and I’m innocent.”
None of German’s blood or DNA was found on Telles, in his vehicle or at his home, Draskovich said Monday, urging the jury to, “Ask yourself what is missing.”
Draskovich introduced the new clip of video for the first time, zeroing in on a view of a maroon SUV like Telles,’ seen through the passenger window with the shadowed silhouette of the driver at the wheel. The image was prosecution evidence that had not been presented previously.
Originally from Milwaukee, German was a respected journalist who spent 44 years covering crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas.
Telles, 47, is an attorney who practiced civil law before he was elected in 2018. His law license was suspended following his arrest several days after German was killed. He faces up to life in prison if he’s found guilty.
Weckerly and Hamner presented 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and video over four days.
Telles and five other people testified for the defense. No Telles family members were called to the stand or identified in the trial gallery.
About a dozen German family members sat together in the hushed courtroom throughout the trial. They’ve declined as a group to comment.
The killing drew widespread attention. German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has records of 17 media workers killed in the U.S. since 1992.