Closings set in trial of ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas investigative reporter
LAS VEGAS — A jury that heard a former Democratic politician from the Las Vegas area argue that evidence, including DNA linking him to the murder of an investigative journalist, was tainted, planted or false — and that he was the victim of a vast conspiracy — will hear oral arguments in the trial on Monday.
Robert Telles will not return to the stand before a jury of seven men and seven women that has been whittled down to 12. They will have to decide whether they all believe Telles stabbed, slashed and killed longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German. Two will be named as alternates.
“I’m not crazy. I’m not trying to avoid responsibility,” Telles told them Friday to end his second and final round of self-directed testimony before the prosecution and defense rest their cases. “I did not kill Mr. German and I am innocent.”
Telles is accused of plotting to assassinate 69-year-old German, a respected journalist who 44 years of experience in crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas, after German had written several articles for the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a district office in turmoil under the leadership of Telles.
Those stories included allegations that Telles had a romantic relationship with a female employee, which Telles admitted for the first time Thursday were true. German was working on a separate report about that relationship when he was killed.
Telles, 47, is an attorney who practiced civil law before being elected in 2018. His law license was revoked after his arrest, days after German was killed. He lost his 2022 Democratic primary for a second elected term and mocked German and the Review-Journal on social media afterward.
“I wasn’t happy about it,” Telles told prosecutor Christopher Hamner, referring to the articles. “I don’t know if I ever hated him,” he said of German.
Telles faces a life sentence if found guilty.
The jurors were attentive during 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 chair, rested his chin on one hand and then the other, and rattled tentatively from topic to topic, from denial to denial.
He named office colleagues, realtors and business owners he accused of “setting him up” for German’s murder, saying it was retaliation for his crusade to root out corruption he saw as the elected administrator of the county office that handles cases involving unclaimed estates and probate assets.
Telles addressed the jury directly using a narrative method, eliminating the need for defense attorney Robert Draskovich to conduct the usual question-and-answer procedure.
“I’m not the type of person who could 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.”
For two weeks, the question of where Telles was when German was murdered was central. Prosecutors Pamela Weckerly and Hamner presented 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and videos.
Key testimony Friday focused on a text message from his wife asking “Where are you?” that Hamner cited late Thursday. It was found in a police photo of Telles’ wife’s Apple Watch device, timed at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022 — roughly the time evidence showed German was killed.
Hamner had suggested that the message might have been deleted from Telles’ phone. But on Friday, Matthew Hovanec, a supervisor in the Las Vegas Police Department’s digital forensics unit, testified that there was no way to determine whether the message had been deleted.
Telles and five other individuals testified for the defense during the trial. No family member of Telles was called to testify or identified in the gallery during the trial.
One witness was a forensic analyst of cellphone records. Another, a forensic psychologist, testified that 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 could have been an attempt to garner sympathy, he said.
In the courtroom, about 10 German family members sat in silence during the proceedings. Each day, they refused to comment as a group.
The killing drew widespread attention. German was the only journalist murdered in the U.S. in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has data from 17 media employees People have died in the US since 1992.
Jurors learned that a maroon SUV similar to one owned by the Telles family was seen in German’s neighborhood at about the same time German was fatally stabbed in a side yard of his home. It was the Friday before Labor Day weekend in 2022.
The driver of the SUV was wearing a bright orange outfit that resembled the outfit of a person captured on camera walking toward German’s home and sneaking into a side yard.
“That individual continues to lay there, waiting for Jeff German,” Weckerly said as she played video footage during opening statements on Aug. 14. “Mr. German opens his garage, goes out to that 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 planted.
Earlier, Telles himself had expressed his horror to the jury about the “ugly” way in which the 69-year-old investigative journalist was murdered.
“You know, the idea that Mr. German’s throat was cut and his heart was stabbed. … I’m not the type of person that would stab someone. I did not kill Mr. German,” Telles said. “And that’s my testimony.”
The jury heard about pieces of a wide straw hat and a gray sneaker found in Telles’ home that resembled the pieces worn by the person in the orange outfit. The orange shirt and a murder weapon were never found.
The prosecutor on Friday named several individuals and entities that Telles referenced in his testimony — a real estate firm, detectives, the Clark County district attorney, DNA analysts, former colleagues and others — and asked whether Telles believed they were all involved in “one big plot” to have German killed and blame it on Telles.
“I don’t know,” Telles said, nodding as they were all named. “I can’t rule it out. Can you rule it out? I can’t say who’s involved and who’s not.”
“At the end of the day, you’re just the victim, right?” Hamner asked.
“Yes,” said Telles, nodding again.