Las Vegas politician sentenced to life in prison for murder of investigative journalist | Crime news

Former public administrator Robert Telles was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of the 2022 murder of Jeff German.

A politician from Las Vegas has been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing an investigative journalist who had exposed abuses in his ministry in critical articles.

Robert Telles, a former Democratic civil servant, lurked outside the suburban home of 69-year-old reporter Jeff German and stabbed him to death on September 2, 2022.

“Justice has been done,” Clark County Attorney Steve Wolfson told reporters.

“Today's verdict should send a message, and that message is a clear message, that any attempt to silence the media or to silence or intimidate a journalist will not be tolerated.”

Telles, 47, bowed his head as a bailiff read the verdict for premeditated murder, which carried a sentence of life in prison without parole. He was later sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 20 years.

In the stands, German's family members cried and hugged each other. Clark County public employees, some of whom had asked German to investigate Telles, hugged each other and wiped tears from their eyes. All wore red shirts and patches bearing the reporter's face.

“Jeff was killed because he was doing the kind of work he took great pride in: his reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Glenn Cook, editor in chief of Germany's newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said in a statement.

“In many countries, journalist murderers go unpunished,” Cook added. “Not so in Las Vegas.”

DNA evidence “irrefutable”

During the two-week trial, it was revealed that the veteran Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter had spent months investigating allegations that Telles was responsible for a workplace mismanagement and had an inappropriate relationship with a co-worker.

The article was published in June 2022, a month before an election in which Telles ran for another term. He denied the allegations but lost his bid for re-election in the primary.

The jury of seven women and five men heard how an enraged Telles drove to German's house, hid in bushes and then launched a frenzied and fatal knife attack.

Telles' DNA was found under German's fingernails, and a video of the attacker's car matched a vehicle registered to Telles' wife.

He denied committing the murder, arguing that police had ignored evidence suggesting others might be responsible and that the blame had been placed on him.

Las Vegas defense attorney Robert Langford, who is not involved in the case, said the DNA evidence found under German's fingernails was “an irrefutable piece of evidence.”

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 15 media workers have been killed in the United States since 1992 in connection with their work.

According to the press group, German was the only journalist murdered in the United States among 69 media workers and journalists killed worldwide in 2022.

“The conviction sends an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s U.S., Canada and Caribbean coordinator.