(Los Angeles) A former Las Vegas elected official was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the 2022 murder of an investigative journalist who was investigating harassment and favoritism within the office headed by the politician.
During the trial, the jury heard how Robert Telles hid outside the home of Jeff German, a veteran reporter, in September 2022 and then stabbed him to death. The jury unanimously found the killing to be “intentional” and “premeditated.”
“Justice has been served,” Steve Wolfson, the district attorney for Clark County, Nevada, told reporters. “Today’s verdict should send a message, and that message is clear: Any attempt to muzzle the media or to muzzle or intimidate a journalist will not be tolerated,” he added.
Jeff German, a 69-year-old reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wrote a story in May 2022 about the county office run by Robert Telles, who was then running for re-election.
The article, published a month before the election, detailed accusations of favoritism and the existence of an inappropriate relationship between the elected official and an employee. Robert Telles denied the reported facts, but lost the election.
PHOTO KM CANNON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert Telles was convicted of the murder of Jeff German, a journalist who was investigating harassment and favoritism within the office headed by the politician.
According to the facts described during the hearings, he had gone, furious, in September of the same year to the home of Jeff German before hiding in the bushes and then attacking the journalist and stabbing him to death.
The former elected official denied being the author of the murder, and claimed that the police had ignored certain clues that could incriminate other people. In a long monologue in court, this lawyer by training declared that he was the victim of a conspiracy.
Following the guilty verdict, the jury retired again to deliberate on Robert Telles’ sentence and ultimately imposed a life sentence with a minimum term of 20 years.
“Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work he took great pride in: His work held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and allowed voters to choose to elect someone else to that office,” said Las Vegas Review-Journal Executive Director Glenn Cook.
The NGO Committee to Protect Journalists has recorded the deaths in the United States of 14 journalists and one media employee in connection with their work since 1992.