Robert Telles, former Las Vegas-area politician, sentenced to at least 28 years for killing reporter Jeff German
Robert Telles, a former Las Vegas-area Democratic elected official, was sentenced Wednesday to serve at least 28 years in Nevada state prison for killing investigative journalist Jeff German. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter wrote articles critical of Telles' conduct in office two years ago and exposed an intimate relationship with a female co-worker.
A judge invoked sentencing enhancements for elements including use of a deadly weapon and the age of the reporter to add eight years to the minimum 20-year sentence that a jury set in August after finding Telles guilty of murder.
"The judge couldn't sentence him to any more time," Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after telling reporters the sentence represented justice for the community. "She gave him the maximum."
During the sentencing, Telles addressed German's family and offered his condolences but still maintained he was innocent, CBS affiliate KLAS-TV reported.
"I understand the desire to seek justice and hold somebody accountable for this," he said. "But I did not kill Mr. German."
Telles, 47, had testified in his defense. But the evidence against him was strong — including his DNA beneath German's fingernails.
Telles was the administrator of a county office that handles unclaimed estate and probate cases when he was arrested and jailed without bail several days after German's murder in September 2022. He was stripped of his elected position weeks later.
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly told the judge that 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 sort of political violence," the prosecutor said, "is unacceptable and dangerous for a community as a whole."
Telles' defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, asked for leniency for Telles and told the judge that Telles intends to appeal his conviction. After sentence was pronounced, Draskovich withdrew as Telles' defense lawyer.
"The sentence was not surprising," Draskovich said outside court. "We fulfilled our defense obligation. We parted on good terms. (Telles) preserved all his rights for appeal."
German was 69. He was a respected reporter who spent 44 years covering crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas.
Telles lost his primary for a second term in office after German's stories in May and June 2022 described turmoil and bullying at the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office and a romantic relationship between Telles and a female employee. His law license was suspended following his arrest.
Police sought public help to identify a person captured on neighborhood security video driving a maroon SUV and walking while wearing a broad straw hat that hid his face and an oversized orange long-sleeve shirt. Weckerly showed footage of the person wearing orange slipping into the side yard where German was stabbed, slashed and left for dead.
At Telles' house, police found a maroon SUV and cut-up pieces of a straw hat and a gray athletic shoe that looked like those worn by the person seen on neighborhood video. Authorities did not find the orange long-sleeve shirt or a murder weapon.
Taking the stand in his own defense, Telles was unable to explain pieces of the disguise found on his property or his DNA found on German.
Telles testified for several rambling hours, admitting for the first time that reports of the office romance were true. He denied killing German and said he was "framed" by a broad conspiracy involving a real estate company, police, DNA analysts, former co-workers and others. He told the jury he was victimized for crusading to root out corruption.
"I am not the kind of person who would stab someone. I didn't kill Mr. German," Telles said. "And that's my testimony."
Wolfson and prosecutors at trial dismissed those claims as unbelievable.
"The jury squarely and soundly rejected all of that," Weckerly said at sentencing. She called Telles' accounts "hollow claims."
Other evidence pointed to Telles, who prosecutor Christopher Hamner told the jury blamed German for destroying his career, ruining his reputation and threatening his marriage.
Telles told the jury he took a walk and went to a gym at the time German was killed. But evidence showed Telles' wife sent text messages to him about the same time killed asking, "Where are you?" Prosecutors said Telles left his cellphone at home so he couldn't be tracked.
The jury deliberated nearly 12 hours over three days before finding Telles guilty. The panel heard pained sentencing hearing testimony from German's brother and two sisters, along with 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 was able to consider sentencing enhancements adding time to Telles' sentence for using a deadly weapon in a willful, deliberate, premeditated killing and because German was older than 60 years old. With two years already spent in custody, Telles will be eligible for parole when he is about 73 years old.
"This defendant has shown absolutely no remorse, no acceptance of responsibility," said Wolfson, the Democratic elected regional prosecutor. "And in fact, his behavior is such that I believe he is an extreme danger to the community if he is ever released."
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.
"The sentencing of Robert Telles marks a significant milestone in the quest for justice," Katherine Jacobsen, the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator at the committee, said Wednesday in a statement to The Associated Press. "Although the jailing of Telles cannot undo Jeff German's murder, it can act as an important deterrent to would-be assailants of journalists."