By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) -A Las Vegas, Nevada, jury on Wednesday found a former elected county official guilty of killing an investigative reporter who wrote critical articles about him, sentencing him to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 20 years.
Robert Telles, a former Clark County public administrator, was convicted for the 2022 murder of Las Vegas Review Journal journalist Jeff German in a case that highlighted the increased risks for journalists in the United States.
The jury found the killing was “willful, deliberate and premeditated,” saying Telles “lay in wait” for German, 69, before stabbing him to death outside his suburban Las Vegas home.
“A journalist wrote a story, or a series of stories, and lost their life over it because someone, a politician, an outgoing politician, just did not like them,” said county prosecutor, Christopher Hamner.
Telles’ lawyer, Robert Draskovich, asked the jury to show leniency and grant him a chance of parole as he had no previous criminal record.
Telles shook his head as a court clerk read the verdict. In the public gallery, German’s family members wept and hugged one another. Employees from the Clark County public administrator’s office, some of whom asked German to investigate Telles, embraced and wiped away tears, all wearing red shirts and pins showing the reporter’s face.
“Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Las Vegas Review Journal, said in a statement.
“In many countries the killers of journalists go unpunished,” Cook said. “Not so in Las Vegas.”
German spent months reporting on complaints Telles oversaw an abusive workplace and had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
The state’s evidence included Telles’ DNA found underneath German’s fingernails and video of a car driven by the attacker that matched a vehicle registered to Telles’ wife.
The former official told the court he was framed for German’s murder after trying to expose an alleged kickback scheme.
Las Vegas defense attorney, Robert Langford, who was not involved in the case, said the DNA evidence under German’s fingernails was “an insurmountable bit of evidence.”
Soon after one of German’s stories on Telles, 47, was published in June 2022, the former official lost his re-election bid in a Democratic primary to a rival from within the public administrator’s office.
The day before German’s murder, Telles learned the reporter had gained information through a records request on communication between Telles and the colleague he had an affair with.
“The conviction sends an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated,” said Katherine Jacobsen, U.S., Canada and Caribbean coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press rights group.
German was known for decades of reporting on corruption and organized crime in Nevada’s largest city. His book “Murder in Sin City” inspired the 2008 movie “Sex and Lies in Sin City” on the killing of gambling executive Ted Binion.
He was the only journalist murdered in the U.S. in 2022 among 69 media workers and journalists killed worldwide, according to CPJ data.
The U.S. dropped 10 places to 55th in a 2024 ranking on journalist safety, according to the World Press Freedom Index published by advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
The study cited shrinking public trust in the media and antagonism from political officials as factors in the decline.
(Reporting By Andrew Hay; Editing by David Gregorio, Diane Craft and Tom Hogue)
