A Las Vegas court this week heard details of how a former Nevada official became frustrated with negative news coverage about him.
Prosecutors said that in several articles between May and June 2022, investigative journalist Jeff German portrayed Robert Telles as a harsh boss who tormented his staff and had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
They argued that Telles’ anger over the coverage motivated him to kill the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter.
Jeff German, 69, was found stabbed to death outside his suburban Las Vegas home on September 3, 2022. Telles, a former Clark County public administrator, has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder with a deadly weapon against a victim aged 60 or older.
On Monday in court, detective Justine Gatus read text messages that Telles, 47, sent to German. In the messages, Telles said he was frustrated with the articles. Gatus also read June 2022 social media posts in which Telles lambasted German.
There were also screenshots of social media posts of German’s articles on Telles’ phone, and Telles’ internet search history showed inquiries into how to “bury” a news story, Gatus testified.
Prosecutors have called the evidence against Telles “overwhelming” and said that DNA from Telles was found underneath German’s fingernails.
Following four days of testimony from more than two dozen witnesses for the prosecution, the defense began making its argument on Tuesday.
Defense attorney Robert Draskovich played the court two threatening voicemails found on German’s phone. The calls were made seven months before German was killed, and the detective, Gatus, said she was unable to determine who made the calls.
The case marks the first time that a U.S. politician has stood trial for killing a journalist. German’s killing sent “shockwaves” through the press freedom and media community, Kirstin McCudden, vice president of editorial for Freedom of the Press Foundation, told VOA.
On Monday, Matthew Hovanec, a supervisor at the Metropolitan Police Department’s digital forensics laboratory, testified that on August 12, 2022, just weeks before German was killed, more than 130 images were downloaded on Telles’ phone from Google maps showing the front of the reporter’s house and the street where he lived.
Hovenac also testified that on August 23, 2022, Telles’ work computer showed a search for German’s address.
A longtime investigative journalist who covered some of Sin City’s most ruthless mobsters, German had received countless threats over his reporting over his decades-long career.
“I get that stuff all the time. It’s not a big deal,” he once told his editor, according to The Guardian.
The trial is expected to conclude this week, with Telles expected to take the stand.
