LAS VEGAS — A Nevada jury has found a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician guilty of murder in the killing of an investigative journalist who wrote a story critical of his conduct in office.
Robert Telles shook his head and slumped as the verdict was read Wednesday in Clark County District Court. Jurors had deliberated for nearly 12 hours after hearing eight days of evidence in his trial, which began Aug. 12.
Telles, 47, has been held without bail since his arrest days after Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was found slashed and stabbed to death in his backyard over Labor Day weekend in 2022.
Jurors will now hear evidence regarding the sentencing phase of the trial.
At the sentencing stage, the jury that convicted Telles may hear additional testimony and review more evidence before deciding what punishment Telles should receive. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. The judge is expected to hand down a sentence at a hearing scheduled for a later date.
Telles, 47, faces life without parole, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years, or a sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison.
If he is also convicted of using a deadly weapon, his sentence could add one to eight years.
Mr. Telles has denied killing Mr. German and has alleged a broader conspiracy to frame him in the death in retaliation for his efforts to root out corruption he saw in his office.
“I'm not a stabbing person. I did not kill Mr. Jarman,” he testified. “That's my testimony.”
In his closing arguments Monday, defense attorney Robert Draskovich showed jurors a photo of a person who didn't resemble Tellez driving a maroon SUV that evidence has shown to be a key link to the crime. Draskovich noted that no blood or DNA of German was found on Tellez, in the car or at his home.
He asked jurors to ask themselves, “What evidence is missing?”
Prosecutor Christopher Hamner told jurors that Terres' conviction amounted to “connecting the dots” based on overwhelming evidence, including DNA found under Gelman's fingernails that matched Terres's.
Hamner alleged that Jarman fought his attacker to the death and that Telles accused Jarman of ruining his career, damaging his reputation and threatening his marriage.
Todd Leventhal, a former prosecutor with more than 20 years of experience as a Las Vegas lawyer who is not connected to the case, said Draskovich's closing argument may have caused “at least one, maybe two” jurors to question the evidence. Other jurors might “get hung up on details and want to scrutinize everything,” he said.
“They're taking their jury duty seriously, which is great,” Leventhal said. “There's no real rush and the defendant is facing life in prison.”
After German's articles were published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May and June 2022, Telles lost his primary bid for a second term. Chaos and bullying The incident at the Clark County Administrator/Guardianship Office and Mr. Telles’ romantic relationship with the employee.
Hamner said Telles was informed by county officials hours before German was killed that he was working on another story about his relationship with German.
Prosecutors presented a timeline and video showing Telles' maroon SUV leaving a neighborhood near his home just after 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022, and traveling down a road near German's home shortly thereafter.
The driver of the SUV is seen wearing bright orange clothing similar to that worn by a person caught on camera walking to Jarman's home just after 11:15 a.m. and slipping into the backyard where Jarman was attacked.
A little over two minutes later, a figure in orange appears and walks off down the sidewalk. Jarman does not appear again.
Evidence showed Telles' wife texted him around 10:30 a.m. asking, “Where are you?” Prosecutors said Telles left his cell phone at home so it couldn't be tracked. Telles told the jury he went for a walk in the afternoon before going to the gym.
German, 69, was a respected journalist who covered crime, trials and corruption in Las Vegas for 44 years. About a dozen of German's family members and friends attended the trial, but all declined to comment.
Telles was a lawyer specializing in civil law before being elected in 2018. After his arrest, his law license was suspended.
Weckerly and Hamner presented 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports, and videos. Telles and five others testified for the defense. None of Telles' family members were called to the stand or identified in the courtroom.
Jarman is the only journalist killed in the U.S. in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has kept track of 17 media workers killed in the U.S. since 1992.
