OAN Staff Avril Elfi
Wednesday, August 28, 2024 6:14 PM
Former Democratic politician Robert Telles was convicted of murdering investigative journalist Jeff German.
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The jury began deliberations on Monday and returned a guilty verdict by Wednesday. Telles was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years.
Telles was charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon against a victim over the age of 60. The deceased, Gelman, was found dead outside his home in 2022 with multiple stab wounds.
German was a longtime journalist in Las Vegas who had written critical articles about the Clark County Executive and Telles.
Testimony by six defense witnesses, including Telles, and 28 prosecution witnesses concluded on Friday.
In his testimony, Telles alleged he was “framed” by those involved in a plot to indict police, real estate brokers, business owners and co-workers in retaliation for his relentless pursuit of rooting out corruption among about eight employees at his office who handle probate estate matters.
“I'm not crazy. I'm not trying to evade responsibility,” Telles told jurors on Friday. “I did not kill Mr. Jarman and I am innocent.”
A German story about him Las Vegas Review-Journal The election resulted in Telles losing the Democratic primary for a second term in office in May 2022. According to reports, Telles was romantically involved with a female employee in the Clark County Administrator/Guardian's Office, which also caused mayhem and bullying.
Prosecutor Christopher Hamer said Telles “did it because Jeff hadn't finished writing yet.”
“It's like connecting the dots,” he said.
The day before German was stabbed to death, Telles learned that in response to a reporter's public records request, county officials planned to give German access to emails and text messages exchanged between him and the woman.
Attorney Robert Draskovich told jurors Monday that no blood or DNA from Gelman was found on Tellus' body, in his car or at his home, and urged them to “ask yourselves what's missing.”
However, Tell's DNA was found under Gell-Mann's fingernails.
During closing arguments, Judge Draskovich showed an image showing the silhouette of a person, who did not resemble Tellez, driving a maroon SUV that evidence proved to be key to the crime.
On Monday, jurors sent a note to the judge asking the court's technicians to show them how to zoom in on their laptop videos while they were in the jury room, remaining in the room an hour past the usual adjournment time.
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