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Jury selection will begin Monday in the trial of a former Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of the elected official's managerial conduct, a judge decided Wednesday.
However, the judge on Monday also will consider a renewed request by former Democratic county administrator of estates Robert Telles to dismiss the case completely, without a trial.
Telles, 47, has remained jailed since his arrest in September 2022, days after Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German was found slashed and stabbed to death at his home. Telles has pleaded not guilty to open murder, a charge that could put him in prison for the rest of his life if he is convicted. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
Telles has said repeatedly that he wanted trial to start as soon as possible. But he also spent months hiring and firing several defense lawyers, served as his own attorney, and tried twice without success to have Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt removed from the case. He alleged that the judge was biased against him.
He has said he wants to tell a jury that he was framed by police, the investigation was tainted by bias and his civil rights have been violated. But Telles did not provide evidence during a February 2023 jailhouse interview with The Associated Press, and would not say what he was doing the day German was attacked and killed.
"He wants to proceed to trial, wants to have his day in court,” Telles' current defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, told reporters outside court on Wednesday. “He’s been fairly adamant since the get-go that he wants to tell his story.”
Draskovich said he expected jury selection would take several days because of the intense media attention surrounding the case.
Prosecutors Pamela Weckerly and Christopher Hamner have declined to talk about the case outside court. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has called German’s death “brutal and meaningless” and said the case against Telles is important for the community.
German, 69, was the only journalist killed in the U.S. among at least 67 news media workers slain worldwide in 2022, according to a the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
He was widely respected in 44 years of reporting on organized crime, government corruption, political scandals and mass shootings — first at the Las Vegas Sun and then at the Review-Journal. He was found dead by a neighbor outside his home months after he wrote articles in 2022 that were critical of Telles and his managerial conduct while he was in elected office.
Prosecutors say stories that German wrote about Telles are a motive for the killing. They've said they have strong evidence including DNA believed to be from Telles found beneath German’s fingernails and videos showing a man believed to be Telles walking near German’s home about the time of the killing.
Progress toward trial also was delayed by a legal battle the Review-Journal took to the state Supreme Court to protect public disclosure of German’s confidential sources while police searched the slain reporter’s computer and telephone records for evidence in the case.
The newspaper argued that names and unpublished material on German’s devices were protected from disclosure by the First Amendment and Nevada state law. Las Vegas police argued their investigation wouldn’t be complete until the devices were searched for possible evidence. The court gave the newspaper, its lawyers and consultants time to review the files first.
Attorney Ashley Kissinger, representing the Review-Journal, told Leavitt on Wednesday that the review process will be completed in time to turn over records to police and prosecutors on Monday.
In recent weeks, Telles and Draskovich also have asked Leavitt to block testimony at trial about a federal hostile workplace and discrimination lawsuit that four women who work in the office he headed filed in May against Telles and Clark County.
“The court should preclude admission of all items purporting to show evidence of (Telles’) character or alleged bad acts,” Telles said in a July 25 court pleading.
