A Las Vegas politician accused of murdering a local investigative journalist who wrote critical articles about him took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday, giving his testimony in narrative style, without being asked questions.
“Right now I want to say unequivocally: I’m innocent. I didn’t kill Mr German. And I’ve got a lot to share with you all,” said Robert Telles, a former Clark county public administrator.
Jeff German, a veteran journalist, was found stabbed to death outside his home in 2022. Prosecutors say Telles killed German in broad daylight in retaliation for stories that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, painting Telles as a bullying boss who had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
On Wednesday, Telles spoke for more than an hour-and-a-half and his testimony is expected to continue when court resumes Thursday morning. “It’s a day I’ve been waiting for for nearly two years,” Telles told jurors. “This thing’s been kind of a nightmare, frankly.”
The trial has captivated the city, rehashing the grim details of a crime that sent shockwaves through Las Vegas and beyond. Telles had insisted to journalists and judges that he wanted to tell his story to jurors who will decide whether he goes to prison or is set free.
Much of what the jury and the public have heard weighs against Telles, an attorney who was once the county administrator of unclaimed estates. His DNA was found beneath German’s fingernails. He had family ties to a maroon SUV seen in German’s neighborhood at about the time German was killed. Police found on Telles’s cellphone and computer hundreds of photos of German’s home, and several pages of German’s identity records, including time stamps showing they had been collected just weeks before the killing.
Surveillance video, shown in court last week, captured a person in a wide-brimmed straw hat and an orange oversized long-sleeve shirt and carrying a large cloth satchel slipping into a side yard of German’s home before the reporter was ambushed and left dead in a pool of blood. Later, at Telles’s house, police found cut-up pieces of a broad straw hat and gray athletic shoes that resembled those worn by the person in the footage.
On Tuesday, Michelle Leavitt, the judge overseeing the case, questioned Telles about whether he wanted to risk answering questions under oath from prosecutors. They rested their case on Monday after presenting 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and video evidence against Telles.
“Mr Telles, you understand you have heard all of the evidence that the state intends to present in this case,” the judge said. “You understand that you cannot be compelled to testify in this matter?”
“Yes, your honor,” Telles said.
Telles’s defense attorney Robert Draskovich and co-counsel Michael Horvath said outside court they had advised Telles against testifying, but that he insisted on doing so.
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly, in her opening statement on 14 August, asked the jury to remain focused on German’s killing and not on other issues.
“In the end, this case is not about politics,” she said. “It’s not about an alleged inappropriate relationship. It’s not about who’s a good boss or who’s a good supervisor or favoritism at work. It’s just about murder.”
The defense might still call three other witnesses, Draskovich said on Tuesday, including a witness who might corroborate Telles’s account that he visited a local gym on the day of the murder. Telles is expected to be the last person called for the defense, the attorney said. No family members or character witnesses are scheduled. Telles’s testimony could take more than a day.
“He’s entitled to his defense,” Draskovich told reporters. “This is the defense that he wants to present.”
The other defense witness on Tuesday was a woman who testified that she called police after seeing surveillance video in a news report showing a man walking near German’s home in an orange outfit. She said the man resembled someone she had seen at a park a few days before the killing.
Robbery wasn’t an apparent motive for the killing, prosecutors said. The jury learned that German’s wallet, money, car keys and cellphone were still in the pockets of his shorts. Nothing was amiss in German’s home, although his garage door remained open, to the puzzlement of his across-the-street neighbors. They sobbed on the witness stand as they remembered finding his body the next day.
Prosecutors allege that Telles had been motivated to kill German after German wrote articles for the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a county office in turmoil, including allegations that Telles had had an inappropriate relationship with a female co-worker. Telles lost his bid for re-election as the Clark county public administrator and guardian, and derided German and the newspaper on social media.
Telles had complained that he was being victimized by a political and social “old guard” real estate network for trying to fight corruption that he saw in his office.
German spent 44 years covering Las Vegas mobsters and public officials at the Las Vegas Sun and then at the larger Review-Journal. About 10 of his family members and friends have attended each day of Telles’s trial. They have declined to speak to the media.
