A former Las Vegas Democratic politician, accused of killing an investigative journalist who had penned critical stories about the official, had hundreds of photos of the victim’s home and neighborhood on his cell phone and computer, a Nevada jury was told Monday.
Robert Telles, 47, a former Democratic Clark County administrator of estates, is charged with murdering veteran Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative journalist Jeff German in September 2022, just months after German wrote articles critical of Telles and his office.
German, 69, was found slashed and stabbed to death outside his home over Labor Day weekend 2022. Telles has pleaded not guilty and insists he was framed for the crime.
The photographic evidence was put to the jury Monday as prosecutors rested their case after four days of testimony from more than two dozen witnesses.
Robert Telles waits in the courtroom during a break in proceedings during his murder trial for the death of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative journalist Jeff German at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool, main and top left. Clive Mason via Getty Images, bottom right.)
Other photos taken from Robert Telles’ devices included an image of a single gray athletic shoe with a distinctive black pattern and a shot of Telles’ work computer at the Clark County Public Administrator and Guardian office with results of internet searches through a password-protected site that retrieved German’s name, home address, vehicle registration and date of birth.
Prosecutor Christopher Hamner noted for jurors that the photo was taken Aug. 23, 2022 — less than two weeks before German was slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard of his home.
“This image came out of Mr. Telles’ phone?” Hamner asked Matthew Hovanec, a Las Vegas digital forensics supervisor who testified Monday about “extracting” the data from Telles’ devices.
“It did,” Hovanec responded.
Telles had looked up German’s home numerous times, nearly 20 days before the killing, the jury heard.
“What were the words being typed into Google search?” district attorney Christopher Hamner asked, per Fox 5 Vegas.
“Jeff German Las Vegas,” replied Hovanec.
Hovanec said that there were 132 Google Maps images tagged related to the topic.
Another Google photo showed a security camera on German’s home.
Telles’s defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, cross-examined Hovanec and asked him whether the phone could have been hacked. Hovanec’s response was that it could be a possibility, but he personally has never seen it happen.
Detective Justine Gatus, the primary Las Vegas police homicide investigator of German’s death, said the Las Vegas Review-Journal articles about Telles and the county office that German wrote in May and June 2022 “weren’t flattering.”
Around the same time, Telles took to social media to deride German and slam the articles as false depictions of his efforts to fight corruption amid a political and social “old guard” real estate network.
Gatus testified that the gray sneaker with a Nike logo and four black marks on the sole was “identical” to one that jurors saw earlier in neighbors’ security camera images of a figure wearing orange who slipped into a side yard of German’s home where German was later found dead on Labor Day weekend 2022.
Cut up pieces of a shoe are shown in an evidence photo during the murder trial of Robert Telles for the death of investigative journalist Jeff German. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)
Neither an orange shirt nor a murder weapon was entered as evidence in the case. However, one of those shoes, cut to pieces and bearing spots of blood from an unidentified source, was found in a plastic shopping bag in Telles’ home following his arrest.
Originally from Milwaukee, German had spent 44 years developing deep confidential sources in Las Vegas, its government and its courthouses, often covering Las Vegas mobsters and public officials.
He was widely respected for reporting about the courts, organized crime, government corruption, political scandals and mass shootings, first at the Las Vegas Sun and then at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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German was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard outside his home, where Telles is accused in a criminal complaint of “lying in wait” for German to come outside.
Telles was arrested days later after police circulated video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide-brimmed straw hat toting a shoulder bag and walking toward German’s home.
Prosecutors say they have strong evidence, including DNA believed to be from Telles found beneath German’s fingernails and cut-up pieces of a straw hat and shoes found at Telles’ house that resembled those worn by the person seen on video outside German’s home.
Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV like one that a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home several days after the killing.
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Robert Telles, right, talks to Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his Las Vegas office, on May 11, 2022. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)
Telles grew up in El Paso, Texas, and lived in Colorado before moving to Las Vegas. He became a lawyer in 2015 and ran as a Democrat in 2018 to become Clark County administrator of estates. He lost his elected position after his arrest and his law license was suspended.
He faces the possibility of life in prison if the jury finds him guilty. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty, and he has remained jailed while preparing to face a jury.
Telles intends to testify, defense lawyer Robert Draskovich told The Associated Press on Monday, and is expected to take the witness stand to cap his own defense case, possibly Tuesday afternoon.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.