Politician convicted of stabbing | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

LAS VEGAS – A former Democratic elected official from the Las Vegas area was sentenced Wednesday to at least 28 years in Nevada state prison for the killing of an investigative journalist who wrote articles critical of his conduct in office two years ago and a intimate relationship with a revealed female colleague.

A judge cited sentencing enhancements for use of a deadly weapon and the reporter’s age to add eight years to the minimum sentence of 20 years to life in prison that a jury set in August after convicting Robert Telles of first-degree murder found guilty.

“The judge couldn’t sentence him to another prison sentence,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after telling reporters that the sentence represented justice for the community. “She gave him the maximum.”

Telles, 47, testified in his defense in court and denied stabbing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in September 2022. But the evidence against him was strong – including his DNA under German’s fingernails.

Telles was the administrator of a county office that handles unclaimed estates and probate cases when he was arrested and held without bail a few days after German’s killing. Weeks later he was stripped of his elected office.

As Telles stood before the judge in shackles on Wednesday, he expressed his “deepest condolences” to German’s family but again denied responsibility for the reporter’s death.

“I understand the desire to seek justice and hold someone accountable,” he said. “But I didn’t kill Mr. German.”

Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly told the judge there was evidence that Telles killed German because “he didn’t like what Mr. German had written about him. He felt that Mr. German had cost him an elected position.”

Telles’ defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, asked for leniency for Telles and told the judge that Telles planned to appeal his conviction. After the verdict was announced, Draskovich withdrew as Telles’ defense attorney.

German was 69 years old. He was a respected reporter who covered crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas for 44 years.

Telles lost his primary for a second term after German described turmoil and bullying in the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian’s office and a romantic relationship between Telles and an employee in his May and June 2022 reports. After his arrest, his law license was revoked.

Police sought public assistance to identify a person captured on neighborhood security video driving a maroon SUV and walking while wearing a wide straw hat that obscured his face and an oversized orange long-sleeved shirt. Weckerly showed the jury footage of the person in orange slipping into the side yard where German was stabbed and slashed, leaving him dead.

At Telles’ home, police found a maroon SUV as well as cut pieces of a straw hat and a gray athletic shoe similar to those worn by the person shown in the video. Authorities did not find the orange shirt or a murder weapon.

The jury deliberated for nearly 12 hours over three days before finding Telles guilty. The panel heard painful hearing testimony from German’s brother and two sisters, as well as emotional pleas for leniency from Telles’ wife, ex-wife and mother, before deciding that Telles could be eligible for parole.

Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt could consider sentencing enhancements to lengthen Telles’ sentence for using a deadly weapon in a premeditated, premeditated murder and because German was over 60 years old. Having already spent two years in custody, Telles is eligible for parole at around the age of 73.

“This defendant has shown absolutely no remorse, no acceptance of responsibility,” said Wolfson, the Democratic regional prosecutor. “And in fact his behavior is such that I believe he poses an extreme danger to the community if he is ever released.”

FILE – District Judge Michelle Leavitt speaks during a jury question hearing during deliberations in the murder trial of Robert Telles, a former Clark County public administrator charged with the murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative journalist Jeff German, at Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, August 26, 2024. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool, File)

Robert Telles (left), a former Democratic elected official from the Las Vegas area, listens as Assistant District Attorney Pamela Weckerly speaks to the court before her testimony on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2018, in the murder of an investigative journalist who wrote critical articles about his behavior in office. 16, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

FILE – Robert Telles (right), a former Clark County state administrator charged with the murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative journalist Jeff German, listens to closing arguments during his murder trial at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas August 26, 2024 on With Telles are his lawyers Robert Draskovich (left) and Michael Horvath. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool, File)

FILE – Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, right, speaks with Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his office in Las Vegas, May 11, 2022. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)