Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles (right) talks with Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his office in Las Vegas on May 11, 2022.

KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

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KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

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

A judge cited enhanced sentences for use of a deadly weapon and the reporter’s age to add eight years to the minimum sentence of 20 years to life that a jury imposed in August after finding Robert Telles guilty of murder with premeditation.

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

Telles, 47, testified in his defense at the trial and denied stabbing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German to death 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 handled unclaimed estates and probate cases when he was arrested and jailed without bail just days after German’s murder. Weeks later, he was removed from his elected position.

Telles stood in chains before the judge on Wednesday and expressed his “deepest condolences” to the German 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 that evidence showed Telles killed German because “he didn’t like what Mr. German had written about him.” He believed that Mr. German had cost him an elected position.”

“This kind of violence, this kind of political violence,” the prosecutor said, “is unacceptable and dangerous for a community as a whole.”

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

“The verdict was not surprising,” Draskovich said outside the courtroom. “We have fulfilled our defensive obligation. We parted on good terms. (Telles) retained all his rights of appeal.”

German was 69. 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’s May and June 2022 stories described unrest and harassment at the Clark County Public Administrator/Guardian office and a romantic relationship between Telles and a female employee. His law license was suspended after his arrest.

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

At Telles’ home, police found a maroon SUV and cut up pieces of a straw hat and a gray sneakers that resembled the shoes worn by the person seen on video. Authorities did not find the orange shirt or a murder weapon.

Telles claimed he was “framed” for the murder

Telles testified for hours during his trial, admitting for the first time that the reports about the office romance were true. He said he was “framed” for the crime by a broad conspiracy involving a real estate company, police, DNA analysts, former colleagues and others. He told the jury that he had been the victim of crusades to root out corruption.

Wolfson and prosecutors at trial dismissed these claims as unbelievable.

“The jury firmly and decisively rejected all of this,” Weckerly said at the sentencing. She called Telles’ accounts “hollow claims.”

Other evidence against Telles was strong. Prosecutor Christopher Hamner told the jury that Telles blamed German for destroying his career, ruining his reputation and threatening his marriage.

Telles told the jury he had been taking a walk and going to a gym at the time German was killed. But evidence showed that at about the same time, Telles’ wife sent him text messages asking, “Where are you?” Prosecutors said Telles left his cell phone at home so he couldn’t be tracked.

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

Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt could consider a sentence increase, which could add up to eight years to Telles’ sentence for use of a deadly weapon in a first-degree intentional homicide, because German was older than 60 years old. Having already served two years in custody, Telles will be eligible for parole when he is approximately 73 years old.

“This defendant has shown absolutely no remorse and accepted no responsibility,” said Wolfson, the Democratically elected 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. ”

German was the only journalist killed in the US in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The nonprofit has records of 17 media workers murdered in the U.S. since 1992.

“The conviction of Robert Telles marks an important milestone in the quest for justice,” Katherine Jacobsen, the commission’s U.S., Canada and Caribbean program coordinator, said in a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday. “While Telles’ capture cannot be undone, it could be an important deterrent to potential attackers of journalists.”