Las Vegas politician accused of murdering investigative reporter testifies in his own defense

A former Democratic politician from the Las Vegas area took the witness stand when he was accused of stabbing an investigative reporter to death in 2022.

Robert Telles lost his job as administrator of unclaimed estates in Clark County in May 2022 after losing the Democratic primary. His defeat came after Jeff German wrote several articles criticizing him for the Las Vegas Review Journal.

German was found stabbed to death outside his home on Labor Day weekend 2022. The 69-year-old had claimed in several reports that Telles had been having an inappropriate affair with a colleague and that there was a commotion in his office. Telles was arrested several days after German's death.

On Wednesday, prosecutors argued that the reporter's unpleasant allegations motivated Telles to kill him.

Telles, 47, defended himself before a 12-member jury on Wednesday, saying: “I am clearly innocent.” His lawyers said they had advised him not to testify, but he insisted.

The former county clerk, whose law license was suspended after his arrest, testified for 90 minutes in court to avoid conviction. If found guilty, he faces life in prison.

Prosecutors have said they found Telles' DNA under the reporter's fingernails and that he has family ties to a maroon SUV seen near German's home at the time of the murder. The former officer also allegedly stored hundreds of photos of German's home on his phone and computer, as well as his identification documents.

A cellphone data expert who testified in Telles' defense presented evidence that could be incriminating for the former attorney.

Robert Aguero, a cell phone data expert who testified in Telles' defense, told the court that there was no outgoing activity from Telles' cell phone, although the data showed that he received numerous voice, text and data messages during the time German was killed.

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“Just to be clear, when we look at his phone, there are no outgoing messages from Mr. Telles' phone between 8:48 a.m. and 2:05 a.m. on the day Mr. German was murdered, right?” asked prosecutor Christopher Hamner.

“That's true,” Aguero replied. Prosecutors believe Telles left his cell phone at home the day he allegedly set out to murder German.