Trial of ex-politician for murder of Las Vegas reporter begins with video of attacker “lying in wait” | National

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury in a silent courtroom watched surveillance video showing a person dressed in bright orange clothing slipping into the yard of a home where a veteran Las Vegas investigative journalist was ambushed and killed nearly two years ago as the trial began Wednesday of a former elected county official accused of killing the reporter.

The video came from the home of Holly and Row Bailey, longtime neighbors and friends of Jeff German, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The Baileys cried as they told the jury they found it odd that German's garage door was open all day and his car was inside, but they couldn't reach him by phone or text message.

“This person stays and lies in wait for Jeff German,” prosecutor Pamela Weckerly told jurors during opening arguments in the high-profile trial. “Mr. German opens his garage, goes into the side yard and is attacked.”

German, who lived alone, was found slashed and stabbed to death in the side yard the next day. It was Labor Day weekend 2022. He was 69.

The murder of German, who had covered Las Vegas mobsters and public officials for 44 years, and the arrest a few days later of Robert Telles, the former elected Democratic administrator of an unclaimed property office in Clark County, shocked Las Vegas and the world of journalism.

Prosecutors believe German's articles critical of Telles and a district office in turmoil, including allegations that Telles had an inappropriate relationship with a lower-level employee, provided Telles' motive for the murder.

Telles, 47, has pleaded not guilty to murdering a person 60 or older with a deadly weapon. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. Telles has said he did not kill German, that he was framed for the crime and that police botched the investigation.

After German's first articles appeared in May 2022, Telles lost his party's primary to retain his elected office. Weckerly told the jury that German was preparing another article about Telles when Telles died.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, German was the only reporter killed in the United States among the 69 news media workers murdered worldwide this year.

In the video, there is a rustling in the bushes, but the view into the side yard is blocked. The prosecutor played the scene in silence in the packed courtroom. A little more than two minutes pass, then the orange figure appears and begins to walk along a sidewalk. German does not appear again.

Another video from the neighborhood shows the person in orange getting into a maroon SUV that a Review-Journal photographer found washing outside Telles' house a few days later. A day later, Telles was arrested by Las Vegas police and has been in jail ever since.

The first images of German that the jury saw on Wednesday were autopsy photos: his throat slit, his light blue T-shirt stained with blood, his arms with numerous cuts, dark material under his fingernails. Some of the 10 or so German family members in the courtroom wiped away tears. Telles squinted and looked at a video monitor at the defense table.

Defense attorney Robert Draskovich has said Telles plans to testify in his defense. That could happen next week.

“Is Mr. Telles in a position to say who killed Mr. German? No,” Draskovich told the jury during his opening statement Wednesday.

However, he promised to present evidence showing the case was fragile and not as strong as prosecutors claimed, including DNA believed to be Telles' and found under German's fingernails.

“There will be a lot of testimony on the subject of DNA,” Draskovich said. “Inferences will be drawn, conclusions will be drawn, and conclusions will be challenged.”

Draskovich said he wanted to prove that some police body-worn camera videos of Telles' custody were destroyed before his arrest, and suggested that important items may have been placed in Telles' home by someone else, including a cut-up straw hat like the one worn by the person in orange.

“No blood” from German “was found on Mr. Telles,” Draskovich said.

Draskovich portrayed his client as a self-made man with a family who paid for his own law school and as an elected official who fought corruption and faced political and social opposition from an “old guard” real estate network that, according to Draskovich, profited by buying and selling properties owned by individuals whose properties Telles' office managed.

Social media posts, emails, text messages and public statements from Telles complaining about German's article were “an appropriate response to the criticism that came from his job,” the defense attorney said. “He messed everything up.”

“I'm all about justice, fairness and just being a good person,” Telles says in an audio interview with German that aired in May 2022 with the Review-Journal's articles on the public administrator's office. “It's unbelievable the lengths they'll go … to try to ruin my personal life.”

Testimony for the prosecution on Wednesday included police forensic technicians who collected evidence. Weckerly and his colleague Christopher Hamner are expected to continue to argue the prosecution's case through Thursday and Friday.

German's relatives have not commented publicly on the murder and declined to comment in court on Wednesday.

Weckerly pointed out in her opening statement that the prosecution was prepared for Telles' defense lines.

“Ultimately, this case is not about politics,” she told the jury. “It's not about an alleged inappropriate relationship. It's not about who is a good boss or supervisor or about nepotism in the workplace. It's just about murder.”

—-

This story has been updated to correct the prosecutor's quote in the third paragraph from “laying in wait” to “lying in wait.”