Prosecutor: Footage from a murder trial shows that a politician from Las Vegas “ambushed” a journalist

Video footage shown in a packed Las Vegas courtroom on Wednesday showed a person wearing a straw hat and bright orange vest casually strolling down a suburban street.

Prosecutors say he was the elected county official who was “lying in wait” at the home of veteran Las Vegas investigative journalist Jeff German, who was ambushed and killed over Labor Day weekend 2022.

The murder trial of Robert Telles began on Wednesday, two years after the 69-year-old German Las Vegas Review Journal Reporter, was stabbed and killed in the side yard of his Las Vegas home.

The surveillance footage shown during the prosecution's opening arguments came from the home of German's longtime neighbors and friends, Holly and Row Bailey. The couple cried as they told the jury they found it odd that his garage door was open all day with his car inside, but they said they had been unable to reach him by phone or text message.

“This individual stays and lies in wait for Jeff German,” Clark County Assistant District Attorney Pamela Weckerly told jurors at the high-profile trial. “Mr. German opens his garage, goes into the side yard and is attacked.”

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.

A few days later, a fellow photographer of German found Telles washing a similar vehicle in front of his house. Telles was arrested the next day and has been in custody ever since.

In the days following Telles' arrest, investigators found a straw hat matching the one seen in the video, as well as a pair of shoes the suspect was believed to have worn, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Captain Dori Koren said at the time.

Telles, 47, has pleaded not guilty and could face life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. Telles said he did not kill German, that he was framed for the crime and that police botched the investigation.

Prosecutors say newspaper articles written by German were critical of Telles and a district office in turmoil. They included allegations that the deputy had an inappropriate relationship with a lower-level employee, which provided Telles' motive for the murder.

“Ultimately, this case is not about politics,” the prosecutor said. “It's not about alleged inappropriate relationships. It's not about who is a good boss or supervisor or about nepotism in the workplace – it's just about murder.”

The murder of German, who had covered Las Vegas gangsters and government officials for 44 years, shocked Las Vegas and the world of journalism.

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

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' arrest had been destroyed before his arrest, and suggested that important items may have been planted in the politician's 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 who self-funded his law school education and became an elected public official who fought corruption. Telles faced political and social opposition from a “legacy” real estate network that profited from buying and selling properties owned by people whose properties Telles' office managed, the defense attorney alleged.

In social media posts, emails, text messages and public statements by Telles complaining about German's article, it was “an appropriate response to the criticism that came from the professional world,” 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.”

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 and dark fabric 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.

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.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report