Nevada politician set for 2023 trial in Las Vegas reporter’s murder
Why was Las Vegas reporter Jeff German stabbed to demise?
Las Vegas police stated Robert Telles, an elected official, was “upset” about information articles and upcoming tales earlier than he killed reporter Jeff German.
Patrick Colson-Price, USA TODAY
LAS VEGAS – A Nevada decide on Wednesday set an April trial date for a former Las Vegas-area elected official who has pleaded not responsible to murdering a veteran investigative reporter who wrote articles essential of him and his managerial habits.
Robert “Rob” Telles, a Democrat who was eliminated by courtroom order from his place as Clark County administrator, appeared together with his lawyer, Ryan Helmick, for a quick scheduling listening to earlier than Judge Michelle Leavitt.
Telles, 45, didn’t communicate in courtroom. He stays jailed with out parole in the Sept. 2 stabbing demise of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German outdoors German’s house.
Helmick declined to remark to reporters after the listening to.
At trial, Telles might face a most sentence of life in jail with out parole after Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson stated final month that he discovered no qualifying aggravating components to make Telles’ trial a capital case.
The April 17 trial date could also be postponed pending a Nevada Supreme Court ruling on whether or not police and prosecutors can entry the German’s cellphone and digital gadgets, regardless of objections raised by his newspaper to the disclosure of confidential sources. the murdered journalist.
Police legal professionals, who’ve the German’s cellphones and laptop computer computer systems, say the legal investigation is not going to be over till that information is reviewed.
Revista-Revista has the help of dozens of media organizations in its struggle to forestall the publication of data. It cites Nevada’s “news shield law,” which is among the many strictest in the nation, in addition to the federal Privacy Shield Act and First Amendment protections.
Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson issued an order on Oct. 19 that blocked police, prosecutors and Telles’ attorneys from combing the information for further proof that Telles fatally stabbed the German in response to the articles written from German.
Defense legal professionals stated they need to know if different individuals had a motive to kill the German.
Telles was looking for a second four-year time period to steer the county workplace that handles the belongings of people that die with no will or household contact. He misplaced the Democratic major in June, simply weeks after the German wrote articles about “internal turmoil and discord” in the workplace run by Telles.
German, 69, spent greater than 40 years as a reporter overlaying the courts, politics, labor, authorities and arranged crime in Las Vegas. He joined the Review-Journal in 2010 after greater than 20 years on the rival Las Vegas Sun.
Prosecutors say the proof gathered up to now in opposition to Telles is overwhelming, together with DNA believed to be from Telles discovered below German’s fingernails, video exhibiting a person believed to be Telles strolling by German’s house and a car believed to be Telle’s in the realm pushed by a person carrying a vibrant orange work shirt.
Grand jury transcripts launched this week present jurors noticed photographs and video of a person carrying a vibrant orange work shirt, a wide-brimmed straw hat and grey tennis sneakers carrying a grey duffel bag with a shoulder strap strolling right into a aspect yard of the German’s home in entrance of the German. exits his storage and goes to a gate that results in the identical space.
“Right after he opens the gate, he’s attacked by the suspect,” Detective Clifford Mogg advised the grand jury, whereas a prosecutor commented that they “could see some kind of disturbance” on the identical time.
The grand jury indicted Telles on a cost of murder with a weapon of a sufferer 60 years of age or older.
