Nevada politician guilty of murdering journalist

Robert Telles testifies in Las Vegas murder trial

Telles blamed German's reporting for his defeat in a June 2022 Democratic primary

(Image credit: K.M. Cannon / Las Vegas Review-Journal / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

published 29 August 2024

What happened

Jurors in Las Vegas found former Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles guilty of murder yesterday, nearly two years after the September 2022 stabbing death of investigative journalist Jeff German. The longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter had published several articles about Telles, including affairs and discord in his office, and Telles blamed German's reporting for his defeat in a June 2022 Democratic primary.

Telles pleaded not guilty and claimed he was "framed." But prosecutors presented "evidence police recovered from Telles' home, photos and surveillance video from the day of the stabbing, and a match between Telles' DNA and DNA recovered from underneath German's fingernails," The Washington Post said.

German was killed "for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride," Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said, and the guilty verdict provides a "measure of justice." German was one of 15 media workers killed in the U.S. since 1992, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.