LAS VEGAS (AP) — The trial of a Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him began Monday, after the judge denied the defendant's last request to dismiss the case and jury selection began.
The death of reporter Jeff German, who spent 44 years covering the city, its government and its courthouses, and the arrest several days later of Robert Telles, the elected public official accused of killing him, stunned Sin City and the world of journalism.
Heading into court, Telles' defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, called the case “difficult," but said Telles looked forward to telling his story to a jury. That could come during defense testimony next week. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.
Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt and prosecutors began questioning nearly 60 prospective jurors from a pool of 300 people summoned to fill out written questionnaires asking what they'd heard about the case.
By the end of the day, some were dismissed. No one was empaneled. Both sides said they think they'll be able to seat 12 jurors and several alternates by the end of the day Tuesday. Opening arguments could come Wednesday.
Telles has pleaded not guilty to open murder and could face life in prison if convicted. He has been jailed for almost two years while preparing for trial. He has said he didn’t kill German, but did not say during jailhouse interviews with The Associated Press and other media what he was doing the day German was killed.
Telles also has not provided a statement to police, other than “three surreptitious recordings the day of his arrest,” his attorney said. He maintains he has been framed and that police mishandled the investigation.
“He’s pretty adamant that he wants to tell his story,” Draskovich told AP.
Prosecutors Pamela Weckerly and Christopher Hamner have declined outside court to comment about the case. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who knew German, said in a statement Monday that “the state of Nevada is looking forward, on behalf of Jeff and his family, to finally seeing that justice is achieved."
The killing on Labor Day weekend 2022 made nationwide headlines. German was the only journalist killed in the U.S. among 69 news media workers slain worldwide that year, according to updated data provided Monday by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Prosecutors say articles that German wrote for the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early 2022 about Telles and a county office in turmoil provided a motive for the killing.
German, who lived alone, was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard outside his home. He was 69.
Telles, 47, was arrested after police circulated video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide straw hat walking toward German’s home. Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV like one that a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home four days after the killing. Telles was arrested the following day.
Telles was licensed as a lawyer in Nevada in 2015 and ran as a Democrat in 2018 to become Clark County administrator of estates. He lost his elected position after his arrest and his law license is now suspended.
On Monday, as she has several times before, Leavitt denied Telles' written request to dismiss the case and call off the trial. Telles also tried twice to have Leavitt removed from his case, arguing the judge was biased against him.
In his court filing, Telles maintained police detained him illegally before his arrest; that officer body-worn camera video of his detention was improperly deleted; and that blood tests taken following his hospitalization in custody for what he has called self-inflicted slash wounds to his wrists weren't included as evidence in his case.
German's relatives have not spoken publicly about the killing and declined through a family spokesperson and friend to comment on the trial.
Prosecutors say they have strong evidence, including DNA believed to be from Telles found beneath German’s fingernails. Police also found cut-up pieces of a straw hat and shoes at Telles' house resembling those worn by the person seen wearing the orange shirt outside German's home.
Telles wanted his trial to occur quickly. But progress was delayed in part by a legal battle the Review-Journal took to the state Supreme Court to protect public disclosure of confidential sources on German’s cellphone and computers.
The material was finally turned over Monday, prosecutors told the judge. Telles stood in court in a white shirt, yellow striped tie, dark jacket and gray slacks and waived his ability to review the material before proceedings began.
Telles also lost a bid to have Leavitt issue a ruling blocking testimony about a discrimination and hostile workplace lawsuit that four women who work in the office he headed have pending in federal court against Telles and Clark County.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has records of 17 journalists and media workers killed in the U.S since 1992, including 15 whose deaths were found to be work-related. Katherine Jacobsen, a program coordinator at the organization, called killings of journalists in the U.S. exceedingly rare.
Gabe Rottman, at the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington, D.C., called journalism "essential for the public to be able to hold public officials accountable."
“The most severe way to shut the public's eyes to what's going on is to threaten a journalist's life for doing their job," Rottman said. "That shouldn’t happen.”
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This story raises from 67 to 69 the number of news media workers slain worldwide in 2022, according to updated data provided Monday by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
