LAS VEGAS, Nevada—Hours after he was arrested on murder charges, police announced Thursday that Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles’ DNA had been found at the site of reporter Jeff German’s murder.
By day’s end, the scandal-plagued Democrat was being held without bail in what police say was a brazen attack by a politician aimed at the dogged investigative reporter whose work helped derail his career. The stunning episode rattled a city and an entire industry, highlighting the dangers facing journalists in an era of constant threats to the profession.
Telles was arrested Wednesday night in connection with the fatal stabbing of German, who covered him extensively and was working on a new investigation of the politician, last weekend. The 45-year-old Democrat, who oversees the securing of estates of the recently deceased and lost his re-election bid in June, was booked into Clark County Detention Center on a count of open murder. This after an hourlong standoff during which police said he barricaded himself in his home.
ADVERTISEMENT
Police confirmed that he was taken out of his home Wednesday night in a stretcher after suffering “self-inflicted wounds.”
“This has been an unusual case from the beginning—the murder of an investigative journalist and the main suspect an elected official here in Clark County,” Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Thursday. “Every murder is tragic, but the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”
During the Thursday press conference, Las Vegas Metro Police Department Captain Dori Koren walked reporters through the crime—and how investigators quickly zeroed in on Telles. While authorities have yet to establish a motive for the stabbing, Koren did note that Telles was upset about German’s extensive reporting about his time in public office and that “additional reporting was pending.”
Cops say German was found dead outside of his Las Vegas home early Saturday morning with multiple stab wounds. The Clark County Office of the Medical Examiner concluded that the death was a homicide.
Speaking after a bail hearing, District Attorney Steve Wolfson said detectives found DNA belonging to Telles under German's fingernails. He added that German was stabbed seven times.
“The evidence is compelling,” Wolfson said. “I expect us to file a charge of open murder against Mr. Telles. That will be formally announced at his next court date.”
Wolfson said Telles agreed to an interview with police on Wednesday morning and that DNA was collected. But officers initially decided they did not have “sufficient” evidence to detain him until DNA results came back.
“We allowed for his release knowing that evidence was literally being developed minute by minute,” Wolfson said. “As yesterday afternoon moved along, more information came to us and we felt comfortable that he should be arrested.”
Koren said surveillance footage captured that the suspect was wearing a large straw hat and construction-style shirt to help conceal his identity before going to the side of German’s house, where the journalist was leaving from his garage. Investigators were quickly able to identify the suspect’s vehicle, which Koren said had been spotted multiple times around German’s neighborhood.
One neighbor, Jay Sabs, told The Daily Beast that his home security footage captured the man police identified as Telles pacing back and forth outside his home at about 11 a.m. Friday at the northwest corner of Bronze Circle and Wintergreen Drive.
Sabs, 30, described the footage as showing the maroon Yukon past his house and then the man pacing for about 10-15 minutes. Sabs said he did not see the Yukon himself and that he turned over the footage to the police.
Jeff Gorman
K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via Getty ImagesThe car, Koren added, matched Telles’ SUV, as reporters at his newspaper, the Review-Journal, revealed earlier this week. Authorities were able to execute a search warrant at Telles’ house on Wednesday, during which they recovered cut-up shoe shoes and a similar straw hat.
The hat, however, was destroyed, while the shoes, police said, had blood on them. No murder weapon was found at the house. Neighbors told The Daily Beast on Thursday that construction workers wearing neon reflective vests have been doing road work in the area for several months, and around the corner from German’s Bronze Circle home on Wintergreen Drive for roughly two weeks.
Orange tape on the windows, garage door, front door, and backyard entrances of German’s property continued to warn people that the site was a crime scene.
Wolfson said detectives worked closely with the Review-Journal to see what stories he was working on and who may have wanted him dead.
“Jeff was a loving and loyal brother, uncle, and friend who devoted his life to his work exposing wrongdoing in Las Vegas and beyond,” German's family said in a Thursday statement. “We’re shocked, saddened, and angry about his death. Jeff was committed to seeking justice for others and would appreciate the hard work by local police and journalists in pursuing his killer.”
“We look forward to seeing justice done in this case,” the family added.
But it was not just his family. From colleagues and friends to rank-and-file reporters across the country, journalists took note of the murder of one of their own.
Society of Professional Journalists National President Rebecca Aguilar stressed in a Thursday statement that “the murder of Jeff German is a reminder that everyday journalists around the world put their lives on the line to uncover the truth.”
