A local politician in Las Vegas has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of the murder of an investigative journalist who wrote articles alleging misconduct in his office.
Robert Telles was found guilty on Wednesday, local time, of killing Las Vegas Review Journal reporter Jeff German in 2022 after three days of jury deliberation.
The case sent shock waves throughout the United States — but what happened?
A stabbing in broad daylight
Telles is a former Democratic politician who represented the Las Vegas area and previously worked as a lawyer.
In May and June of 2022, investigative reporter Mr German wrote a series of articles that described bullying at the Clark County administrative office, where Telles had held office since 2018, as well as an affair between the politician and an employee.
After the articles were published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Telles lost his primary election for a second term in office.
On September 2, Mr German was stabbed in his backyard just after 11:15am, and died from multiple "sharp force injuries" in a case quickly ruled as a homicide.
Telles was arrested days later after a public appeal for evidence yielded video evidence linking him to the location of Mr German's home.
12 hours of deliberation
The two-week trial saw the prosecution give evidence that Telles blamed the murdered journalist for destroying his career, ruining his reputation and threatening his marriage.
Prosecutor Pamela Weckerly presented a timeline and videos showing Telles's maroon SUV leaving the neighbourhood near his home a little after 9am on September 2, 2022, and driving on streets near Mr German's home a short time later.
The SUV driver is seen wearing a bright orange outfit similar to one worn by a person captured on camera walking to Mr German's home and slipping into a side yard where the journalist was attacked.
A little more than two minutes later, the figure in orange emerged and walked down a sidewalk.
Evidence showed Telles's wife sent him a text message about 10:30am asking, "Where are you?"
Prosecutors said Telles left his mobile phone at home so he couldn't be tracked, while Telles told the jury he took a walk and then went to a gym in the afternoon.
Prosecutor Christopher Hamner told jurors during closing arguments on Monday that finding Telles guilty would be like "connecting the dots" based on the overwhelming evidence they heard — including DNA that matched Telles found beneath Mr German's fingernails.
A life sentence for murder
Jurors deliberated for 12 hours before finding Telles guilty of the murder of Mr German.
The former politician hung his head, shaking it slightly from side to side as the verdict was read out.
Telles received a life sentence for his crime, with 20 years before he can apply for parole.
The 47-year-old had been jailed without bail since his arrest in days after the homicide.
"I am not the kind of person who would stab someone. I didn't kill Mr. German," Telles had told the jury last week from the witness stand.
"And that's my testimony."
The defence indicated Telles would appeal the guilty verdict.
The district attorney, Steve Wolfson, said Mr German "had a stellar reputation in this community" and called it "a crying shame, literally and figuratively that he's no longer with us".
He also dismissed as "ludicrous" Telles's claims that a broad conspiracy of people — including Mr Wolfson — framed him for blame for the reporter's killing in retaliation for his effort to root out corruption he saw in his office.
Killing of journalists 'not tolerated'
In their first public comments since the killing, Mr German's brother, Jay German, and two sisters, Jill Zwerg and Julie Smith, described him as a loving brother and uncle to their children.
"He was the older brother that we all leaned on," Jay German said. He called the murder "devastating".
Ms Zwerg said her oldest brother — a dedicated reporter and author who moved to Las Vegas from Milwaukee and loved his job — used to tell her why he rejected offers by other newspapers to move to other cities.
"'This is Las Vegas, Sin City,'" she said he told her. "'This is where I need to be.'"
Mr German, 69, and had spent 44 years covering crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas.
Katherine Jacobsen, the US, Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, issued a statement within minutes of the verdict being read.
It mourned Mr German's death and said the verdict "sends an important message that the killing of journalists will not be tolerated".
"It is vital that the murder of journalists should be taken seriously and perpetrators held accountable," Ms Jacobsen said.
Mr German was the only journalist killed in the US in 2022, according to the committee.
AP/ABC
