A former elected official in Nevada was sentenced on Oct. 16 to 28 years in prison for the murder of a reporter who investigated him.
Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt handed down the sentence to Robert Telles, 47, in a courtroom in Las Vegas.
Leavitt added eight years to the sentence for the use of a deadly weapon in a willful, deliberate, premeditated killing; because the victim, German, was older than 60 years old; and for lying in wait before the attack.
Telles has already spent two years in prison.
Telles’ attorney, Robert Draskovich, has said Telles intends to appeal his conviction.
Telles was the Democrat public administrator in Clark County when German published stories about the office, including articles about an alleged romance between Telles and a female employee.
Prosecutors told the jury that Telles stabbed German to death over the articles and as a bid to prevent internal communications from the office from becoming public. German had requested the records and was set to receive them.
Telles was publicly critical of German. He wrote on social media that he thought German was obsessed with him and that German had gone through his trash.
“I think he’s mad that I haven’t crawled into a hole and died,” Telles said in another post.
Telles took the stand during his trial and denied killing German. Evidence against him included his DNA found beneath German’s fingernails.
German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“German’s murder by a county politician is a stark reminder of the dangers that journalists—especially local reporters worldwide—face simply for doing their jobs and reporting on matters of public interest.”
German investigated crime and corruption for over four decades, and penned a book titled “Murder in Sin City: The Death of a Las Vegas Casino Boss.”
