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Las Vegas Assessment-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was a person who lived for his job. And because it seems, might have died for it. In September 2022, he was stabbed to demise by an assailant outdoors his dwelling.
German was a neighborhood legend – famend for his reporting on notorious mobsters, crooked politicians and murderers.
“How massive a listing of individuals might need needed Jeff useless?” “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant requested Glenn Prepare dinner, the Assessment-Journal’s government editor. “That is a line of those that runs from right here to Los Angeles,” Prepare dinner replied. “This man’s written about horrible folks, who’ve achieved terrible issues for over 40 years. The worst varieties of individuals.”
They got here up with a brief listing of people that might have threatened him. A kind of was Clark County public administrator Robert Telles. German had written 4 articles about Telles’ alleged hostile conduct on the workplace.
German first realized in regards to the accusations of a poisonous office from 4 feminine Clark County workers. “[Telles] was a horrible, a horrible human being,” one of many ladies, Rita Reid, instructed Van Sant. “Monster is the best phrase.”
“Jeff German was guided by an innate moral sense,” stated Prepare dinner. “If he knew somebody was partaking in felony exercise, unethical exercise, inappropriate conduct … he needed to do this story, he needed to carry it to gentle.”
After German spoke with the 4 ladies, they have been relieved to search out out that German would tackle their story. “He did one thing, and he fought for us,” Goodwin stated. “And he’s 100% our hero.”
They may have by no means imagined that simply 5 months after assembly him, their hero could be useless.
THE ASSASSINATION OF JEFF GERMAN
Briana Erickson: On September 2nd, 2022, it was a boiling scorching late summer season day in Las Vegas. And other people have been preparing for the Labor Day weekend. … It was late morning when in broad daylight, one thing horrible occurred.
As investigative journalists for the Las Vegas Assessment-Journal Briana Erickson and Rhonda Prast had seen a number of unhealthy folks do a number of unhealthy issues. However nothing got here near the Machiavellian plot to homicide their buddy and colleague, Jeff German.
Rhonda Prast: Jeff German was at his home, on trip. He’d gone out to get one thing to eat. He got here again, shut his storage door.
Rhonda Prast: You possibly can see within the surveillance video from throughout the road that … Somebody, an assailant, got here into his yard, went to the left aspect of his home, went contained in the gate, shut the gate.
Briana Erickson: After which we see Jeff, moments later, opening his storage door and he was immediately ambushed when he turned the nook to the place that individual was mendacity in wait. … Within the video, you’ll be able to type of see a battle, however German finally falls to the bottom, and he by no means will get up.
Peter Van Sant: What occurred to him in that assault?
Rhonda Prast: Jeff was stabbed … He was stabbed seven occasions, 4 occasions within the neck, three within the torso.
Peter Van Sant: Seven stab wounds … did that recommend what sort of a killing this was?
Rhonda Prast: To me, this was a really private assault. To stab somebody in such a short while viciously seven occasions, with no warning.
A involved neighbor discovered German’s physique hidden behind some bushes 24 hours later.
911 OPERATOR: 911 emergency … Do you want police, fireplace, medical?
NEIGHBOR: I’ve a neighbor throughout the road from me. He is laying within the aspect yard, um, I consider he is useless. He is obtained blood over him.
Rhonda Prast: It was only a horrible factor to know that he was mendacity there, and we puzzled whether or not he might have been saved. However medical consultants instructed us later … that he probably died inside a minute or two.
It was a small mercy for a person who had spent his life preventing for the underdog.
Rhonda Prast: On the base, he simply needed to assist folks and shield folks you already know … and expose wrongdoing.
From the beginning, German was taking pictures for giant sport. And when he got here from Wisconsin within the Nineteen Seventies las Vegas was the Serengeti. Mark Fierro, a TV reporter on the time, grew to become a lifelong buddy and trusted supply.
Mark Fierro: Jeff German on the outset was a, a … reporter who caught an important beat in Las Vegas of his day that was organized crime.
Then a reporter for the Las Vegas Solar, German took on one of many largest, meanest mobsters on the strip — Tony Spilotro, an influence participant for the Chicago Mob, who was performed by Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese’s movie, “On line casino.”
German talked about Spilotro within the podcast “Mobbed Up” a few 12 months earlier than he died:
JEFF GERMAN | “Mobbed Up” podcast: He had a fame of being a brutal killer, but he was by no means convicted of a single homicide … He had the coldest eyes I’ve ever seen.
JEFF GERMAN | “Mobbed Up” podcast: In my tales, I obtained used to calling Spilotro by his avenue identify – Tony the Ant. He hated that and it typically left me on the receiving finish of Spilotro’s nasty stares and his menacing matches of anger.
Mark Fierro: The irony of all of that is — is that Jeff … was not a tall man, was not a robust man, however he toughed it out and he went toe to toe with these guys 12 months in and 12 months out. And a few of these guys have been harmful guys.
Attempt as they did, they could not scare him, says Erickson.
Briana Erickson: After his tires had been slashed and a few spooky issues have been taking place to him, he instructed a mob affiliate in a bar to name off his canines. Then he obtained punched within the face. He later described that as a badge of honor.
JEFF GERMAN | “Mobbed Up” podcast: A few hours later with 4 stitches underneath my lip, I had a battle story to inform.
Because the mob slowly misplaced its grip on Vegas, German constructed a profession exposing soiled enterprise, authorities corruption and crime. Prast, the previous assistant managing editor for investigations on the Assessment-Journal, labored with him for 3 years.
Rhonda Prast: He stored digging and digging and digging, and he was just like the canine, the little canine — that might take a chunk of your pants and would not let go. You already know, he was simply so laser targeted on persevering with to go deeper and deeper and deeper right into a story.
That tenacity helped him expose the reality in tales that might have remained within the shadows. He was one of many few journalists, alongside together with his colleague David Ferrara, to report on the Susan Winters case — a girl whose dad and mom doubted the suicide ruling of their daughter’s demise.
Mark Fierro: And Jeff began placing items collectively. … working with the lawyer for the household … that the way in which that she killed herself was so unseemly that it simply did not add up. … And as soon as he began … he began pulling on that thread, after which he began pulling on a rope after which it become a series.
That chain become a collection of tales that focused the husband. Seems Winters died from ingesting a deadly mixture of painkillers and antifreeze. The husband, who was charged with homicide, finally pleaded responsible to voluntary manslaughter and was despatched to jail.
As hard-charging and public as German was in his work life, the lifelong bachelor was notoriously non-public about his private life.
Mark Fierro: He was at all times again to enterprise, again to enterprise. This man was born to be a reporter.
Your entire newsroom rallied collectively. His colleagues had no concept who did this or why, however they have been decided to do what German would have achieved: discover out.
WHO WANTED JEFF GERMAN DEAD?
The Assessment-Journal workers was in mourning. Their sorrow — playing cards and flowers— in full show on German’s desk.
Briana Erickson: It is a reminder that … this crew shouldn’t be gonna be the identical with out him … However we will keep it up the way in which he would need us to.
And that meant doing what he would have achieved. The workers began tugging on threads and looking for clues, working nonstop on one of the necessary tales of their careers: who killed Jeff German?
Rhonda Prast: Instantly, I began considering in my head, all proper, who had threatened Jeff in any manner within the final 5 months? Who might have probably achieved this?
Govt editor Glenn Prepare dinner requested Prast to give you a brief listing of individuals to think about.
Rhonda Prast: One of many names I gave him was Robert Telles.
Peter Van Sant: And who’s Robert Telles?
Rhonda Prast: He was a Clark County elected official, in command of the Public Administrator’s Workplace, which handles estates of people that have been deceased.
One of many property coordinators in Telles’ workplace, Aleisha Goodwin, had reached out to German in March 2022. She had filed a proper grievance with the County Workplace of Variety on behalf of herself and a few colleagues claiming Telles harassed, bullied, and discriminated in opposition to them.
Rita Reid: He was a horrible, a horrible human being … Monster is the best phrase.
However Goodwin says, the county did nothing.
Aleisha Goodwin: It was at all times, “he is an elected official. There’s nothing we will do.”
German agreed to listen to what Goodwin and her colleagues, Noraine Pagdanganan, Rita Reid and Jessica Coleman, needed to say.
Jessica Coleman: And when he lastly talked to us and he allow us to inform what had occurred to us and he stated, “No, I will look into this.” … I feel that is the one factor that gave us sufficient vitality to maintain going.
In response to the ladies, the difficulty started virtually instantly after Telles took workplace in January 2019. Reid, a supervisor, was his second in command and a 12-year veteran of the workplace.
Rita Reid: He got here in very abruptly into the workplace and he slammed his palms down on my desk (slams fingers on desk) with a — with an actual loud bang.
Peter Van Sant: Like a (slaps fingers on desk).
Rita Reid: Oh, sure, completely. And he leaned ahead, and he stated, “we’re ripping off the bandage. You now not supervise anybody, nobody reviews to you. … All of them report back to me.” And he circled and he walked out. And I simply sat there shocked.
The ladies say they have been ordered to not communicate to one another within the workplace.
Jessica Coleman It felt harmful to also have a hiya, good morning, dialog with coworkers in passing.
If caught, the implications could possibly be extreme, says Goodwin. She remembers getting referred to as into Telles’ workplace after he noticed her and two different ladies speaking
Aleisha Goodwin: We walked into his workplace, and he stated, “sit down and shut up. You are not gonna discuss. … I am gonna discuss.” … And he simply obtained this look on his face, he sits again, and he pointed at Noraine and stated, “f*** you.”
Peter Van Sant: What was it prefer to be in that room … receiving that?
Noraine Pagdanganan: It was scary … as a result of … I … Didn’t wish to upset him as a result of I knew how he could possibly be.
Regardless of years of service, all the ladies say they feared for his or her jobs. And Coleman, who safeguarded the property of the deceased in a caged room, says she feared for her bodily security. She says Telles would typically are available in and threaten her.
Jessica Coleman: There was an occasion the place he obtained in my face and, you already know, he is yelling and I am kind of backed up in opposition to, um, the cage door.
Peter Van Sant: He was attempting to bodily intimidate you?
Jessica Coleman: Sure, sure. … He would carry his chairs up actually shut and — and demand that you simply actually concentrate and look him within the eye whereas he instructed you horrible issues.
A kind of horrible issues, says Coleman, virtually did her in. Alone within the cage collectively, she says, Telles began by saying that he observed she by no means talked to anybody within the workplace, a weird remark contemplating his no-talking rule.
Jessica Coleman: “In the event you hold happening this street, you are going to be like our circumstances and also you’re simply going to die alone, and no person goes to search out you.” … and I sat there and cried. Um, after which after that … it is onerous to confess. (Crying) Then I began, um, considering one of the best factor I might do could be to sacrifice myself for the ladies.
Jessica Coleman: (Crying) And I had really picked out a spot, um, that I used to be going to hold myself within the corridor in view of the door, as a result of he would at all times come by and — and ensure I used to be working. And I believed this can be good. If they’ve to search out me this manner, then the county must do one thing.
Mercifully, Coleman realized that was not the answer to the issue.
However they got here up with one other plan. The ladies believed Telles was having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate within the workplace named Roberta. Roberta, they claimed, used that relationship to imagine energy and privilege past her job title.
Peter Van Sant: Is there any doubt in your thoughts that the 2 of them have been having a romantic affair?
Rita Reid: No.
Aleisha Goodwin: No.
Jessica Coleman: Completely not.
Peter Van Sant: None by any means
Jessica Coleman: No as a result of we —
However they wanted proof. In order that they determined to observe them.
Aleisha Goodwin: We had seen a sample, brief costume day. In the event that they went the identical route, we knew that we wanted to go.
It was at all times to the identical place, says Goodwin — a parking storage in a close-by mall. The alleged lovers would park subsequent to one another.
Aleisha Goodwin: We began to take photos and we began to video.
Peter Van Sant: So how did you place yourselves the place you could possibly get some video?
Rita Reid: Very fastidiously.
Peter Van Sant: In a automobile?
Aleisha Goodwin: Typically in a automobile. Typically we might get out of our automobile. There have been — there have been type of some cutouts and pillars the place you could possibly get angles right here and there. … And we simply tried to maneuver round and to get one of the best that we might.
In response to the ladies, the alleged lovers would finally find yourself within the again seat of Roberta’s automobile.
Peter Van Sant: Roberta has stated that they’d sit within the again seat as a result of she needed to have the ability to make eye contact with him as they have been having —
Jessica Coleman: Mm-hmm.
Peter Van Sant: — necessary workplace discussions.
Aleisha Goodwin: Yeah.
Jessica Coleman: Sure.
Aleisha Goodwin: That’s what she stated.
Peter Van Sant: OK. And your response to that?
Aleisha Goodwin: Nicely, that final video we obtained, we had a bit higher recorder. You’ll be able to see the — the shadows. And you’ll see these heads going collectively.
Rita Reid: We felt it was so inappropriate.
However this was the shot they believed was probably the most telling: Roberta leaving the automobile and smoothing down her costume.
Rita Reid: It was so unbelievable, and it simply took a second to — to digest that it will — I imply, at that second it was like so actual.
After seeing the movies, German requested Roberta about them. She responded, “I’ve not had an inappropriate relationship with him.” The Assessment-Journal printed the story.
Peter Van Sant (reads aloud): Let me learn the lead on this first article:
“The Clark County Public Administrator’s Workplace has been mired in turmoil and inner dissension over the previous two years with allegations of emotional stress, bullying and favoritism, resulting in secret videotaping of the boss and a co-worker outdoors the workplace.”
Peter Van Sant: That story went everywhere in the state of Nevada and earlier than lengthy, everywhere in the nation.
Peter Van Sant: As this settled in, are you considering mission completed otherwise you considering what’s gonna occur to us subsequent?
Aleisha Goodwin: Each.
Jessica Coleman: Yeah, the fear did not cease. The fear virtually simply obtained worse. It simply modified face.
THERE WERE WARNING SIGNS
German’s story with its allegations of turmoil, bullying and hostility had a swift and searing impact on the Public Administrator’s Workplace. The county lastly despatched in an outdoor guide, and Robert Telles misplaced his bid for re-election within the major, satirically, to his arch enemy: Rita Reid.
However German wasn’t via with Telles but. He wrote three extra scathing items chronicling the autumn of the as soon as up-and-coming younger Democrat, and one other story was within the works.
However German didn’t survive to write down it.
NEWS REPORT: Jeff German was discovered stabbed to demise outdoors his dwelling within the Northwest Valley …
When information of German’s homicide broke, the ladies German had fought for have been overcome with grief, but additionally dread — afraid of what they could have unleashed.
Goodwin’s dad, a former Las Vegas police detective who launched her to German, stated what they have been all considering.
Aleisha Goodwin: My dad referred to as me very first thing within the morning and stated that Jeff had been killed and I did not even get to react earlier than my dad’s subsequent phrase have been, “I do know who my first suspect is.” … As quickly as these phrases got here out of his mouth, I knew instantly too.
Peter Van Sant: That it was Robert?
Aleisha Goodwin: That it was Robert.
The workers on the Las Vegas Assessment-Journal was questioning the identical factor. May Telles have been concerned?
Peter Van Sant: The journalistic hounds are — are launched, proper?
Artwork Kane: Sure. We weren’t gonna do something till each little rock was overturned and each little reality was discovered about what — what this man was and who he was.
Artwork Kane, now the investigations editor, was a reporter on the time.
Artwork Kane: And we began discovering out a number of fascinating issues about him. For instance … He was arrested whereas he was public administrator … for choking his spouse.
911 CALL: Are you able to please ship any individual right here? My husband goes loopy.
Artwork Kane: There’s bodycam video that now we have obtained of that.
ROBERT TELLES (police bodycam video): Who did I hit? … cameras, cameras.
OFFICER: Our cameras are on.
ROBERT TELLES: You guys simply wanna take me down ‘trigger I am a public official.
Telles, slurring his phrases, was arrested for home battery and resisting arrest
ROBERT TELLES (police bodycam video): There’s ample proof to guide me proper now?
OFFICER: There’s ample proof to guide you proper now, sure.
ROBERT TELLES: And I am — I am not attempting to be like “I am a public official so you already know, do what I need you to f****** do.” I am saying, I am not a f***** fool.
He acquired a suspended 90-day sentence on the resisting cost and was ordered to attend a corrective considering class. The battery cost was dismissed.
Artwork Kane: Nobody ever heard about it as a result of … nobody covers … DUIs and domestics, and that flew underneath the radar.
Wanting again, there have been different warning indicators, says Erickson. Equivalent to a collection of tweets Telles posted in response to German’s reporting.
Peter Van Sant: Learn that one for me.
Briana Erickson (studying tweet): “Wanting ahead to mendacity smear piece #4 by @JGermanRJ. #onetrickpony. I feel he is mad that I have not crawled right into a gap and died. (Laughing emoji.)”
Peter Van Sant: What did you consider that one?
Briana Erickson: Someone who’s fairly pissed off.
However the journalists knew offended tweets did not show something. They wanted details. And details have been onerous to return by.
All that they had have been two nonetheless surveillance pictures the police had launched of the suspect in German’s neighborhood.
The outfit, weird because it appears, might have been a strategic selection, says Kane.
Artwork Kane: The outfit could be very typical of what development staff and individuals who do landscaping put on as a result of they wanna cowl up all their pores and skin from the solar.
When the police launched a surveillance video, Assessment-Journal photographer Kevin Cannon instantly observed one thing the massive hat and orange reflective shirt could not cover: the person’s stroll; his gait.
Peter Van Sant: How would you describe that gait?
Kevin Cannon: It is — it’s kind of of a — a limp and a favor on one aspect, it appears.
Cannon went digging in his information and located a strolling shot he had taken of Telles when Jeff interviewed him at his workplace. The workers in contrast each movies aspect by aspect.
Kevin Cannon: I am undecided the best way to describe it, but it surely was positively the similar gait in my thoughts.
Cannon then went via a whole bunch of nonetheless images he had taken that day and located one other.
Kevin Cannon: It is a very chilling picture. And it is the one and solely picture the place Jeff and Telles are in the identical picture.
Govt editor Glenn Prepare dinner says his workers moved ahead on the working idea that Telles might have been the killer. However they nonetheless did not have onerous proof.
Then the police launched a photograph of the suspect’s automobile: a maroon Yukon Denali.
Assistant metropolis editor David Ferrara instantly typed Telles’ dwelling deal with into Google Earth.
David Ferrara: And for those who zoom in, on the home, that maroon automobile is there, parked within the driveway.
The maroon SUV was registered to Telles’ spouse.
Glenn Prepare dinner: And at that second we ship reporters and photographers straight to the home. And the message I give our Metro editor is, don’t interact, don’t strategy, don’t be seen. This man could be very probably a suspect within the homicide of your colleague, and we will not predict how he is gonna react to anybody being close to him.
However the photographer – crouching behind his dashboard – managed to get what he got here for.
Peter Van Sant: And is that this the image that’s taken?
Glenn Prepare dinner: That is the picture.
Peter Van Sant: That is the cash picture.
Glenn Prepare dinner: It is the cash shot.
Glenn Prepare dinner: Robert Telles on a scorching scorching 110-degree day is in denims in his driveway, washing the maroon GMC Yukon Denali.
Peter Van Sant: This should have been a second the place, I do not know if there’s any cheering occurring in your newsroom, however what a growth. What does this imply?
Artwork Kane: Nicely, it signifies that probably Jeff was killed by the final story he wrote about. I imply, this was his final investigation and — and the suspect seems to be the man he wrote about and principally took him out of workplace.
With out corroboration from police paperwork, The Assessment-Journal could not go together with the story. However Prepare dinner was betting it would not be lengthy. His reporters had seen unmarked police automobiles outdoors Robert Telles’ dwelling.
Glenn Prepare dinner: Now we have each cause to consider at this level that it is solely a matter of time earlier than a search warrant is gonna be executed at that home.
A search that can uncover essential proof.
A STUNNING ARREST
Because the investigators geared as much as serve Robert Telles with a search warrant, the Assessment-Journal wanted to make certain it will be the primary to interrupt the information.
Briana Erickson: It was necessary as a result of Jeff was at all times first, and we would not wanna let him down and never be the primary.
Glenn Prepare dinner: We polish that story … after which we sit on it till … police transfer in …
Within the early morning of Sept. 7, 2022 – simply 5 days after Jeff German’s homicide – Telles was introduced in for questioning as police searched his dwelling and automobiles. Whereas he was in custody, detectives collected a DNA pattern from Telles. Additionally they took the denims he was sporting into proof and gave him a white paper go well with to vary into earlier than he was taken again to his home and swarmed by reporters eagerly awaiting his arrival.
Inside Telles’ dwelling, investigators say they discovered fitness center sneakers and a duffel bag much like what was seen within the surveillance video. And after they regarded within the storage, detectives say they found much more – a straw solar hat — or what was left of it.
Peter Van Sant: The solar hat.
Artwork Kane: the solar hat.
Peter Van Sant: Minimize up into items?
Artwork Kane: Sure. Sure.
However police say probably the most essential piece of proof would come from the DNA pattern that was taken from Telles earlier that day.
CAPT. DORI KOREN (to reporters): We acquired constructive DNA outcomes that confirmed Robert Telles’ DNA on the crime scene.
Briana Erickson: Telles’ DNA was underneath Jeff’s fingernails.
Glenn Prepare dinner: There is no doubt in my thoughts that Jeff knew precisely what was taking place in that break up second and he made certain he obtained the proof.
With a DNA match apparently secured, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division descended on Telles’ dwelling as soon as once more and commenced clearing the world for an arrest.
Peter Van Sant: And that is the place he was arrested?
Kevin Cannon: Sure.
Assessment-Journal photographer Kevin Cannon was one among dozens of media who had been ready outdoors Telles’ dwelling that day.
Peter Van Sant: What occurs when the cops arrive?
Kevin Cannon: All of a sudden the police stated, “OK, all people out.” They kicked the complete information — everybody who was right here out.
Peter Van Sant: The place do you go?
Kevin Cannon: So I made a B-line to the entrance door of a neighbor who I befriended earlier once I arrived. And so they, with out saying a phrase, opened the door and welcomed me in and stroll me to their yard the place I might have a view of Telles’ home.
Peter Van Sant: And you could possibly nonetheless see the home out of your vantage level?
Kevin Cannon: From the yard, yeah.
Again within the Assessment-Journal newsroom, among the workers anxiously stored up with what was taking place on the scene via the workplace’s police radio and heard that Telles refused to return out of his dwelling.
LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE RADIO: Our goal continues to be calm on the telephone. Nonetheless, he has made a pair 405 feedback.
“405 feedback” – a code Las Vegas police use to point feedback related to self-harm.
Briana Erickson: it was type of scary at that time. We have been considering, is — is that this all gonna finish on his phrases now?
LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE RADIO: … based mostly on the 405 feedback, we’re going to go forward and make the official request for SWAT.
Kevin Cannon: My colleagues … heard via the scanner that they have been gonna transfer in as a result of he had lower himself they usually needed to save lots of him earlier than he harmed himself extra.
Peter Van Sant: And so they needed to get to him.
Kevin Cannon: Proper.
The SWAT crew made its transfer. And that is when Cannon obtained prepared.
Peter Van Sant: And so that you have been positioned, you have been able to go then?
Kevin Cannon: Proper. I used to be able to go the entire time. I imply, I had my finger on the button the entire time.
Peter Van Sant: The place do you look, what do you see behind you?
Kevin Cannon: Nicely, I see them rolling him out on a stretcher down — round that nook, down that path, out the driveway and put in an ambulance proper right here.
Cannon was the one photographer that day to seize Telles’ dramatic arrest. His picture of Telles on the stretcher made the entrance web page of the Assessment-Journal the next morning.
Kevin Cannon: The following day, I, uh, opened the paper and there was a photograph on the entrance web page with a banner headline, “Gorgeous Arrest.” And — It was gorgeous.
Peter Van Sant: And satisfying for you in any case that.
Kevin Cannon: Very satisfying.
Artwork Kane: It turns into enormous information, clearly everywhere in the nation.
A reporter allegedly killed by a politician for a narrative he wrote.
Artwork Kane: That is fairly unprecedented.
After Telles was handled on the hospital for his self-inflicted accidents, he was booked into the Clark County Detention Middle. Six weeks later, Telles was indicted by a grand jury for homicide with use of a lethal weapon.
JUDGE: How do you plead? Responsible or not responsible
ROBERT TELLES: Not responsible, Your Honor.
Quickly after, proof from the grand jury was launched by the Clark County District Courtroom — together with that grainy surveillance assault video.
Artwork Kane: I feel most likely what we discovered, among the most annoying is the final three movies.
Minutes later, it exhibits the assailant returning to the scene of the crime and parking that maroon Yukon Denali in entrance of Germain’s driveway,
Artwork Kane: And now you will see him stroll over and, um, guarantee that Jeff is useless.
Peter Van Sant: And also you’re theorizing he’s checking to see … if he is useless as a result of clearly Jeff noticed this individual.
Artwork Kane: He desires to guarantee that there’s not a witness that is nonetheless alive.
Seemingly happy, the suspect walked again to his automobile and left.
Since his arrest, Telles has been in jail awaiting trial.
CONFRONTING ROBERT TELLES
“48 Hours” met Robert Telles for a video interview on the Clark County Detention Middle and commenced with the query on everybody’s thoughts.
Peter Van Sant: Did you homicide Jeff German?
Robert Telles: No, sir, I didn’t.
Peter Van Sant : In the event you didn’t commit this homicide, who did?
Robert Telles: I’ll … reserve that for trial.
Peter Van Sant: You might have stated … that you simply have been framed, do you stand by that on this dialog?
Robert Telles: I do. I completely do.
Telles says he can clarify the proof in opposition to him: the torn up solar hat, the Yukon Denali and his DNA underneath German’s fingernails.
Robert Telles: I say that that proof or so-called proof was planted together with the opposite gadgets that have been allegedly present in my dwelling as nicely. And we are going to go forward and show that at trial.
Peter Van Sant: How might somebody who’s attempting to border you plant your DNA underneath his fingernails? How would which have — have occurred? They — first, they’d have needed to have gotten your DNA. … After which when would they’ve planted it underneath his fingernails? It appears far-fetched.
Robert Telles: Nicely, you already know, crazier issues have occurred, and I will inform you that I did not kill Mr. German.
Peter Van Sant: Come on, man. That is overwhelming. … DNA finally ends up underneath his fingernails, your DNA. That is an amazing case in opposition to you, Robert, that you simply dedicated this homicide.
Robert Telles: Once more, sir, you already know, you’ve gotten the details mistaken, and I’ll show it at trial.
He additionally says he’ll present he did not do these issues German wrote about in his articles.
Peter Van Sant: Robert, you are saying that what these ladies have stated to me, what they instructed Jeff German and he printed, these are all lies?
Robert Telles: In the event you take a look at what Mr. German printed, none of it was — none of it had any details inside it, proper? … It was all alleged opinion about … you already know what how they felt that – that I – I acted.
But it surely’s onerous to argue with the footage the ladies shot of their boss and his alleged lover within the parking storage.
Peter Van Sant: Let me ask you straight … have been you … and Roberta having an affair?
Robert Telles: Uh, no. … she was a … a confidant, um, however I will — I will depart it at that.
However German was not prepared to go away it at that. He was planning on writing one other piece.
In response to police paperwork, Telles and Roberta obtained phrase the day earlier than the homicide that there was a deliberate launch of emails and messages between her and Telles to the Assessment-Journal.
Peter Van Sant: There was a Freedom of Info [Act] requests that Jeff had put out and also you have been instructed … that new messages and emails have been gonna come out, describing the connection between you and Roberta, communications between the 2 of you. And it is advised that you decided to homicide him to attempt to silence that, to stop that from being printed. What do you say about that?
Robert Telles: I am certain that is a mischaracterization of — of issues. … I will inform you that what was going to be launched and I noticed was going be launched, um, had no inklings of — of any sort of, you already know, confidential relationship, any sort of supposed affair. … It was all enterprise associated … So, that might not have been a motivation as a result of there was nothing that was going to be produced that — that might look unhealthy.
Glenn Prepare dinner: Prosecutors have talked about this as a contributing motive to the homicide. In Robert Telles’ thoughts … Jeff German ruined his marriage, ruined his political profession, embarrassed him and was persevering with to report on him moderately than depart him alone.
If the intention of the alleged killing was to cease German’s reporting, it did not work. After his homicide, the Assessment-Journal journalists hunted via German’s notes.
Briana Erickson: Selecting up the place Jeff left off.
And accomplished the tales German had been engaged on on the time of his demise, together with one other on Telles’ poisonous previous — a narrative that investigates claims of sexual harassment, all of which he has denied.
Briana Erickson: The principle factor right here is you can not kill a reporter and kill the story. You simply cannot try this.
In life, German was identified to guard his sources in any respect prices.
In demise, German was nonetheless defending them. After the homicide, the police took all his gadgets — which harbored the names of numerous sources.
The Assessment-Journal went to court docket, and in a hard-fought court docket case that went all the way in which to the Nevada Supreme Courtroom, the paper gained safety for his sources.
Mark Fierro: That’ll be the German rule that you simply will be unable to enter a reporter’s information. You will be unable to undergo their telephone. You will be unable to take a look at their sources even after demise.
The 4 Jeff German sources usually are not about to let the world neglect the reporter who fought to guard them. They’ve attended virtually each listening to attempting to return to phrases with their emotions of guilt.
Aleisha Goodwin: As a result of it doesn’t matter what logic is in your head, it is not your fault that Jeff made his selections and that he was an expert. Your coronary heart tells you if we would not have made that decision, he would not have died in that violent manner that day. And if I used to be to speak to him at this time, I feel the very first thing I might say is, “I am sorry.” … However not for him, for me, as a result of he would not have accepted my apology (crying), however I would like to provide it.
Jeff German was a reporter’s reporter. One of many good guys. A person who spent a lifetime talking fact to energy, truths that at the moment are baked into the historical past of this place – a neon strip of gritty tales laid naked beneath the desert sky.
Glenn Prepare dinner: He instructed anybody who requested that he was by no means going to retire, that he was going to report till his final breath. And that is precisely what he did … And he gave his life to this job. He actually gave his life to this job. I feel that is his legacy.
Telles’ trial is scheduled for March 18, 2024.
Produced by Liza Finley and Gabriella Demirdjian. Cindy Cesare and Greg Fisher are the event producers. Gregory F. McLaughlin, Chris Crater, Michelle Harris and Wini Dini are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
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