On September 3, 2022, Jeff German, a reporter from Las Vegas Review-Journal who covered politics and corruption, was found dead outside his home in Las Vegas with multiple stab wounds, according to news reports and a report by his outlet.
According to an autopsy report reviewed in early October by the Review-Journal, German was fatally stabbed on September 2, sustaining seven sharp force injuries, including four to his neck and one that cut his carotid artery.
The journalist had recently covered topics including failures in city inspections before a deadly hotel fire, alleged mismanagement by government officials, and local extremist groups, according to that report.
On September 5, police released surveillance images of the suspected attacker and the following day released images of a vehicle allegedly tied to the suspect.
On September 7, police arrested Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles on suspicion of murder, according to news reports. In a September 8 statement reviewed by CPJ, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Telles had been charged with murder with a deadly weapon against a victim who is 60 years or older.
Telles lost a re-election bid in June 2022 after German reported on alleged mismanagement in the official’s office. The Review-Journal reported that German had been working on a follow-up story to that report in the weeks before he was killed. Before the attack, Telles had published comments about German’s reporting on his reelection campaign’s website and in a letter to the journalist. He called the allegations against him "false" and said German was trying to drag him “through the mud.”
Telles was indicted for murder by a grand jury on October 20, 2022, and pleaded not guilty; prosecutors later said that they would not seek the death penalty, according to the Review-Journal.
On August 28, 2024, a Las Vegas jury found Telles guilty of first-degree murder in German’s killing. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 20 years. Prosecutors argued that Telles killed German in retaliation for articles German wrote about Telles’ treatment of employees, and that a motive for the killing was to prevent German from writing more stories about Telles, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.