A Nevada jury has convicted former Democratic lawmaker Robert Telles of killing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.
Thursday, Telles was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years. Prosecutors said Telles killed German on September 2, 2020 out of anger at his reporting work against the journalist.
Telles claimed he was a victim of police and political opponents who conspired to frame him in the murder of 69-year-old German, essentially indicating his belief that there had been a conspiracy against Telles designed to have placed him overdrive behind bars.
“So, when he faced me there I was really guilty to begin with,” said jury foreman Gregory Whitney in a recent interview.
The jury, which included Whitney and 11 others, deliberated for nearly three days as they sifted through the testimony of some 30 witnesses and more than 400 pieces of evidence — from photos, videos and police reports.
“Basically, we really wanted to put it out there that we did skip everything from Point A to Point B — and this guy — listen, privileged white male who was smart enough when he wouldn’t make eye contact with us or talk about his upbringing growing up somewhere only rich people can afford a ticket in an airport,” Whitney said. “Because I knew nothing about this bloke personally, there was no bias.
Several in the jury were not initially convinced of this evidence, Whitney said previously. One of the jurors had not made up her mind at first because she couldn’t imagine anyone making “that many little mistakes.”
“That kind of stuff doesn’t leave you,” Whitney said. “Some of it is burned into my memory because a lot of those evidence photos — you look at them and say, ‘Oh! That’s not how this works.’ That was quite frankly one of those like, you don’t think that could ever happen story.”
In his testimony on August 22, Telles testified “100 percent I’m innocent,” using a narrative form of testifying instead of the typical Q&A format.
In addition to describing his own life experiences, Telles argued that the specific way in which German was killed hinted at a sophisticated offender.