Robert Telles, a former Democratic elected official from the Las Vegas area, was sentenced Wednesday to at least 28 years in Nevada state prison. He was convicted of killing an investigative journalist who revealed an intimate relationship with a female colleague and wrote critical pieces about his behavior in office two years ago.
In August, a jury sentenced Telles to a minimum of 20 years in prison; however, a judge added eight years to the minimum sentence due to factors such as possessing a deadly weapon.
In his defense testimony, 47-year-old Telles denied killing Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Jeff German with a knife in September 2022. However, there was substantial evidence against him, including his DNA found under German’s fingernails.
Telles plans to appeal his conviction, according to Robert Draskovich, his defense lawyer.
German was sixty-nine. He was a well-respected journalist who covered corruption, justice, and crime in Las Vegas for forty-four years.