Closings set in trial of ex-politician accused of killing Las Vegas investigative reporter
A jury that heard a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician insist that evidence including DNA tying him to the killing of an investigative journalist was tainted, planted or wrong — and that he was the victim of a massive conspiracy — will hear closing trial arguments Monday.
LAS VEGAS — A jury that heard a former Las Vegas-area Democratic politician insist that evidence including DNA tying him to the killing of an investigative journalist was tainted, planted or wrong — and that he was the victim of a massive conspiracy — will hear closing trial arguments Monday.
Robert Telles won’t return again to the witness stand before a jury panel of seven men and seven women is pared to 12. They’ll be asked to decide if they all believe Telles stabbed, slashed and murdered longtime Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German. Two will be designated as alternates.
“I’m not crazy. I’m not trying to avoid responsibility,” Telles told them Friday to end his second and final round of self-guided testimony before the prosecution and defense rested their cases. “I didn’t kill Mr. German and I’m innocent.”
Telles is accused of plotting to kill German, 69, a respected journalist who spent 44 years covering crime, courts and corruption in Las Vegas, after German authored several articles for the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a county office in turmoil under Telles’ leadership.
Those stories included allegations that Telles had a romantic relationship with a female employee, which Telles admitted for the first time Thursday were true. German was working on another report about that relationship when he was killed.
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