Vegas politician's trial over murdered journalist brings police, colleagues to the stand

(CN) — The trial of Robert Telles, the former Clark County public administrator accused of murdering an investigative reporter in 2022, continued on Friday as prosecutors presented their case.

Telles is accused of murdering Jeff German, an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal who had published a series of articles on Telles prior to his death in September 2022.

German was found outside of his home with seven stab wounds. Telles, charged with murder, has pleaded not guilty and claims he was framed for the crime.

On Friday, prosecutors called to the stand a witness who testified the former public administrator “hated” German.

Roberta Lee-Kennett, a former employee of the Clark County Public Administrator’s Office, told the prosecutors Telles was upset after German wrote a series of articles that included claims that Telles had created a hostile workplace and allegations that he and Lee-Kennett were engaged in an inappropriate relationship.

“He was not happy about it,” Lee-Kennett said. “He did not like Mr. German.”

When pressed further, Lee-Kennett said Telles had told her he hated German.

She testified that Telles felt German’s articles had ruined his chance at being reelected to his position. After Telles lost the primary race in the election, Lee-Kennett said he stopped coming into the office and primarily worked from home. She said that when Telles started at the office, the changes he implemented were seen as “divisive.”

The prosecution reviewed a series of texts sent between Lee-Kennett and Telles after local news reported German had been killed on Labor Day weekend in 2022.

“That freaked me out,” Lee-Kennett said.

Lee-Kennett told Telles to stop driving his car for a while since it was the same make and model as the one police had identified as being seen in connection to the crime.

Telles texted her back: “It’s fine. I didn’t do it.”

The state also called Daniel Kulin, an employee with Clark County’s communications department, to the stand. Kulin and German had once worked together at the Las Vegas Sun.

Kulin told the court he had received public records requests from the journalist in July 2022. German requested all digital communication between Telles and Lee-Kennett.

The state also called to the stand three forensic scientists who analyzed evidence found at the crime scene and in Telles’ home.

Kimberly Dannenberger, a forensic scientist with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told the court the lab had detected a mixture of two male DNA profiles when testing samples from German’s left- and right-hand fingernails. One of the DNA profiles was matched to German, and when the lab received a cheek-swab sample from Telles it matched it to the DNA found on the right-hand fingernail.

Telles’ defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, questioned Dannenberger about the potency of DNA samples and asked if Telles’ DNA had been found on any of German’s clothing, to which the forensic scientist said “no.”

The state also called four police witnesses.

Derek Jappe told the court he first came into contact with Telles when the public administrator contacted him with allegations of corruption within Compass Realty, a local realty company the county department occasionally encountered.

Jappe is a detective with the police department’s Criminal Intelligence Section and Public Corruption Squad.

The detective told the court that in their personal conversations, Telles told him that German “just wanted to sell papers” and that he ”didn’t want the full story or to share the full story.” He said Telles directed him to a website where the administrator had posted his side of the story.

Jappe told the court he later received a report from other employees of the Clark County Administrator’s Office that Telles had been receiving kickbacks from a particular real estate company with which the department worked. He said he opened an investigation simultaneous with the investigation into Compass Realty.

As part of his investigation into Telles, the detective began surveilling him, which included tracking his phone. Jappe identified a multiple-hour window of time on the day of German’s death that appeared to show Telles’ phone had received calls and texts but not placed any.

By February 2023, Jappe said his investigation into Telles had come to a close, and neither he nor the FBI found evidence he had been receiving a kickback. He said the investigation into Compass Realty had shown the company likely was taking advantage of a loophole in Nevada laws, and the district attorney’s office told him they couldn’t prosecute the company.

The other police witnesses showed body camera footage from German’s home and Telles’ house when the SWAT team executed a search warrant and took him in for questioning.

The trial is expected to take two weeks. The state has 32 witnesses, 20 of whom are members of the police department.