In his first words to a jury, a former Las Vegas-area Democratic elected official declared Wednesday that he didn’t kill an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him and his workplace conduct. Then he promised to tell them his story.
“This is the day I’ve been waiting for,” Robert Telles said after his attorney received permission from the trial judge to let Telles testify “by way of narration” instead of a standard question-and-answer format.
The attorney, Robert Draskovich, then sat down. He had strongly advised his client not to take the stand and risk questioning under oath from two prosecutors who rested their murder case Monday after four days, 28 witnesses and hundreds of pages of photos, police reports and video evidence that weigh heavily against Telles.
Telles could face life in prison if he is convicted.
“Unequivocally I’m innocent,” Telles said, speaking softly and turning in the witness box to face 12 jurors and two alternates who each leaned forward to face him.
Some held notebooks, pens poised. The hushed courtroom was packed with media and spectators, including several members of slain reporter Jeff German’s family.
“I didn’t kill Mr. German,” Telles said. “When I share an opinion with you, that’s my right. And it’s your right to decide whether or not you agree with my opinion or not, whether you want to doubt my opinion or not. I’m just hoping that I’m not stopped from sharing with you what I have to say.”
So began the first 90 minutes of Telles’ testimony. Within 30 minutes — after starts and stops and fumbled impromptu directions to court staff to show photos and documents — some jurors were glancing around the courtroom. Some notebooks were down. One man twirled his pen between his fingers.
Within an hour, Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt was admonishing Telles to stop talking until she ruled on prosecutors’ objections to his testimony, and told him his “opinions are not relevant at this time.”
Telles did not appear to understand. Defense attorneys can only present opinions and interpretations about evidence during closing arguments.
“So again, I’m going to ask you to limit your testimony to facts and observations that you made,” the judge said.
The day ended at 5 p.m. Telles is due to return to the witness stand Thursday to finish his story and then face the cross-examination he has been warned about. Draskovich has said he expects Telles will be the last defense witness.
“I’ve been sitting in a cell for almost two years,” Telles told jurors, adding more than once that he was “very nervous.”
Telles, 47, was an attorney who practiced civil law and served as the county’s administrator of unclaimed estates before losing his job.
His law license was suspended following his arrest several days after German was slashed and stabbed to death outside his home on Sept. 2, 2022. No family members have been called as character witnesses on his behalf.
German, 69, spent 44 years covering Las Vegas mobsters and public officials at the Las Vegas Sun and the Review-Journal.
About 10 of his family members and friends have attended the trial. They have declined to speak to the media.
Telles has said previously he didn’t kill German but never accounted for what he was doing that day. He has said he was framed for the crime and victimized by a political and social “old guard” real estate network for trying to fight corruption that he saw in his office.
On Wednesday, an athletic club manager testified that records showed Telles’ membership was used to check in at a Las Vegas location just after noon the day German was killed. But he also said video of guests arriving and departing at that time was no longer available.
Earlier, a cellphone data expert testifying in Telles’ defense conceded during questioning by a prosecutor that Telles’ phone showed no outgoing activity from 8:48 a.m. to 2:05 p.m. that day — a period in which evidence has shown German was killed.
Police and prosecutors have said they think Telles left his phone at home.
They allege Telles killed German because German authored articles for the Las Vegas Review-Journal about a county office in turmoil under Telles’ leadership, including allegations that Telles had an inappropriate relationship with a female coworker.
Evidence has shown that Telles’ DNA was found beneath German’s fingernails and that Telles had family ties to a maroon SUV seen in German’s neighborhood about the time German was killed.
Police found on Telles’ cellphone and computer hundreds of photos of German’s home and several pages of German’s identity records, including time stamps showing they’d been collected just weeks before the killing.
At Telles’ house, police found cut-up pieces of a broad straw hat and a gray athletic shoe that looked like those worn by a person captured on neighborhood security video wearing an oversized orange long-sleeve shirt, carrying a big cloth satchel and slipping into a side yard of German’s home before the reporter was ambushed and left dead in a pool of blood.