Advocates hope Telles conviction deters more violence against journalists

In a Las Vegas courtroom this week, Robert Telles was found guilty by a jury of his peers for the murder of Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German. Media experts say the verdict cements important, upsetting truths about freedom of the press across the United States.

“I hope this guilty verdict helped send a message that violence of any kind against journalists has no place in American life,” said Caroline Hendrie, executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists.

“That said, one look at the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker database makes very clear the risks that journalists run for pursuing the truth and reporting it,” Hendrie continued.

The database tracks incidents of threats against the safety of journalists and the freedom of the press, drawing on open source information.

So far in 2024, the database has recorded 60 incidents of assault against journalists and 20 incidents of equipment damage.

“All we need to do is look abroad to see how entrenched violence against journalists can become,” Hendrie said. “It’s incumbent on all of us to strongly condemn this and not write it off as just a one-off.”

Inside the courtroom

After the jury delivered its verdict that Telles was guilty of first-degree murder, Christopher Hamner, chief deputy district attorney, urged the panel to sentence Telles to life in prison.

“What happened here is literally a journalist wrote a story, or series of stories, and lost their life over it, because someone … just did not like the consequences of the writing,” Hamner told jurors. “That’s a pretty serious thing that doesn’t happen very often, and it should be considered.”

German wrote four stories on the turmoil inside the Clark County public administrator’s office and allegations from employees about bullying and favoritism involving Telles. He was working on another potential story about the office when he was found dead on Sept. 3, 2022. Telles lost re-election a month after German first reported on him.

Throughout the trial, Telles’ defense pushed back on the idea that the articles German wrote about the official were a compelling motive for murder.

“We all know killing a journalist does not kill a story,” said Robert Draskovich, Telles’ defense attorney.

Katherine Jacobsen, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ program coordinator for the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, said she found this argument “to be rather offensive.”

“That seems to be the motivation that was proven in the trial, ultimately that Telles was setting out to kill the story,” Jacobsen said.

German’s death is the first time that a sitting politician in the U.S. has been directly responsible for the killing of a reporter since the Committee to Protect Journalists began collecting data in 1992, Jacobsen explained.

“That’s a pretty big deal, put very simply,” she said. “To think that a politician, an elected official, could act with such inpunity is very concerning.”

Hendrie explained that killings of journalists meant to silence them are comparatively rare in the U.S.

“But the past is not necessarily a guarantee that we won’t see more of it,” she said. “The killing of one reporter in these kind of depraved circumstances is one too many.”

A danger close to home

Jacobsen said the killing of a local reporter is a scenario that the Committee to Protect Journalists, as a global organization, sees worldwide.

“Local reporters are under-resourced and are existing in their own communities,” Jacobsen said.

While national-level journalists may cover a story and then retreat to their own communities, local reporters don’t have this option, she explained.

“Telles figured out where Jeff lived very easily,” Jacobsen said.

German was stabbed to death outside of his home.

Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, said Telles’ attack on German also can be seen as an attack on journalists everywhere and the public’s right to know information that pertains to them.

“It’s not just a personal vendetta,” Brown said. “It’s really about trying to keep secret the public’s business, to keep secret the kind of information that Jeff was so good at bringing to light.”

Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinsonreports on Instagram.