A man has been detained on suspicion of murdering a journalist in the US gambling city of Las Vegas, authorities said Wednesday. According to local media, the suspect is a politician who had been the subject of the murdered journalist’s investigative stories.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal said that reporter Jeff German has been investigating claims of impropriety against Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles.
Media outlets in his home country indicate that German, 69, was stabbed many times before his body was discovered on Saturday morning.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department issued a brief statement saying, “The suspect in the homicide that happened on September 2, 2022, has been brought into custody.”
The suspect was not identified, and no other information was provided, in the statement.
However, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo was quoted by the Review-Journal as identifying Telles, 45, as the guy in custody. Based on his booking information, Telles was being held for questioning in a murder case, according to the Clark County jail records.
On Wednesday morning, local news station KTNV reported that police had raided the official’s residence.
Images of a man in a wide straw hat and a long orange shirt, as well as a maroon vehicle police believe is connected to the murder, were provided by authorities.
According to German’s journal, German had been covering Telles’ alleged mismanagement of the local public administrator’s office for a number of months.
The articles discussed allegations of bullying, favoritism, and other misconduct by Telles at a local government office that deals with the assets of people who die intestate.
“The arrest of Robert Telles is at once a huge relief and an outrage for the Review-Journal staff,” the newspaper’s executive editor Glenn Cook was quoted as saying.
Our colleague looks to have been murdered for reporting on an elected official, and we are both relieved and angry that Telles has been apprehended.
According to the Review-Journal, German recently submitted a public records request for correspondence between Telles and three other county officials.
Jail records in Clark County revealed that Telles’ next court date is Thursday at 3:00 pm.