Posted on: February 27, 2024, 04:30h.
Last updated on: February 28, 2024, 11:51h.
State prosecutors revealed Tuesday the existence of a previously unknown death threat made against Jeff German, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter infamously murdered outside his home in 2022. The threat was left as a voicemail on German’s phone.
Prosecutors made the revelation during a pretrial hearing Tuesday in their case against Robert Telles. He’s a former Clark County official who has been in custody since three days after German’s murder, for which he was indicted by a grand jury six weeks later.
German, a 69-year-old investigative reporter who wrote several articles critical of alleged improprieties in Telles’ office, was found stabbed to death outside his home on Sept. 3, 2022.
Telles briefly appeared at Tuesday’s hearing, but let his attorney speak on his behalf.
Robert Draskovich told Judge Michelle Leavitt that he and his client had both heard the voicemail, and that he advised Telles to ask for a continuance of the trial so the voicemail could be used as evidence.
“I believe this is exculpatory evidence, obviously,” Draskovitch said.
However, Telles, who represented himself for months before hiring Draskovitch, is still calling the shots. He went against Draskovich’s advice, instructing him not to request the continuance.
The trial is currently still scheduled for March 8.
Mark that start date in pencil, however, because prosecutors said they have yet to investigate the voicemail themselves, which they will need to do before deciding whether to call additional witnesses to trial. And that won’t be possible while the Review-Journal still has German’s phone in its possession.
The newspaper won possession of the seized device after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled last October that the state’s shield law, which protects journalists from revealing their sources, precludes Las Vegas police and prosecutors from searching the phone.
Telles is due back in court for another pretrial hearing on March 6.
