Vegas politician accused of killing reporter had house photos on phone
Monique Merrill
(CN) — Prosecutors continued building their case against Robert Telles, the Las Vegas politician accused of murdering an investigative reporter, on Monday by entering a slew of evidence from the Telles' phone and computer.
On Labor Day weekend in 2022, neighbors found the body of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, who was stabbed to death outside of his home. Prosecutors say Telles is responsible for the murder, but Telles claims he was framed for the crime and entered a not-guilty plea. If convicted, Telles could face up to life in prison.
On the fourth day of the murder trial on Monday, prosecutors turned the court’s attention to digital evidence extracted from the former politician’s phone.
Matthew Hovanec, a commission supervisor of the police department’s digital forensics lab explained that the search of Telles phone had shown the former public administrator searched variations of the term “Jeffrey German Las Vegas” online multiple times on June 21, 2022, less than three months before German was killed.
The digital extraction from Telles’ phone also contained over 130 pictures from Google Maps and Google Street View of the cul de sac where German lived, including several photos of the reporter’s home from various angles. The images had been viewed in August, approximately 20 days before German died.
Also on the phone were over 100 pictures of cars driving along a Las Vegas road, all taken from the same vantage point on Aug. 15, 2022.
Justine Gatus, a homicide detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, characterized the images as "surveillance" and told the court she and her colleagues determined the pictures were taken from a Popeyes restaurant parking lot about a mile and a half away from German’s home.
The prosecution and defense spent questioned Gatus for longer than any other witness. The prosecution asked the detective to read a text exchange between Telles and German in which Telles confronted the reporter about the articles about him. The prosecution then entered clips from Telles' former election website, in which he had posted a response to the articles.
Telles' phone also included pictures of a Dell monitor with search results with addresses and vehicle registrations linked to German. Those photos were taken 10 days before German died. The phone also had series of screenshots of the various articles German had written about Telles and search history for how to bury news search results.
Gatus told the court that the department received multiple tips to investigate Telles after the police released a photo of the suspect.
“I found several articles that Jeffrey German had wrote about Rob Telles, they weren’t flattering,” Gatus said.
In a search of Telles' home, the police found a cut-up sneaker that Gatus said “looked identical” to the pair worn by the suspect. The police also found a cut-up straw hat in the home.
In his questioning of Gatus, Telles’ defense attorney Robert Draskovich asked the detective if Telles name had been brought up by Derek Jappe, a detective with the police department’s Criminal Intelligence Section and Public Corruption Squad.
“So right at the get-go you’d agree with me that we have detective Jappe reaching out to you stating ‘I know an individual that has a motive to murder Jeff German’” Draskovitch asked. Gatus answered affirmatively.
Jappe took the stand on Friday, testifying that he had been involved in two investigations concerning Telles. One of those investigations was brought to him by Telles, and the other one was focused on Telles.
Jappe was present when Telles was detained and questioned five days after German’s body was found, and he also was present at the county public administration office while it was being searched by police. The prosecution, in response to the defense’s line of questioning about his presence, noted that Jappe’s investigation into Telles gave him good reason to be present at the search.
The prosecution also called an undercover surveillance detective and crime scene analyst supervisor to the stand before resting Monday after the cross-examination of Gatus. The defense will start calling witnesses on Tuesday when the trial continues.