Former politician pleads not guilty to killing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter

Telles, 45, is accused of murdering German, 69, a longtime investigative journalist, outside his home on Sept. 2. He is charged with murder with a weapon of a victim 60 years or older. If convicted, he could serve life in prison without parole.

ACCLAIMED LAS VEGAS REPORTER STABBED TO DEATH OUTSIDE LAS VEGAS HOME

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said prosecutors concluded that there were no qualifying aggravating factors to make Telles’s trial a capital case, per CBS News.

In September, prosecutors argued that Telles was “lying in wait” for German, who was stabbed seven times. Evidence proving Telles’s guilt is overwhelming, prosecutors stated, including his DNA under German’s fingernails and a vehicle that resembles Telles’s in the area.

Before his death, German wrote several investigative articles on Telles that gained widespread public attention, which may have contributed to Telles’s loss in his reelection bid.

A group of journalists at the publication where German worked concluded Telles could be a suspect after it found angry Twitter posts directed at German from Telles and used Google Maps to find a red or maroon GMC Yukon Denali that matched the car in Telles’s driveway.

However, attorneys for the police said that the criminal investigation cannot be complete until authorities are able to review German’s records on his cellphone and electronic devices, including confidential sources and notes.

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The matter is before the state Supreme Court, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal is fighting against the information’s release. The news organization is citing Nevada’s “news shield law,” one of the strictest laws in the United States, as well as the First Amendment and Privacy Protection Act.

Telles’s next court date is Nov. 2 before Clark County District Court Judge Mark Denton.