- yesterday
Las Vegas investigative reporter Jeff German was shot and killed execution style in his own driveway in broad daylight in a murder that shocked the town. Security camera footage showed a mysterious person in a big hat running away.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Music
00:24An individual on foot, in a large sun hat,
00:28walks up and he goes to the side of the house.
00:32Jeff Gehrman comes out fairly rapidly.
00:36And it takes about two minutes,
00:38and you can see the bushes rustling
00:40and the person in orange attacking Jeff.
00:44Jeff has had his throat slashed.
00:47He's been stabbed in a total, I think, of 11 times.
00:50His wallet's not taken. His phone is not taken.
00:53There were no signs of forced entry.
00:55Slider locked? Yeah. It is locked.
00:59Every murder is tragic.
01:01But the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.
01:05Jeff Gehrman was the quintessential Las Vegas journalist.
01:10They immediately try to figure out
01:13who might have had an axe to grind with Gehrman.
01:17We are watching, you mother .
01:21He covered all the mobs.
01:23He had done a lot of investigative work on the Proud Boys.
01:27You better fire that son of a .
01:29I saw it as a badge of honor, to be honest.
01:32I'm going down there tomorrow.
01:35What a .
01:41Your wife is in a bar. He said she's going to find it.
01:47This is what he's going to tell me.
01:49I don't have a kid out of that situation.
01:51And I grabbed the gun.
01:52He's trying to find the first place to put a body.
01:54No, sir.
01:55The only thing they could do was kill him.
01:56You want to say anything.
01:57Leave the jury and you can find the defendant.
02:14911 emergency for BL1 at 965.
02:16What is your emergency?
02:18I have a neighbor across the street from me
02:20and he's living in this side yard.
02:23I believe he's dead. He's got blood over.
02:27Control of two round before.
02:29We're making contact with the residents out of them.
02:31We're being cooperative.
02:33Patrol officers arrive after that
02:35and then detectives are there.
02:36ABC 9, 812.
02:38Give me a call when you have a message.
02:40Copy.
02:44Yeah, it definitely looks like trauma to his neck.
02:46Yeah.
02:47This is...
02:48His name is Jeff German.
02:49Okay.
02:50He's the...
02:51He's the R.J.
02:52Reporter.
02:53The victim is identified as Jeff German,
02:57an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal.
03:00Jeff has had his throat slashed.
03:04He's been stabbed a total, I think, of 11 times.
03:07He's obviously dead.
03:08He's been laying there for almost 24 hours.
03:10His wallet's not taken.
03:12His phone is not taken.
03:14They walk through Jeff's house,
03:16and they notice that Jeff's house is perfectly intact.
03:21Clear.
03:22Slider locked?
03:23Yeah.
03:24It is locked.
03:25It doesn't look like any...
03:26Entry was made.
03:27There were no signs of forced entry,
03:29so it doesn't appear that it's a residential burglary.
03:31Pretty soon thereafter, they get video surveillance from the neighbors across the street,
03:46and they actually can see the murder taking place.
03:50And what you see is an individual on foot in a large sun hat with a bright orange construction
03:58shirt with a gray bag and wearing gray shoes,
04:01walks up on the sidewalk,
04:03and he goes to the side of the house, of Jeff's house,
04:07and essentially lets himself into the backyard area.
04:13Maybe a minute and 30 seconds later, the garage door opens,
04:16and Jeff German comes out fairly rapidly out of his house,
04:20exits his garage, makes his way to the side of his house,
04:23and straight to that side yard fence.
04:26He must have heard some noise or disturbance,
04:29and then he's attacked.
04:36And it takes about two minutes,
04:38and you can see the bushes rustling and the person in orange attacking Jeff.
04:46And the only one who arises from this is the attacker in the floppy hat
04:51and the orange construction outfit.
04:53That person then promptly walks away from the side yard,
04:58walks back down the sidewalk, and disappears off frame.
05:03The police collect more video surveillance from other houses.
05:07And what they do is they track that suspect back to a red or a maroon Yukon Denali,
05:14and he gets into that vehicle.
05:18They see the suspect flee in his Yukon Denali and leave the neighborhood,
05:21and then actually make a U-turn,
05:23and then at this point the Yukon Denali pulls up to the front of Jeff's house,
05:26and he gets out, and it looks almost as if he's forgotten something,
05:30and he's rummaging around in the scene.
05:32This is a terrible and jarring homicide,
05:37one that has deeply impacted Las Vegas.
05:41Every murder is tragic,
05:43but the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.
05:49Jeff Gehrman was probably the quintessential Las Vegas journalist.
05:54He had been here for 40 years.
05:57This is Nevada Newsmakers.
06:00As we continue our conversation with Jeff Gehrman,
06:03he's the investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
06:06He's the host of Mobbed Up, the fight for Las Vegas.
06:09They immediately try to figure out who might have had an axe to grind with Gehrman.
06:15He covered all the mob.
06:17He covered all the characters and the politicians who were kowtowing to the mob.
06:23Chicago was the most dominant family then.
06:26They had struck a deal with the New York crime families to basically control Las Vegas.
06:34I mean, over the years, he had done any number of investigative stories.
06:38A lot of investigative work with, like, on the Proud Boys and other sort of extremist groups.
06:44You guys just did some propaganda about just for Biden, you piece of .
06:50And police retrieved threats Gehrman had received on his cell phone months before he was murdered.
06:56We are watching, you mother .
07:01You better fire that son of a .
07:03Gehrman was long aware of the dangers his stories could provoke.
07:07I saw it as a badge of honor, to be honest with you, something like that.
07:11And you guys are dead mother some day, mother .
07:14I'm going down there tomorrow, mother .
07:20Police hoped the surveillance videos would lead them to the killer, despite the disguise and the fact that the plates had been taken off the SUV.
07:29Images of the suspect and images of that maroon Yukon Denali were released by Metro's public information office out to the public.
07:38Once the footage of the suspect and his distinctive walk is shown, and once that vehicle is also shown, they are developing names of possible suspects, one of them being Robert Tellis.
07:51Hello, I'm Rob Tellis, and I'm your Clark County Public Administrator.
07:57Robert Tellis was, at that time, the Clark County Public Administrator, which is an elected office here in Clark County.
08:05In the midst of Tellis' campaign for re-election, Gehrman wrote a series of articles about him, including allegations from his own staff, and a video that appeared to show Tellis having sex in a vehicle with one of his employees.
08:20It talked about the alleged affair, which he denied.
08:25It talked about the turmoil in the office.
08:27It talked about their allegations of abusive behavior by him.
08:32What is your reaction to the allegations from these employees that you have created in a hostile environment in this office?
08:43It's unfortunate that, you know, we've got some people who were here from before who were basically trying to railroad me.
08:53So he was really upset when the story ran. He emailed or he texted Jeff.
08:59Why did you make me out to be a bad guy?
09:05The story was right before the primary.
09:08This is an important race, and I need your help.
09:12I'm Rob Tellis, and I'm running for Clark County Public Administrator. Thank you.
09:17Tellis lost the primary election.
09:19So, when police learn that there is this link between Mr. Gehrman and Mr. Tellis, and when police learn that there are anonymous people coming out of the woodwork saying that looks just like Rob Tellis' walk, and Rob Tellis drives a car just like that.
09:39At that point, the police believe Mr. Tellis was a person of interest.
09:48They look at a map and they determine where does Mr. Tellis live in relation to Mr. Gehrman.
09:53They start to canvass that pathway for video surveillance.
09:57They track that Yukon Denali leaving the first street from Mr. Tellis' house all the way to Mr. Gehrman's neighborhood.
10:08And that Denali drives all the way back to Robert Tellis' house.
10:12I have never in my career seen that much footage tracking a vehicle's movements from start to finish.
10:21And so the next step was they had issued out a search warrant to collect his DNA.
10:27Because one of the things they learned at autopsy is that underneath Jeff Gehrman's fingernails is foreign DNA.
10:36It doesn't belong to Jeff Gehrman, but they didn't have in their database whose DNA it actually belonged to.
10:44A traffic stop was effectuated.
10:47He was detained.
10:49He was taken over to a local police station.
10:52And his DNA was collected at that point.
10:55Because if it's consistent or if it's a match, they're going to arrest him.
11:01I thought, there's just no way.
11:03The guy was an attorney.
11:05He was an elected official with three kids and a wife.
11:09And so it was unfathomable that he would go to Jeff's house and stab him to death in broad daylight.
11:17It just got to be something else.
11:25Las Vegas is a unique town. It's a hot spot.
11:30Seems like Las Vegas is always in the news.
11:33And the murder of an investigative reporter was big news around the country.
11:38Investigative journalist Jeff Gehrman was killed in a stabbing.
11:42What happens in Las Vegas doesn't stay in Las Vegas anymore.
11:44As word spread that a local official, Robert Tellis, was a possible suspect.
11:51Rob Tellis.
11:52Robert Tellis.
11:53Robert Tellis.
11:55And I would have bet my house that Robert Tellis was not capable of murdering anybody.
12:01I had represented him on a domestic battery case against his wife.
12:08A police body cam video of the incident shows Tellis trying to use his position to avoid arrest.
12:15You guys want to take me down because I'm a public official.
12:18No, we don't.
12:20I didn't hit anybody. I didn't touch anybody.
12:23You guys want to take me down because I'm a public official.
12:27That case got dismissed.
12:28And then life went on. I shook his hand.
12:31He said, you're a great lawyer.
12:32And that was it.
12:34But detectives increasingly came to believe Tellis was the killer.
12:38The man in the floppy hat.
12:40Especially after a search of Tellis' home.
12:44In his garage in a gray bag, there was the hat that the perpetrator was wearing.
12:49And the hat had been cut up.
12:50And then underneath the couch in his great room are the shoes that the perpetrator is wearing.
13:00And one of the shoes is intact and the other one is sort of cut in half.
13:04No murder weapon was ever found.
13:06But his phone held some clues.
13:07On the phone there were Google map searches of Gehrman's neighborhood.
13:14There were also screenshots that Tellis had taken where he had searched personal information about Gehrman.
13:24After detectives took his clothes and the DNA sample, Tellis was allowed to go back home.
13:31By the time he got back from the DNA swab and the search, the whole area was flooded with media.
13:38Did you do this? Tell us anything?
13:41Why did police tell away your vehicle?
13:44Do you have a comment?
13:50Detectives had asked the DNA lab to do a rush job.
13:57Probably within an hour of getting that sample,
14:00Robert Tellis' DNA is a match for the DNA underneath Jeff Gehrman's fingernails.
14:14They go to his house to arrest him and he refuses to come out.
14:19Keep media back.
14:21We're going to attempt to call into our subject and have him come out hopefully.
14:26There's sort of a back and forth and eventually it turns into what detectives describe as like a barricade situation.
14:36He was up in his bedroom and he was refusing to come out.
14:44405 is police code for suicide.
14:49We do believe that our target is attempting to 405 break.
14:52I think he believed at that point there wasn't any more purpose in going further with this.
14:59Based on his comments and what we are hearing over the phone,
15:03the major violator detectives are putting together a plan to make an entry into the residence due to the exigency break.
15:09SWAT kind of assembled downstairs in his home and then kind of calmly made their way up once they established visuals on Mr. Tellis using robots and drone footage.
15:22Copy that.
15:23We're making our way up to 88 into the master bedroom.
15:25The plan's already been put out.
15:26Keep eyes on them.
15:27We're moving.
15:28Keep eyes on them.
15:29Copy that.
15:30We have the radio.
15:36The days are ready.
15:40Good?
15:41Bring it tight.
15:43Stand up.
15:44You got any weapons?
15:45Just the other hand.
15:47We've located the subject.
15:48He's in the bathroom.
15:49In the bathtub.
15:50Bleeding.
15:51Slide.
15:53Looks like he's been stabbed a few times.
15:57Mr. Tellis had slit his wrists fairly severely.
16:02He was sitting in a pool of his own blood.
16:04He had suffered a lot of blood loss.
16:05Come on the ground.
16:06Come on the ground.
16:07Here, here, here.
16:08Bring him right here.
16:09Slide.
16:10Hey.
16:11Got that?
16:12Yep, I got it.
16:13I got it.
16:14Just pull him out when we can.
16:15When you can, Levi.
16:16No big.
16:17No rush.
16:18He's got a lot of wounds.
16:19A lot of significant blood loss in the bathtub.
16:21It was all just superficial.
16:22He was bleeding.
16:23But whatever he's got, he's sort of drugged up.
16:25Can we just let medical know that we believe this subject has taken narcotics?
16:30We're going to grab a sheet.
16:31Hey, we're going to have to bring him down.
16:32Grab a sheet.
16:33We'll just roll him that way.
16:34Grab a sheet.
16:35We got a sheet over here.
16:36Hand me up.
16:37The sheet right there.
16:38Okay, guys.
16:39And put it away.
16:40They're going to be coming down with the suspect now.
16:41We'll pass them off to medical.
16:42Okay.
16:43I'll just roll it up on the journey.
16:44So he's had four.
16:45Mark in, and he's a atomizer.
16:47Yes.
16:48He's under arrest, but they're not taking him to jail.
16:51They're getting him to a hospital so that he can get the additional medical care that
17:04he needs.
17:05arrest but they're not taking him to jail they're getting him to a hospital so that he can get the
17:09additional medical care that he needs i'm here to announce the arrest of 45 year old robert tellus
17:20he was booked in the clark county detention center last night on the charge of open murder
17:27it was oh my god i mean unheard of the last time a government official has been accused of murdering
17:34a journalist because of his work was in the 40s in texas good morning good morning mr tellus how are
17:43you good good how are you doing good i'm brian ross tellus agreed to speak with killer cases
17:49and from almost day one he set out to prove that police had arrested the wrong man
17:56that he had been framed
18:05um i've alternated between despair and anger it's hard but i'm again i'm fighting to to prove
18:14my innocence and from behind bars robert tellus began to fashion a novel legal defense theory
18:21he was never interested in negotiating the case because he's always maintained he had absolutely
18:24nothing to do with it you would agree that picture of the person in the hat and the vest that is the
18:30killer yes sir and is that you i have no reason to doubt that is that you no that is not me no sir
18:40tellus maintained that the person in the floppy hat was a hitman hired by a local real estate company
18:46he was at odds with why would they kill the reporter if they wanted to stop you why wouldn't they kill
18:51you at the time i was actually working on three different types of investigations against this real
18:57estate firm if i was killed then then it wouldn't stop the investigations into them it was clear that you
19:04you know that if mr was murdered that that people would look at me immediately is there any any proof
19:11any proof of that that that person exists a so-called hitman
19:16so yeah i don't have full evidence for it and that's not for lack of wanting to uh develop that
19:21evidence it's just the system will not allow me to hitmen don't wear big sloppy hats they don't
19:27commit these murders in broad daylight they don't take the time to park on a side street and leave
19:33and then come back and pull right up to the house other things that don't make sense is then how did the
19:41hitmen how did they get uh the hat inside his house how did they get the shoes inside of his house
19:49how they were found in my home i don't know because those were what i didn't know you didn't put them
19:53there are you saying somebody came into your house and planted them there i don't know i don't know if
20:00i don't know what point those things were planted but somebody did plant them you know whether they're
20:05planted by the police for their plan to prepare i don't know he um came upon the idea of the
20:11conspiracy theory right after his arrest i think that was going to be his out or his way of explaining
20:20things um or explaining the inexplicable how do you explain the fact that your dna was found under his
20:28fingernails again i i dispute the fact that it was ever found under his nails how else would your dna be
20:36there again planted and so planted by who who would plant that that again you know i don't know i don't
20:47know what point it was planted you would certainly think that there would have to be some type of sign
20:51on me right uh there were no scratches anywhere in my body mr german could have scratched the killer
21:00but he certainly could not have scratched me at any point um because i wasn't the killer
21:05i think mr tellis is just failing to understand how easily uh skin cells can get underneath your
21:11fingernails you can scratch someone and get epithelial cells underneath your fingernails without
21:18leaving bloody scratch marks on a body so the argument really doesn't hold a lot of weight just so
21:24i'm clear that you're saying that was not you driving that car that was not you in the vest and the hat
21:28even though the the car is very similar to yours and the shoes and the hat were found in your home
21:35you're still saying that's not you that's right that's hard to believe isn't it yeah there's a lot
21:43about this story that's hard to believe you're trying to figure out does he really believe what
21:49he's saying or has he actually convinced himself that he had nothing to do with this and tellis's
21:54conspiracy theory also included employees who worked for him at the public administrator's office
22:00who made that video of him and a female staff member and then gave it to the reporter jeff garaman
22:05i was shocked uh yeah with the that my employees would go to those lines especially since i wasn't
22:16a bad boss in the workplace there was no reason to follow me around i think he was embarrassed
22:24by having that personal detail splashed all over the headlines of the review journal
22:29that embarrassed him did you hate him i didn't know the man to hate him you know i think to hate
22:38someone you have to know them but certainly to hate someone to to desire to murder someone no definitely
22:47not not in that respect whatsoever i think jeff garaman was planning on writing a fifth article
22:54in late july robert tellis is informed by clark county that jeff garaman has made a public records request
23:04about specific communications between um robert tellis and the woman that he had been having an
23:11affair with in the office and that's when he does all these sort of amateur surveillance things of
23:20gehrman's neighborhood in gehrman's house there appear to be over 130 images the phone evidence
23:27indicates he is surveilling planning and premeditating this murder robert tellis had had enough and he
23:35went over to the house and he murdered jeff garaman leading up to the trial tellis had a hard time
23:43finding lawyers in las vegas willing to work with him on his defense theory
23:50i don't prefer to represent myself you understand that it's almost always more wise to be represented
23:57by counsel especially when you're being charged with first review order and facing life without
24:03the possibility of parole right he's someone who was pretty convinced that he was smarter than
24:11everybody else and if he got in front of the jury he'd be able to explain his way out of this
24:26we are going to take you out to las vegas for a new trial against politician robert tellis
24:31he's accused of killing investigative journalist jeff gehrman
24:35by the time of the trial tellis had actually found lawyers who were willing to take on his case
24:43and deal with his conspiracy theories it is a difficult story to sell obviously he's entitled
24:51his opinion it's his trial at this time the state nevada may address the jury panel and their opening
24:58statement thank you your honor prosecutor pam weckerly began with crime scene photos
25:04to tell the jury what happened to the reporter jeff gehrman mr gehrman had sharp force injuries
25:13to multiple parts of his body all over and then she showed the surveillance video of the man in the
25:21floppy hat a lot of calls come in and some of the calls they get are about an individual by the name of
25:28robert tellis the defendant and then the key piece of evidence for the prosecution the dna found under
25:36gehrman's fingernails that foreign dna that was found in those fingernail clippings uh taken from
25:42autopsy of jeff gehrman that foreign dna is consistent with robert tellis
25:49but prosecutors also knew they had to deal with tellis likely taking the stand and laying out his
25:55conspiracy theories as prosecutors were always concerned that there's going to be one juror who
26:03is confused by something in the end um this case isn't about politics it's just about murder and at
26:14the end of the presentation of the evidence we'll ask you to hold him responsible for his conduct
26:27thank you
26:29the state has shown you will show you many more pictures of the dna
26:33that's claimed to have been found under jeff gehrman's nails
26:38what's very important and we'd ask you to take into account all of the evidence or the lack of the
26:45evidence in this case is that no blood whatsoever is found on mr tellis
26:55these articles were not a motive for a murder he made a lot of far more able people far more violent
27:04people upset with him he often had people threatening him you better fire that son of a
27:12i'm coming down there tomorrow the defense can't prove if any of those gentlemen did this we're not
27:19saying they did we don't know but there's a bigger picture and at the close of this case we are going
27:25to ask you to return a verdict of not guilty thank you please state and spell your first and last name
27:37for the record prosecutors introduced a series of detectives and crime scene forensic specialists
27:43to make their case the evidence that we collected it was incredibly thorough from the video evidence
27:49to the phone evidence the physical evidence the dna evidence i mean it was absolutely overwhelming
27:55but unlike many murder cases prosecutors purposely did not spend much time trying to gain sympathy for
28:01the victim the reporter jeff gehrman we were concerned that um maybe prospective jurors would
28:07have something against reporters um you know would they hold that against uh us having a victim like that
28:14please state and spell if your person lost name for the record my name is roberta lee kennett roberta lee kennett
28:25was the woman who had an affair with tell us seen in the video published by jeff gehrman she was
28:32significant for a couple of reasons he made it abundantly clear to her that he hated jeff gehrman did he ever
28:39tell you he hated him yes i assume that was after the story was written yes the other portion of
28:47her testimony that was significant um were the communications regarding the yukon denali you send
28:55a message rob wtf please do not be driving your yukon around for a while correct what what had you seen
29:03that made you send that message to you uh i think what everyone else saw that yukon um in the photos
29:10okay and then and then i'm freaking out rob then are you starting to get nervous yeah i'm starting to
29:17suspect and then you say um after your car is identical okay yeah
29:24you're going to call mr tellis the defense calls mr robert tellis
29:43please raise your right hand he testified in a fairly rare and unconventional way
29:54how it was by a narrative so please tell us begin with your story sure thank you sir and so
30:04first of all uh and excuse me i'm obviously a little nervous this is uh
30:09today i've been waiting for for nearly two years you know this thing has been kind of a nightmare
30:14frankly um and again i want to thank you for being here and uh and right now i want to say unequivocally
30:22i'm innocent i didn't kill mr german you know somebody framed me for this and and i believe
30:29that it's compass realty and i believe that it's for the work that i've done against them
30:34prosecutors say there was never any evidence of compass realty's alleged involvement in the crime
30:40and i lost the primary you know it was uh it was a bummer i mean that sorry i don't know what you
30:46know it was unfortunate but i continued to fight against compass realty and i think that that's
30:52something that they didn't expect it's this really winding um meandering story that is involving like a
31:02real estate company and metro police and and it doesn't really ever account for any of the evidence in
31:09the case so i've never beat anybody up i've never killed anybody
31:21i didn't you i didn't kill mr governor
31:30and that's my testimony
31:40when's the last high profile murder case you remember where the defendant voluntarily gets on
31:46the stand and opens himself up to cross examination to tell his side of the story
31:52you believe this was a professional hit and that's what i believe okay the assassin
31:59seems to be wearing a giant sun hat um it's a pretty big hat right yes sir fairly noticeable right
32:09yes sir you you believe that professional assassins want to draw attention to themselves when they're
32:14tearing out murder when they're framing someone yes sir so the answer to my question is yes you
32:19believe professional assassins like to draw attention it depends on what the nature of their goal is and
32:24if it's to frame someone yes sir professional killer killed someone in broad daylight made it a point to
32:31park on a completely different street but then for some reason said oops i forgot something and drove all
32:35the way back my belief is that he wanted to make sure to commit the crime and then when he was done
32:41he wanted to make sure the suv was seen in front of the house do you believe that was all part of
32:45the plan i do it wasn't it wasn't me he was terrible when talking about dna he couldn't even bring
32:53himself to say it was planted you're not disputing that your dna is underneath mr german's fingernails
33:00are you yes i am but you've heard the testimony it's there correct i don't know if it was there or
33:06at what point it might have gotten there sir okay i'm not asking you how it got there are you really
33:11denying that your dna is underneath the fingernails without knowing the truth yes i am so you oh the
33:17dna labs in on it too i don't know i don't know at what point i don't know what point this sample
33:23is collected sir please tell the jury how in the world does your dna get underneath mr german's fingernails
33:31i don't know because i did not kill mr german maybe the one good answer he gave on the stand was
33:39acknowledging that there was an affair uh when you sat down when you spoke with him were you truthful
33:45in your interview no entirely no okay what were you untruthful about about the extent of the
33:51relationship with me and roberta lee cannon okay what was different what did you say versus the truth
33:56um i said that you know she and i had no affair um but you know regrettably we we did have uh
34:07you know and i say regrettably i think we both regret the mistake but we both
34:11we had a romantic affair with each other fair to say in your opinion
34:15jeff german hadn't written these articles you probably end up winning that primary uh probably yes
34:22yes the election's over you're on your way out and now this guy is wanting to ask more questions
34:29about you and roberto right yeah he's not leaving it alone is he i think he's still fishing sir i got
34:38a question for you the las vegas metropolitan police department wanted to frame you
34:44why did they put the murder weapon in your house i think that maybe i don't know i mean it's a good
34:51question i don't think he liked me very much and i don't think he likes being held to task and he
34:58threw a lot of really big accusations out to a lot of people a lot of hard-working people and he deserved
35:04to be questioned about it and if they hated you so much why didn't they just kill you that's a really
35:10good question and i would like to answer it my belief as to why they please tell me why they didn't
35:15just bother killing you because if they'd killed me would that have stopped nevatar state division
35:19from investigating them no if they killed me would anybody have felt the duty to continue my work
35:25because i was actually doing this i think so so your theory is that jeff german is collateral damage
35:33you know when you've taken into account the fact that once earlier we had this public feud it's a
35:37pretty convenient way to do this so the guy who writes the articles that ends your career
35:43they reward him by killing him well again like i said it was a pretty a pretty good way to do this
35:50but at the end of the day you're just the victim in this whole thing is that correct yes thank you no
35:57the state may open and close the arguments
36:14what do we know about mr tellis's actions prior to the murder well we know back in august when he
36:20got notification that another story was likely coming he kind of goes into research mode on mr
36:27german all of that demonstrates deliberation the length of time of the actual attack itself is sort
36:35of a shorter version demonstrating a course of action to kill right in the course of two minutes you
36:41you are stabbing someone multiple times you could change your mind but he doesn't do that
36:46at the end of his testimony i think yesterday um mr tellis uh explained that um you know he's really
36:55a victim in this you know he he's been victimized by the whole process he was wronged by dna analysts
37:03at metro who found his dna on the fingernails of mr german and then of course he was obviously
37:12wronged by mr german's you in the articles he wrote or maybe maybe it's not that he was wronged
37:22maybe he's the one in the wrong
37:30thank you
37:33there was no blood or dna evidence concerning mr german
37:37in mr tellis's home enter on his vehicles enter on his clothing none of that would implicate mr tellis
37:48again is that indication of sudden wide-ranging conspiracy and i'm not going to stand before you
37:53today and necessarily argue that there was but what that shows is that metro makes mistakes
37:59and i'm going to ask you with your open minds and your attentiveness to address those concerns
38:08and at the close of this process you find mr tellis not guilty
38:14we didn't have a 20-minute verdict in this case i mean they they deliberated for three days they had
38:28multiple questions you think like oh gosh this is so clear why is this taking so long
38:36the jury reached a verdict
38:43with a jury in the above entitled case by the defendant robert tellis as follows
38:48murder with use of a deadly weapon victim 60 years of age or older
38:51murder when you heard the word guilty what did you think
39:09yeah i honestly just said they got it wrong it's out of my hands and it's in god's hands and he and
39:14that there is going to be a point which if not now soon enough i will prove my innocence
39:23ladies and gentlemen as you know pursuant to your verdict we will now go into the penalty phase of the
39:29trial let me give you a little insight to the man behind the byline of jeffrey m german
39:36to everyone else jeffrey m german with a dedicated and respected journalist
39:41to be my family he was our big brother jeff and our children's loving uncle
39:50he's so deeply news every day
40:03we've been married almost 14 years robert really was robert really is a great father and he's a good
40:10husband and i would love at some point to
40:19give my children the chance to have their father back
40:32we the jury in that above entitled case having found the defendant robert tellis guilty of murder
40:37of the first degree with use of a deadly weapon victim 60 years of age or older impose a sentence
40:42of life in the nevada department of corrections with eligibility for parole beginning when a minimum
40:47of 20 years has served
40:51that was a good turn for mr mr tellis he could have easily been given a sentence of life without the
40:57possibility of parole he did good in the community i think they think they ultimately came to the fact of
41:04hey let's give this guy a shot sometime down the road before the judge officially imposed the jury's
41:10sentence tellis had one last chance to speak first of all i want to say that the family has my deepest
41:17condolences you know but no and i understand the the desire to to seek justice and have somebody accountable
41:28for this but i do not tell mr burro and unfortunately the people who should be held responsible who should
41:35be brought to justice the chances of it happening now right this minute are slim to not
41:43but that said again my deepest sympathies to the family and i wish them well as they navigate the rest of this
41:53uh this tragedy and then the judge added eight more years to his minimum 20-year sentence before he
42:02would be eligible for parole being labeled as a murderer or the murderer of german is worse than any
42:09sentence that we could impose on him because he um cares so much about how he's perceived by other people
42:19it's just kind of fundamentally a narcissist i think he thought he could get away with this and now he's
42:26going to go to prison for a very long time if not for the rest of his life and more importantly it it
42:32sends a message that you can't go out and kill a journalist for his work he was on the job 24 7 and he
42:41understood the importance of investigative reporting and he did it to his dying day
Recommended
42:50
|
Up next
42:56
45:31
41:31
41:31
43:04
41:33
41:31
41:31