Incident

Las Vegas journalist dies in stabbing outside home

Cause of death

Knife attack

Details

On September 3, 2022, Jeff German, a reporter from Las Vegas Review-Journal who covered politics and corruption, was found dead outside his home in Las Vegas with multiple stab wounds.

According to an autopsy report reviewed in early October by the Review-Journal, German was fatally stabbed on September 2, sustaining seven sharp force injuries, including four to his neck and one that cut his carotid artery.

The journalist had recently covered topics including failures in city inspections before a deadly hotel fire, alleged mismanagement by government officials, and local extremist groups.

On September 7, police arrested Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles on suspicion of murder, according to news reports. In a September 8 statement reviewed by CPJ, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Telles had been charged with murder with a deadly weapon against a victim who is 60 years or older.

Telles lost a re-election bid in June 2022 after German reported on alleged mismanagement in the official’s office. The Review-Journal reported that German had been working on a follow-up story to that report in the weeks before he was killed. Before the attack, Telles had published comments about German’s reporting on his reelection campaign’s website and in a letter to the journalist. He called the allegations against him "false" and said German was trying to drag him “through the mud.”

Telles was indicted for murder by a grand jury on October 20, 2022, and pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have said that DNA found underneath German’s fingernails matched Telles, the Review-Journal reported.

Telles’ trial is scheduled to begin on April 17, 2023.

Read the original article here: https://cpj.org/data/people/jeff-german/