Monique Merrill
(CN) — Prosecutors on Monday expanded their case against Robert Telles, the Las Vegas politician accused of murdering an investigative reporter, by presenting a trove of evidence from Telles’ phone and computer.
On Labor Day weekend 2022, neighbors found the body of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, stabbed to death outside his home. Prosecutors say Telles is responsible for the murder, but Telles himself claims he was framed for the crime and pleaded not guilty. If convicted, Telles could face 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 chief in the police department’s digital forensics lab, said a search of Telle’s phone revealed that the former public administrator had searched online for variations of the term “Jeffrey German Las Vegas” multiple times on June 21, 2022, less than three months before German’s murder.
The digital dump from Telles’ phone also included over 130 Google Maps and Google Street View images of the cul-de-sac where German lived, including several photos of the reporter’s home from different angles. The images had been viewed in August, about 20 days before German’s death.
The phone also contained over 100 images of cars driving on a Las Vegas street, all taken from the same vantage point on August 15, 2022.
Justine Gatus, a homicide detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, called the images “surveillance footage” and told the court that she and her colleagues determined the images were taken in the parking lot of a Popeyes restaurant about a mile from German’s home.
The prosecution and defense questioned Gatus longer than any other witness. The prosecution asked the investigator to read a text exchange between Telles and German in which Telles confronted the reporter about the articles about him. The prosecution then presented clippings from Telles’ former election website in which he had posted a response to the articles.
Also on Telles’ phone were images of a Dell monitor with search results containing addresses and license plates associated with German. These photos were taken 10 days before German’s death. Also on the phone were a number of screenshots of the various articles German had written about Telles, as well as a search history that revealed how to hide news search results.
Gatus told the court that the department received several tips to investigate Telles after police released a photo of the suspect.
“I found several articles that Jeffrey German had written about Rob Telles, and they were not flattering,” Gatus said.
While searching Telles’ home, police found a cut-up sneaker that Gatus said “looked identical” to the one the suspect was wearing. Police also found a cut-up straw hat in the home.
In questioning Gatus, Telles’ defense attorney Robert Draskovich asked the detective whether Telles’ name had been mentioned by Derek Jappe, a detective in the Criminal Investigation Division and the Police Department’s Public Corruption Investigation Unit.
“So you would agree with me right from the start that Detective Jappe would come to you and say, ‘I know someone who has a motive to murder Jeff German,'” Draskovitch asked. Gatus said yes.
Jappe testified on Friday that he was involved in two investigations into Telles, one of which was referred to him by Telles, and the other was directed at Telles.
Jappe was present when Telles was arrested and questioned five days after German’s body was found, and he was also present during the search of the district office. The prosecution responded to defense questions about his presence by saying that Jappe had good reason to be present during the search because of his investigation of Telles.
Prosecutors also called an undercover investigator and a crime scene analysis supervisor to the stand before concluding their testimony Monday after cross-examining Gatus. The defense will begin calling witnesses Tuesday when the trial resumes.
