Trial date postponed for ex-elected official accused of killing Las Vegas journalist

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Las Vegas-area elected official accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him will not go on trial next week.

A Nevada judge on Tuesday postponed Robert Telles’ trial but did not immediately set a new date. Telles, 47, remains jailed without bail and has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. He faces life in prison if he is convicted.

Prosecutors argued in court Tuesday that more time is needed to review key cellphone and computer records for evidence in the September 2022 stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.

Police work was stalled for months by arguments that went to the state Supreme Court about whether accessing German’s cellphone and computer files would expose confidential information that is protected from disclosure under state and federal law.

Those records are now being sifted by Review-Journal representatives.

German, 69, spent more than 40 years as an investigative reporter in Las Vegas. He was found stabbed outside his home months after he wrote articles in 2022 that were critical of Telles and his managerial conduct while Telles, a Democrat, was administrator of estates for Clark County.

Telles has pushed for a speedy trial but also has fired several teams of lawyers and filed dozens of pretrial motions while serving as his own attorney from behind bars. He twice lost bids to remove the judge handling the case.

He’s scheduled to be back in Clark County District Court for a status hearing March 26.