(CNN) Former Nevada politician Robert Tellez, who is accused of murdering a Las Vegas investigative journalist last weekend, took the stand to claim he was framed in a vast conspiracy.
He claims that real estate company Compass Realty, his office colleagues, Las Vegas police, a DNA lab and prosecutors conspired to hire an assassin to kill reporter Jeff German on Sept. 2, 2022, and then fabricated evidence to make him appear guilty.
But in the prosecution's rebuttal on Monday, Christopher Hamner ridiculed the conspiracy, telling jurors in no uncertain terms that it “doesn't make sense.”
“This case gives us a glimpse into what's going on in his mind, it shows how important Mr. Telles thinks he is, that each and every one of these people, these organizations, were willing to literally kill someone who wasn't him just to pin a crime on Mr. Telles,” Hamner said. “Does that make sense? And more importantly, where is the evidence to back it up?”
Even Mr. Telles' lawyer, Robert Draskovich, while sympathetic to his client's thinking, did not fully endorse Mr. Telles' theory of a conspiracy.
“I understand why he believes in this far-reaching conspiracy,” Draskovich said in his closing argument. “What other options does he have under these circumstances?”
After rebuttal, the jury was dispatched to begin deliberations.
The closing arguments and rebuttal came just weeks after the murder trial of Telles, a 47-year-old former Clark County Executive, began. Telles has pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder with a deadly weapon in the stabbing death of German, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Clark County trial comes nearly two years after the murder, which has raised concerns about violence against journalists in the U.S., where 14 journalists have been killed since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mr. Jarman, 69, wrote about the underbelly of “Sin City,” covering gangsters, corrupt officials and corrupt government agencies during his ink-stained career, but prosecutors said it was his reporting on Mr. Tellus and his little-known office that led to the murder.
Before his death, German had written about alleged misconduct at the Clark County Executive's Office, reporting that Telles had created a hostile work environment and engaged in inappropriate relationships with employees.
The reporter was found dead with multiple stab wounds outside his home on Sept. 2, 2022. The Review-Journal said the reporter had been working on a story about Tellez the week he was killed.
What happened at the trial and final hearing?
Prosecutors have alleged over the past two weeks that Telles killed German because he was upset over a story he wrote exposing chaos in his political office, which they say cost Telles his reelection bid in the June 2022 Democratic primary.
A few months later, while Jarman was working on another story about him, Telles disguised himself, hid outside Jarman's home and stabbed him to death, prosecutors said.
The prosecution called about two dozen witnesses to the stand and used video and physical evidence to link Telles to the suspect, including his disguise, a maroon vehicle at the scene and DNA found under Jarman's fingernails.
The large sun hat and grey Nike sneakers used as a disguise were found chopped up at Telles' home, prosecutors said. Investigators also searched Telles' phone and found a Google Maps image of German's home.
During closing arguments Monday, Chief District Attorney Pamela Weckerly again summarized the evidence and presented passages in which Telles criticized Gelman's article.
“He was obviously very upset that these articles were written and that he lost the primary as a result,” Weckerly said.
The defense argued that Mr Telles was framed for the deaths because he was trying to make changes to his political job that would anger the “old establishment”. Testifying in his own defence during the trial, Mr Telles denied any wrongdoing, saying his real estate company had killed the journalist and hired assassins to frame him.
“I never hit or killed anyone. I did not kill Mr. German. That is my testimony,” Telles said.
During the defense's closing arguments Monday, Draskovich argued that the state hasn't proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors didn't find German's blood or DNA in Telles' home, car or clothing, and investigators never found the murder weapon or the bright orange vest worn by the suspect, Draskovich argued.
In his rebuttal, Hamner scathingly criticized Teles' conspiracy theory, saying it made no sense that so many people would agree to murder a journalist in order to pin a crime on a lame-duck politician.
Hamner reluctantly acknowledged that Telles' murder plan was “thoughtful” and “premeditated,” but described it as completely amateurish, and argued that Telles had the motive and the means to kill Gelman, who was in the process of writing another article about him.
“He killed him because Jeff's writing had destroyed his career, damaged his reputation, possibly threatened his marriage, and exposed things that even he himself admitted he did not want public knowledge about,” he said. “Jeff hadn't finished writing it, so he did it.”
CNN Wire
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