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Inside the arrest of Nevada public official Robert Telles
After Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was found stabbed to death outside his home, police quickly zeroed in on Robert Telles – the subject of a series of articles German had written.
Take a look at the events leading to Telles’ arrest.
Jeff German’s murder
© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc./Kevin Cannon
On Sept. 3, 2022, Jeff German’s body was found outside his home by a concerned neighbor.
The neighbor immediately called 911, but it was too late. German had already been dead for approximately 24 hours, according to authorities. He had suffered seven stab wounds to the neck and chest.
Surveillance video captures the attack
Clark County District Court
As the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department began its investigation, it discovered surveillance video from across the street that captured the attack. The video showed the alleged assailant walking into German’s side yard and hiding behind the gate. Moments later, according to police, German opened his garage door, walked to the side of his house, and was ambushed by the assailant.
Who wanted Jeff German dead?
© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc/Kevin Cannon
German’s colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal were eager to get to the bottom of who killed him. And when they looked at who to consider, Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles quickly came to mind.
Telles had been the subject of German’s recent reporting. After four employees at the Clark County Public Administrator’s Office reached out to German with their claims of a toxic workplace under Telles, German took on their story. After his investigation, German wrote a series of articles about Telles’ alleged “bullying” and “hostility” in his office. Telles would later lose his bid for re-election in the primary.
Robert Telles’ tweets
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In response to German’s reporting, Telles posted a series of tweets.
Robert Telles’ prior arrest
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
As the Review-Journal reporters began digging into Telles’ past, they learned that he had been arrested in March 2020, while he was the public administrator, for domestic battery and resisting arrest.
He was caught on police body camera video slurring his words and yelling, “You just want to take me down because I’m a public official.”
He received a suspended 90-day sentence on the resisting charge and was ordered to attend a corrective thinking class. The battery charge was dismissed.
Photo of the suspect revealed
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
On Sept. 4, 2022 – two days after German’s murder – authorities released this surveillance photo of the suspect walking in German’s neighborhood wearing an orange reflective shirt and a large straw sun hat. Police urged the public to contact the LVMPD Homicide Section for any identifying tips.
The identical gait?
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc./Kevin Cannon
Two days later, on Sept. 6, 2022, police released surveillance video of the suspect. Review-Journal photographer Kevin Cannon said he was immediately reminded of a walking shot he had taken of Telles when German interviewed him at his office.
“It was definitely the identical gait in my mind,” Cannon told “48 Hours.”
Photo of suspect’s car released
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Then, police released this photo of the suspect’s car – a maroon Yukon Denali.
Investigators quickly began to receive tips that Telles also had a car that looked like this, which was registered to his wife. Later that day, German’s colleagues at the Review-Journal went to Telles’ home.
Robert Telles is photographed washing his car
© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc./Benjamin Hager
When Review-Journal staffers got to Telles’ home, they witnessed Telles walk out to his driveway where a maroon Yukon Denali was parked and began washing it. One of the Review-Journal photographers crouched behind his steering wheel and captured this photo.
Robert Telles brought in for questioning
© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc./Benjamin Hager
In the early morning of Sept. 7, 2022 – just five days after German’s murder – Telles was brought in for questioning as police searched his home and cars.
They also collected a DNA sample from Telles and took the jeans he was wearing into evidence. He was then brought back to his home wearing this white paper suit.
Evidence in Robert Telles’ home
Clark County District Court
A gym shoe and duffle bag were collected from Telles’ home. According to investigators, the items resembled what was seen in the surveillance video of the suspect.
Sun hat found in Robert Telles’ garage
Clark County District Court
Investigators also searched Telles’ garage and found pieces of a cut-up sun hat that was similar to the straw sun hat the suspect was seen wearing.
Robert Telles’ DNA found under Jeff German’s fingernails
© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc./Kevin Cannon
Police said the most crucial piece of evidence came from the DNA sample that was taken from Telles earlier that day.
Authorities said they received positive DNA results that showed Telles’ DNA was found under German’s fingernails.
Police go in for the arrest
KLAS-TV
With a DNA match apparently secured, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police descended on Telles’ home once again and began clearing the area for an arrest. However, Telles refused to leave his home.
Robert Telles taken into custody
© Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc./Kevin Cannon
According to police radio communication, Telles had made some “405 comments” – a code Las Vegas police use to indicate comments associated with self-harm. Based on those comments, police requested SWAT to move into Telles’ home.
Moments later, Telles was rolled out of his house on a stretcher and taken to the hospital for self-inflicted injuries.
Robert Telles indicted
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Six weeks after he was booked into the Clark County Detention Center, Telles was indicted by a grand jury for murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty.
Robert Telles’ denials
“48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant interviewed Telles at the Clark County Detention Center. Telles denied killing German and when he was asked about the evidence against him, including the cut-up sun hat, the maroon Yukon Denali and his DNA that was under German’s fingernails, he said, “I say that evidence or so-called evidence was planted along with the other items allegedly found in my home as well. And we will go ahead and prove that at trial.”
Telles’ trial is scheduled for March 18, 2024.
Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
Getty Images
Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
