Yesterday I wrote about the death of reporter Jeff German’s whose body was discovered along the side of his house last Saturday. He’d been stabbed to death and police released video of a suspect who was dressed in a strange outfit that seemed designed to shield his identity. They later released the description of a vehicle they believed was connected to the attack, a maroon Yukon.

The twist in the case came when police showed up at the home of Robert Telles, the Clark County public administrator, and searched it. Before his death, German had written several stories critical of Telles, one of which accused him of sleeping with a woman in his office. These stories caused Telles to lose a primary election and German was reportedly working on another story about Telles when he was killed.

After his home was searched and his maroon Yukon was towed away by police, police released Telles and he was seen entering his house through a garage. A short while later, police knocked on his door and he didn’t answer. The street was then blocked off by police and it apparently took a few hours before they could bring Telles out. It sounds like he may have tried to harm himself:

Robert Telles, the Clark County public administrator, was taken out of his home on a stretcher on Wednesday night and arrested on suspicion of murdering Mr. German. He had publicly expressed outrage over Mr. German’s coverage of his office, and the police said their investigation showed that he had also been upset that Mr. German was pursuing additional reporting…

Mr. Koren said that Mr. Telles needed medical attention for self-inflicted wounds that were not life-threatening at the time of his arrest. Mr. Telles appeared in court on Thursday, where a judge ordered that he be held without bail.

We’re also learning today about some of the evidence that convinced police they had the right man.

Police believe the attack occurred at 11:18 a.m. on Friday. Video obtained by police showed Telles returning to his home around noon that day in a Denali vehicle matching the description of the suspect’s vehicle observed near German’s home.

“We executed search warrants early yesterday morning that involved searching Telles, his home, his vehicles, and then also searching his body to collect the DNA sample to compare it to DNA recovered,” Koren said.

Police say they found Telles’s DNA at the crime scene and blood on his shoes during a search of his home Wednesday.  They also found cut up remnants of a hat matching the one seen on the suspect in a photo released this week by police, and cut up shoes also matching those seen in the photo.

Police also played a video of the suspect walking toward the crime scene, and disclosed they have video of the attack.

“We have some distorted video associated with the attack and we are in the process of clarifying that video as we speak,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said during a rare appearance at a homicide news conference.

Here’s an image of the shoe and the cut up hat.

A straw hat was also recovered, which matched the video of the suspect. Both appeared to have been cut in an effort to destroy them.

DNA recovered from the crime scene matched Telles, Koren says. pic.twitter.com/NVEZD5Q3uf

— KSNV News 3 Las Vegas (@News3LV) September 8, 2022

As you can see, the hat matches the one in the image of the suspect (above) which police released earlier this week. Apparently some reporter at the press conference today asked the Sheriff is this crime could be connected to President Trump:

Lombardo said while every murder is tragic, “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome” but he declined to denounce former Pres. Donald Trump’s normalization of violence against reporters. Trump has endorsed Lombardo for governor.

I haven’t been able to locate the specific question. In any case, Telles was not a Trump fan. Scrolling through his Twitter account it appears he was more of an Elizabeth Warren supporter. And for the record, I don’t think that had anything to do with this crime either.

It was great to attend the #cnntownhall, and see @ewarren show again why she has what it takes to be our next president! pic.twitter.com/phIKiHr2Sh

— Rob Telles (@RobTellesLV) February 21, 2020

Update: Thanks to this reader who was able to track down the question at the press conference about whether Trump was to blame for this murder. Here it is.