Official to represent self in Vegas reporter-slaying trial

By KEN RITTER
Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Las Vegas-area elected official will represent himself at trial on a murder charge in the stabbing death of a veteran investigative journalist who wrote about him. Robert Telles endured searing questions Tuesday from a state judge who in the end gave him the go-ahead to be his own lawyer, with the trial set for November. Judge Michelle Leavitt told Telles it’s always unwise for someone to serve as their own lawyer, particularly in a first-degree murder case. Telles is an attorney and former Democratic county official who denies killing Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German last September. Telles could face life in prison. He says evidence against him was planted — including his DNA found beneath German’s fingernails.