Jeff German was an investigative journalist who worked for the Las Vegas Review Journal. He allegedly wrote stories about Tillis that portrayed the politician in a negative light, including as a terrible employer who intimidated his employees (Tillis ran an office that handled the estates of people who died intestate). He also allegedly threatened to reveal more things that were disturbing to him, including his email correspondence with subordinates.
A horrific revenge murder.
After a series of articles by German appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal in May and June 2022, Robert Tillis lost the county government primary, in which he was set to run for another term. Shortly thereafter, the journalist was found dead in his yard with stab wounds. Tillis was arrested a few days later.
“He could join a long list of Nevada politicians who have been publicly disgraced and who have moved on from the spotlight,” Glenn Cook, editor of the Las Vegas Review Journal, said in a statement shortly after Tillis’ guilty verdict was announced. “Instead, he committed a premeditated, vengeful murder with horrific brutality.”
The former politician was sentenced to life in prison. But that’s not the end of it, because the cases German previously wrote about also made it to court. Women who worked with Tellis sued him for his conduct at work. The politician allegedly made sexual advances to them and punished them for refusing. Robert Tellis moved to dismiss the charges. He claims he is innocent. Likewise in the German murder case, in which he—as he testified—“was framed.”
But here, the evidence turned out to be irrefutable – Tellis’ DNA under the victim’s fingernails, his car seen near the journalist’s house at a specific time, and finally – surveillance footage showing a person wearing a large straw hat. Investigators found the remains of this severed hat in Tellis’s house.
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