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Vegas Politician Claims He's Being Framed for Murder: Jury-GUILTY · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:00
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Finally a verdict, and I've
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Speaker 1: got to tell you I was worried. The jury was
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Speaker 1: out three full days. I'm talking about the Robert Tellus
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Speaker 1: a murder charge a former Clark County that's Las Vegas
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Speaker 1: public administrator who went on a rambling monologue in his
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Speaker 1: own testimony. Why did this man take the stand? Finally
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Speaker 1: the jury breaks their silence and comes up with a verdict.
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Speaker 1: Tell his charge for the murder of an investigative reporter
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Speaker 1: who had written a series of negative articles about him,
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Speaker 1: specifically about a toxic workplace, and for having sex a
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Speaker 1: tourret affair with an employee right there in the local
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Speaker 1: government administration's office. I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
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Speaker 1: Thank you for being with US.
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Speaker 2: Journalist Jeff Gearman walks straight into an ambush attack. He
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Speaker 2: was stabbed four times in the neck and three in
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Speaker 2: the Torso after.
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Speaker 1: Three long days and Evada, jury comes to their senses
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Speaker 1: and finds a former county official guilty of murder and
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Speaker 1: a gruesome stabbing of a journalist, Jeff German. It was
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Speaker 1: a case that shocked the media colleagues and the rest
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Speaker 1: of the country.
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Speaker 3: The verdict ended after an eleven.
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Speaker 1: Day trial over tell Us, the former Clark County administrator,
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Speaker 1: the subject of some of German's stories for.
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Speaker 3: The Las Vegas Review Journal before his killing.
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Speaker 1: This trial saw tell Us take the stand against the
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Speaker 1: advice of his lawyer and then submit, in an excruciating
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Speaker 1: monologue the jury to a winding, narrowtive to deliver it
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Speaker 1: across two full days.
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Speaker 4: First of all, and an excuse me, I'm obviously little nervous.
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Speaker 5: This is a.
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Speaker 4: It's a day I've been waiting for for nearly two years.
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Speaker 4: You know, this thing's been kind of a nightmare. Frankly,
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Speaker 4: and again, I'm want to thank you for being here
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Speaker 4: and right now I want to say and equivocally I'm innocent.
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Speaker 4: I didn't kill mister German, and I've got a lock
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Speaker 4: to share.
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Speaker 1: With you all. I bet that defense attorney was cringing
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Speaker 1: in his seat. Tell Us, in his testimony slash monologue,
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Speaker 1: accused those with him he clashed a framing him. Okay,
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Speaker 1: what exactly happened?
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Speaker 6: Jeff Garman was found stabbed to death outside his home
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Speaker 6: in the Northwest Valley Saturday morning. Police say they believe
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Speaker 6: a fight led to Garman's death. They say it appears
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Speaker 6: the person seen in these photos was casing the area
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Speaker 6: to commit other crimes before the stabbing happened. Please see
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Speaker 6: the stabbing happen near Vegas Drive in Rock Springs. That
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Speaker 6: your police are asking people in that area to review
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Speaker 6: their cameras to see if they captured some more video
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Speaker 6: of the suspect.
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Speaker 7: They say that he never communicated any concerns about his
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Speaker 7: personal safety. He was known for his stories about political
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Speaker 7: scandals and coverage of the one October mass shooting. He
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Speaker 7: was also the author of a two thousand and one
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Speaker 7: true crime book, Murder in Sin City The Death of
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Speaker 7: the Las Vegas Casino Boss.
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Speaker 1: We're talking, of course, about a very well respected journalist
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Speaker 1: and reporter, Jeff Gearman. Why was Jeff Gearman stab dead outside?
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Speaker 1: What happened and what does the video reveal? I'm Nancy Grace.
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Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us
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Speaker 1: here at Fox Nation and series XM one eleven, joining
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Speaker 1: me in all star panel of experts to make sense
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Speaker 1: of what we know right now. But first I want
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Speaker 1: to go to Vanessa Murphy, high profile investigative report with
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Speaker 1: k LASTV eight newsanow dot com and you can find
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Speaker 1: her on Facebook at Vanessa Murphy Investigates Vanessa, thank you
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Speaker 1: for being with us. Tell me about the area where
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Speaker 1: Gearman was stabbed.
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Speaker 8: The area where he was stabbed. This is the Northwest
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Speaker 8: Valley in the Las Vegas area. Again, this was outside
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Speaker 8: his home, a quiet neighborhood. We do know there were
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Speaker 8: burglaries in the area, but again for the most part,
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Speaker 8: a quiet neighborhood, the Northwest Valley.
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Speaker 1: And it's just as quiet, beautiful neighborhoods where burglars think
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Speaker 1: they're going to make a big heist. But this victim,
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Speaker 1: Jeff Gearman, he was basically scrubbed and sunshine. He had
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Speaker 1: never heard done a wrong thing in his life and
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Speaker 1: had dedicated his life to journalism. What do we know
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Speaker 1: about him? Why him? Why was Tell me about him?
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Speaker 8: So? Jeff Gaarman, longtime Las Vegas reporter, was originally at
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Speaker 8: another newspaper here, then went to the Review Journal for
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Speaker 8: at least the past decade. Well respected. I know his colleagues,
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Speaker 8: they had nothing bad to say about him. Just a
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Speaker 8: tenacious reporter. And you know, as an investigative journalist, oftentimes
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Speaker 8: we are uncovering truths that people do not want to
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Speaker 8: be uncovered. And he was doing that on a regular basis.
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Speaker 8: But that's part of the job. And I think it's
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Speaker 8: interesting that his colleagues say that he never felt like
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Speaker 8: he was in immediate danger at the time.
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Speaker 1: Of course, motive why this journalists very well respected?
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Speaker 3: Why him?
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Speaker 1: Does a burglar care whether he's burgling a millionaire or another,
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Speaker 1: a priest, a virgin, or a well respected journalist. They
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Speaker 1: don't care. The state doesn't have to prove a motive.
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Speaker 1: But straight out to Lisa Daddier joining us for a
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Speaker 1: police lieutenant with a New Haven PD and now the
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Speaker 1: director of the Center for Advanced Policing at University New Haven, Lisa,
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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Okay, can we just
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Speaker 1: talk about burglars for just one moment. You know, I
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Speaker 1: believe Lisa, that there are certain defendants, criminals that cannot
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Speaker 1: be rehabilitated, child molesters, sex offenders in general, peeping tom's,
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Speaker 1: believe it or not, and burglars burglars because the way
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Speaker 1: a rape a rapist rapes not for sex. It's for
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Speaker 1: power and control out of anger, hatred. A burglar very
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Speaker 1: often likes the thrill I'm going in somebody else's home.
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Speaker 1: It's not always to steal the TV or the electronics
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Speaker 1: or the engagement ring. It's being in somebody else's home
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Speaker 1: and walking around, you know, eating food out of their fridge,
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Speaker 1: bouncing on the bed, looking at all their stuff. It's freaky.
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Speaker 1: One thing about burglars, they usually if they see somebody's home,
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Speaker 1: will leave much less continue the burglar with the person
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Speaker 1: standing out in front of the in the front yard.
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Speaker 9: Absolutely, Nancy, and not statistically, I'm going to say probably
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Speaker 9: ninety plus percent accurate everything that you had stated. They
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Speaker 9: don't want to be caught by the homeowner. You know,
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Speaker 9: there are those few, they're called cat burglars that get
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Speaker 9: the thrill from breaking in at night when people are home,
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Speaker 9: and that's a whole different psychological but the majority of
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Speaker 9: burglars don't want to confront anyone in the home and
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Speaker 9: they want to go in and get their thrill. If
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Speaker 9: they take things, they do and if they don't, like
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Speaker 9: you stated, they don't.
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Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friend Shawn Delancey kt V.
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Speaker 10: Days after respected investigative reporter Jeff Garman was stabbed to
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Speaker 10: death outside of his own home, police are still searching
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Speaker 10: for the person responsible. Police say the suspect was likely
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Speaker 10: casing the area to commit crimes before confronting Garman.
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Speaker 1: Everyone in our unit's been working NonStop.
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Speaker 10: Captain Dory Korn released this video asking people to pay
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Speaker 10: close attention to the way the suspected killer walks and
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Speaker 10: the clothing. In addition, police released this vehicle related to
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Speaker 10: the crime, a maroon GMC yukon Denali with chrome handles.
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Speaker 1: Straight back out to investigative reporter joining us from Vegas,
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Speaker 1: Vanessa Murphy, what was unusual, if anything, about the dress
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Speaker 1: of the killer.
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Speaker 8: So this individual was wearing a straw hat. He was
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Speaker 8: also wearing bright orange, so typically we don't see wear
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Speaker 8: bright orange, right, and a big straw hat drawing attention
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Speaker 8: to themselves. So those were two things that really stood.
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Speaker 1: Out, Vanessa. Where did we get the video of this
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Speaker 1: guy in a straw hat and an orange vest?
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Speaker 8: Well, police went door to door right after they made
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Speaker 8: this discovery of mister Garman's body. They went door to
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Speaker 8: door and you know many people have ring doorbells, they
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Speaker 8: have nest cameras. With that surveillance video, so what they
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Speaker 8: did was they pieced together any footage they had from
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Speaker 8: that neighborhood.
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Speaker 1: You know, another case where that happened. And I'm going
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Speaker 1: to go to you again, Lisadadio, for an police lieutenant
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Speaker 1: is in the missing mother of five, Jennifer Dulo's, and
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Speaker 1: I am amazed at what the police did in that
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Speaker 1: case regarding video. They got the husband such as he is,
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Speaker 1: photos Dulos all that day and they have pieced together
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Speaker 1: video off him at red light cams, at cam's off businesses,
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Speaker 1: ring doorbell cams, neighborhood cams, surveillance video cams and businesses.
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Speaker 1: They even have him going by in his car when
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Speaker 1: a public bus opened its door and there's a cam
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Speaker 1: in the bus and it sees Photus Dulos dashing by
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Speaker 1: in his car, culminating in Photus Dulo's the killer at
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Speaker 1: an auto detailing place having his the vehicle he used
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Speaker 1: to transport her dead body detailed and cleaned.
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Speaker 3: I mean it goes from.
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Speaker 8: A to Z.
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Speaker 1: It's incredible. And explain to me, Lisa Daddio. I'm sure
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Speaker 1: you've seen this photo. It's unlike anything I've ever seen.
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Speaker 1: And you know, when you see, for instance, to catch
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Speaker 1: a thief, or you see some James Bond video James
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Speaker 1: Bond movie, the burglar's always dressed in black and they've
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Speaker 1: got their face darkened, and they're wearing a black hat
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Speaker 1: and you know, like a skull cap. It's not always
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Speaker 1: like that, but it's shree like this. I mean, this
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Speaker 1: guy has gone on a bright yellow shirt with reflectors
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Speaker 1: on it on the sleeves. He's gotten a bright orange
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Speaker 1: vest over that, like a person that would be conducting
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Speaker 1: traffic out in the middle of the street when make
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Speaker 1: sure you're seen with reflectors on it. He's wearing I
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Speaker 1: can only describe it as a beach hat, a straw
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Speaker 1: beach hat that comes down like a top hat, a
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Speaker 1: top hat like the man in the Monopoly game that
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Speaker 1: sticks web up and then fans down like a bowl.
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Speaker 1: Wearing a black satchel and white running shoes. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's quite the get up, Lisa Daddio. I mean, if
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Speaker 1: I was going to burgle something, I put on my
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Speaker 1: dark ninja clothes and you completely cover my face. In
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Speaker 1: my head, what is this?
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Speaker 9: You're trying to fit into the neighborhood right, so that
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Speaker 9: nobody who's out and about is going to even think anything.
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Speaker 1: Twice you think misfits in the neighborhood.
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Speaker 9: Yes, it's like, my god, it was bizarre.
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Speaker 1: You think this outfit fits into the journalist upscale neighborhood
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Speaker 1: people are going to say him and go, oh, yeah,
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Speaker 1: he lives around the corn Yeah.
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Speaker 9: No, if anything gets strong attention to himself.
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Speaker 1: Well, Nancy, let me guess you're going to say he
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Speaker 1: was dressed up like a day laborer.
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Speaker 8: Yeah, we have a lot of construction going on, and
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Speaker 8: there was a series of h we have a lot
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Speaker 8: of construction going on, and there was a burglar who
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Speaker 8: actually was dressed similarly in a hat like that's caught
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Speaker 8: on video at a rest restaurant. So there's too possit area.
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Speaker 1: Go okay, Okay, Vanessa, Okay, But if I were staking
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Speaker 1: around trying to burgle a home, it would not be
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Speaker 1: wearing this get up. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, welcome back.
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Speaker 3: This jury had me on pins and needles.
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Speaker 1: How could they not find Robert tell Us guilty for
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Speaker 1: Pete's sake?
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Speaker 3: That's right.
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Speaker 1: In the months prior to the investigative journalist German's death,
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Speaker 1: he had written several articles about tell Us in his office,
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Speaker 1: and they told the story of an alleged affair between
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Speaker 1: him a low level public administrator dealing with something like
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Speaker 1: Will's and estates documents and a staffer and all the
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Speaker 1: tension that ensued among employees basically stemming from the sex affair.
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Speaker 1: The prosecution rested its case after four days of witnesses
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Speaker 1: and presentations, relying heavily on police evidence recovered from tell
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Speaker 1: Us his home.
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Speaker 3: What would that be?
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Speaker 1: Well, they found bloody shoes, they found bloody articles of clothing,
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Speaker 1: and there were photos and surveillance video from the day
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Speaker 1: of the stabbing. And oh, yes, deoxariibo nicolay cacid. Yes,
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Speaker 1: a match of Robert Tellus's DNA and DNA recovered from
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Speaker 1: underneath the victim's fingernails. Could somebody explain how that got there?
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Speaker 3: Innocently?
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Speaker 1: Defense attorney Matthew Mangino joining me, former prosecutor in Lawrence County,
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Speaker 1: former Parole Board member, author of the Executioner's Toll at
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Speaker 1: Matthewmanngino dot com. It goes on and on. Mangino, I
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Speaker 1: know you'll say, oh, this means nothing.
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Speaker 3: Uh huh. It means a.
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Speaker 1: Lot to me, and I guarantee you will mean a
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Speaker 1: lot to a jury.
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Speaker 11: Well, yes, Nancy. The thing that I would think is
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Speaker 11: that prosecutors wouldn't want to put blinders on, or investigators
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Speaker 11: wouldn't want to put blinders on. I think they would
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Speaker 11: want to keep an open mind about this investigation. Certainly,
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Speaker 11: you know, the first idea is that is this a
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Speaker 11: burglary that's gone that you know, it's gone awry and
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Speaker 11: someone ends up dead. But when I look at that photograph,
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Speaker 11: I think of someone who wants to disguise themselves, someone
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Speaker 11: who might be recognizable, who's trying to disguise themselves in
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Speaker 11: that area. And so then as you keep an open
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Speaker 11: mind as an investigator, I think you have to look
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Speaker 11: at all different things. You have to look at your victim.
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Speaker 11: You know, who would want to hurt this person? Is
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Speaker 11: there someone out there who would want to harm them?
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Speaker 11: Or maybe multiple people who win the harm. Does he
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Speaker 11: have enemies? Does he have people who who don't like him?
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Speaker 1: You know what though, Matthew Mangino, that is you know,
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Speaker 1: kind of cliche. I mean, if you watch anything from
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Speaker 1: I Guess Special Victims Unit all the way back to Colombo,
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Speaker 1: they always say who would want to kill your husband?
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Speaker 1: And the wife always says nobody. I mean a little cliche,
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Speaker 1: especially when police have announced they believe a burglary was
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Speaker 1: going down all I'm saying. Karen Stark, Karen Start, NewYork Psychologists,
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Speaker 1: joining us out of Manhattan at Karenstark dot com. Karen
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Speaker 1: with the Sea, Karen, if I were going to burgle
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Speaker 1: a place, it would not be wearing a giant straw
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Speaker 1: hat and a day glow orange vest.
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Speaker 12: Well, to me, it says quite clearly, Nancy, that this
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Speaker 12: is somebody who doesn't know what they're doing, who is
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Speaker 12: an amateur and hasn't really thought this out at all,
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Speaker 12: because it's apparent that everything that you're wearing is calling
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Speaker 12: attention to yourself. And I'm trying to put my mind
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Speaker 12: inside the mind of this person in saying what could
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Speaker 12: he have been thinking? And maybe he thought that he
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Speaker 12: had to be so outrageous that nobody would really want
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Speaker 12: I know.
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Speaker 1: I mean, might as well have worn a prom dress
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Speaker 1: and a tiara. But back to you, Vanessa Murphy joining
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Speaker 1: us KLASTV. We also know that police have been tracking
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Speaker 1: a series of burglaries in the valley where the suspect
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Speaker 1: did wear similar clothing as Atlantis. Does I think it
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Speaker 1: looks question to you, Vanessa, had that been broadcast on
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Speaker 1: TV that the suspect in that series of burglaries had
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Speaker 1: been dressed like this.
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Speaker 8: There was video of a restaurant being burglarized and the
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Speaker 8: suspect was wearing that straw. We did play that video
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Speaker 8: on the news, so that was out there, and in fact,
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Speaker 8: you could see on the social media comments when the
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Speaker 8: police released this image. You know, viewers were putting the
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Speaker 8: two and two together. Hey, that looks like the guy
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Speaker 8: who was burglarizing the restaurant.
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Speaker 1: Let's like listen again to Captain Dorry Koran.
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Speaker 10: Coran says that they are tracking a series of burglaries
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Speaker 10: in the valley where a suspect were similar clothing and
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Speaker 10: considering all possibilities for a link to Gearman's killing. It's
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Speaker 10: too early to form a definitive link.
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Speaker 5: We're not at the point where we're going to connect
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Speaker 5: it to anything else at this point, but we are
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Speaker 5: evaluating every avenue possible.
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Speaker 1: So, as Vanessa Murphy Klas says in The Residents in
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Speaker 1: Vegas Mind, the murder of the investigative journalist Jeff Gearman
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Speaker 1: was clearly linked to the series a burglaries. While that
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Speaker 1: connection is being made and autopsy is being performed on
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Speaker 1: Garman's body, joining me right now, renowned pathologists medical examiner,
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Speaker 1: detective and author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, Doctor Michelle
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Speaker 1: Dupri Dotor Dupri, thank you for being with us. Could
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Speaker 1: you describe what happened to Gearman? What death did he suffer?
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Speaker 1: Did he have time to see his killer?
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Speaker 11: Nancy?
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Speaker 13: He most likely did have time to see his killer.
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Speaker 13: He was stabbed, as I understand, at seven different times.
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Speaker 13: And stabbing is a very personal crime. You have to
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Speaker 13: get hands on. It's not like standing across the room
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Speaker 13: and shooting a gun. This is up close and very personal.
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Speaker 13: So yes, I think he did see his obur And.
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Speaker 1: What would he have endured? Seven stab wounds, at least
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Speaker 1: one of them deadly.
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Speaker 13: He obviously would have been fighting for his life. He
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Speaker 13: would have been probably fighting back some way, perhaps hitting
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Speaker 13: that person, scratching that person, just fighting for his life.
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Speaker 1: Imagine dying out in front of your house and what
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Speaker 1: see to be an ordinary day for you that suddenly
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Speaker 1: turned anything but well. No connections are being made to
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Speaker 1: a string of burglaries. Take a listen to our friends
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Speaker 1: at Fox five.
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Speaker 14: It's troublesome because it is a journalist and we expect
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Speaker 14: journalism to be open and transparent and watchdog for government.
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Speaker 14: And when people take it upon themselves to create harm
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Speaker 14: associated with that profession, I think it's very important that
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Speaker 14: we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately.
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Speaker 1: Garriman has published several investigative reports allegations of bullying and favoritism.
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Speaker 1: You know, I'm curious, Karen Stark, It's hard to imagine
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Speaker 1: someone willing to commit a murder over a bad newspaper article.
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Speaker 11: Quote.
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Speaker 12: When you think about somebody who's capable of murdered Nancy,
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Speaker 12: they're not a logical they are very their hypersensitive. Their
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Speaker 12: ego is. They're all about their eg go and here's
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Speaker 12: somebody who's it's not just a newspaper article. It has
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Speaker 12: to do with their reputation and how the public perceives them,
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Speaker 12: and that kind of a person. They're not going to
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Speaker 12: hesitate to think about the worst thing they could possibly
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Speaker 12: do to get revenge, because they're all about revenge.
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Speaker 8: You know.
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Speaker 1: Matthew Mangino joining me, high profile lawyer and author. Matthew
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Speaker 1: Very often I've heard defense attorneys argue, what he's going
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Speaker 1: to kill his wife? Think I've just gotten a divorce.
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Speaker 1: Killers don't think that way. They don't think rationally. So
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Speaker 1: while we're digging around for a motive in Garman's murder,
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Speaker 1: a very brutal murder. The state doesn't have to prove motive.
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Speaker 1: I've seen murders over a five dollars debt before, so
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Speaker 1: that doesn't make sense to anybody else, but it made
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Speaker 1: sense to the killer.
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Speaker 11: Right. Yeah, there is no obligation on the state's part
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Speaker 11: to prove a motive in a murder. Although jurors like
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Speaker 11: to hear that there's a motive, They feel more comfortable
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Speaker 11: making a decision when they know that there was some motive,
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Speaker 11: there was some reason for this person that the way
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Speaker 11: that they did. But you know here, you know, all
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Speaker 11: options have to be open in terms of you know
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Speaker 11: how Gearman died and why Gearman died.
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Speaker 1: You're right, and you're also right about juries. Matthew Mangino
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Speaker 1: Matthew man Gin, a former prosecutor, now defense attorney, author,
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Speaker 1: former parole board member. The state doesn't have to prove
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Speaker 1: a motive legally. But when you say a jury wants
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Speaker 1: to hear a motive, they do. They want a neat
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Speaker 1: explanation or else they will go back in the jury
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Speaker 1: room and argue till they're blue in the face about
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Speaker 1: why would they have committed this murder because they yours
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Speaker 1: wouldn't do it, because they're reasonable thinking people, unlike a killer.
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Speaker 1: And it's hard to apply logic to an illogical situation
23:10
Speaker 1: like a murder, So you better give them a mode
23:13
Speaker 1: of Matthew Menngino, you're right. So now the police are
23:18
Speaker 1: departing from their initial belief that this was a part
23:21
Speaker 1: of a series of burglaries. As Vanessa pointed out, there
23:25
Speaker 1: was a restaurant burglary, and according to the police chief,
23:28
Speaker 1: there was a series of burglaries where the burglar wore
23:33
Speaker 1: much of the same get up, this outlandish outfit, and
23:37
Speaker 1: it was put online and on TV. Hence this killer
23:43
Speaker 1: dresses the same way. The investigation knuckles down as the
23:51
Speaker 1: mystery intensifies. Take a listen to our friend Mark Strassman.
23:56
Speaker 15: Tell Us have been the subject of a newspaper investigation
23:58
Speaker 15: spearheaded by Garam in May, describing allegations of emotional stress, bullying,
24:04
Speaker 15: and favoritism in the public administrator's office. That story included
24:08
Speaker 15: further allegations that tell Us had an inappropriate.
24:11
Speaker 2: Relationship with one of his stuffers.
24:13
Speaker 15: He disputed the claims in an interview with Gearman accusing
24:17
Speaker 15: others of trying to sabotage his office.
24:20
Speaker 4: I am about nothing but justice, fairness, and just be
24:24
Speaker 4: a good person.
24:25
Speaker 1: Okay, well, wait, wait a minute. You're hearing this guy
24:29
Speaker 1: who's under journalistic investigation for bullying.
24:35
Speaker 3: Let's see what else.
24:36
Speaker 1: Favoritism, emotional stress. You can't have favoritism in a public office.
24:43
Speaker 1: This is the public administrator's office. And then the investigator,
24:48
Speaker 1: who is now dead, pulls up a video of what
24:53
Speaker 1: looks to be a sex affair. Okay, what about Vanessa Murphy?
24:57
Speaker 1: What is the video that Gearman pulled up?
25:01
Speaker 8: In this video, we see a car parked in I
25:04
Speaker 8: believe a mall parking garage, and it appears that the
25:10
Speaker 8: Clark County Public Administrator, Robert Tellis, is in the back
25:15
Speaker 8: seat with one of his employees.
25:20
Speaker 16: They are back there.
25:21
Speaker 8: We see some movement. He gets out of the right side,
25:25
Speaker 8: she gets out of the left, sort of pulls her
25:28
Speaker 8: skirt down a little minute.
25:30
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it right now. Wait a minute, yeah,
25:32
Speaker 1: I see the moving around the It's almost like there's
25:36
Speaker 1: a wrestling match going on in the car between two people.
25:40
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and it's a maroon suv ouch. Oh I
25:44
Speaker 1: can see the license take too. I'm still looking. I'm
25:46
Speaker 1: still looking, waiting for something to happen. Tell us and
25:51
Speaker 1: this says Lee. Cannett have denied allegations they had an
25:55
Speaker 1: inappropriate relationship. This video was shot recently obtained by the
26:01
Speaker 1: Review Journal. Isn't that where Garman works the Review Journal?
26:06
Speaker 8: Yeah, that is where Garman works. I know that the
26:09
Speaker 8: vehicle looks similar, but I don't think it was that
26:12
Speaker 8: maroon a suv.
26:13
Speaker 1: I'm glad you told me that. Okay, I'm waiting. I'm
26:17
Speaker 1: seeing more movement. I can't tell.
26:19
Speaker 3: Front seat or back seat.
26:20
Speaker 1: Did you say back seat?
26:22
Speaker 8: I believe they're in the back seat.
26:24
Speaker 1: Oh, well, the back seat.
26:26
Speaker 3: And you're right.
26:27
Speaker 1: Ooh, there comes tell us. You can't mistake that. No,
26:31
Speaker 1: that is tell us. I would recognize that head anywhere.
26:37
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, you're right, it's the back seat, because
26:40
Speaker 1: she's coming out of the back seat there.
26:43
Speaker 3: Oh, there she is.
26:44
Speaker 1: Oh yep, she hitched her dress down, and now she's
26:47
Speaker 1: getting into the front seat. And what's going to happen? Now,
26:52
Speaker 1: I'm waiting, waiting, waiting. She's in the front seat. He's
26:55
Speaker 1: out of view. Who took this video? Vanessa Murphy?
27:00
Speaker 8: I believe it was employees of Clark County.
27:05
Speaker 1: Oh, well, good on them. Now the lights are on.
27:08
Speaker 1: She slammed a door shut and she's leaving. Well, they're
27:12
Speaker 1: denying an inappropriate relationship. I'd like to know what they
27:15
Speaker 1: were doing wrestling in the back seat of this suv
27:19
Speaker 1: in a parking garage. That said, I'm a little more
27:23
Speaker 1: concerned about the murder. What can you tell me about
27:28
Speaker 1: claims of bullying now that we've got off the sort
27:31
Speaker 1: of not having sex in the backseat incident, what can
27:34
Speaker 1: you tell me about claims of bullying and favoritism in
27:38
Speaker 1: the public administrator's office.
27:39
Speaker 8: Well, Robert Tellus sort of started on this is an
27:45
Speaker 8: office with a history of problems, and he would come
27:48
Speaker 8: in and help clean it up. And what employees told
27:54
Speaker 8: the Review Journal is that did not happen, and it
27:58
Speaker 8: seems that issue continued and he was he's their boss,
28:04
Speaker 8: and sort of bullied employees and made things even worse.
28:08
Speaker 1: You know, anybody jump in, as I've already admonished you,
28:11
Speaker 1: we're not having high tea at High Grove with King Charles.
28:16
Speaker 1: Those words are hard for me to say, not the Queen,
28:19
Speaker 1: but Nancy. Let me is that Karen start jumping Karen,
28:25
Speaker 1: because you know, bullying in a public office, not having
28:30
Speaker 1: sex in the backseat of the suv. Oh, I know
28:34
Speaker 1: what I wanted to ask you. Have you ever heard
28:36
Speaker 1: people go I'm not stupid translation I'm really stupid. Did
28:41
Speaker 1: you hear him earlier saying I'm all about justice and
28:45
Speaker 1: fairness translation you got me?
28:49
Speaker 3: I did it.
28:50
Speaker 12: Yeah, that's that he's overreacting. And I can't tell you
28:56
Speaker 12: the kind of response somebody who has his personality, who's
29:02
Speaker 12: capable of murder, how he would respond to being publically
29:07
Speaker 12: humiliated and shamed like that. It's unacceptable.
29:12
Speaker 1: Here's another thing. What is he married? Vanessa Murphy?
29:15
Speaker 8: He is married with three children.
29:18
Speaker 1: You know, I'd like to say I'm surprised, but yeah,
29:21
Speaker 1: I take a listen to Mark Strassman, CBS News.
29:24
Speaker 15: Back in June, as tell Us appeared poised to lose
29:27
Speaker 15: his reelection bid, he appeared to go after Garman on
29:30
Speaker 15: social media, peremptively calling a potential follow up story a
29:34
Speaker 15: lying smear piece and joking that Garman was going through our.
29:38
Speaker 1: Trash to report it.
29:40
Speaker 15: Police interviewed him Wednesday afternoon, and he did not respond
29:46
Speaker 15: to reporters questions.
29:47
Speaker 1: Now you are hearing that report when tell Us is
29:51
Speaker 1: on the verge of losing the election. Now take a
29:55
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at CBS.
29:57
Speaker 17: One of German's most recent investigative stories in the Las
30:00
Speaker 17: Vegas Review Journal was about an alleged toxic work environment
30:04
Speaker 17: and tell Us his public administrator's office and an alleged
30:07
Speaker 17: inappropriate relationship he was having with the coworker, where the
30:11
Speaker 17: paper obtained video of Tellus in the back of a
30:14
Speaker 17: car with a woman. In the midst of the series, Tellus,
30:17
Speaker 17: a Democrat, lost his bid for reelection. Just after German's death,
30:21
Speaker 17: police released pictures of a possible suspect dressed in an
30:25
Speaker 17: orange vest, straw hat and gloves. Investigators later asked the
30:29
Speaker 17: public to help find this red Yukon Donali, possibly tied
30:33
Speaker 17: to the killing.
30:34
Speaker 1: But what about evidence? They could have a huge grudge
30:39
Speaker 1: rest on TV and social media. He may have lost
30:43
Speaker 1: the election, but that is not enough to prove a murderer.
30:48
Speaker 1: That does not a murder make well, wait a minute,
30:53
Speaker 1: take a listen to our friends in our cut fifteen.
30:55
Speaker 1: This is chip Yost at KTLA.
30:58
Speaker 5: The evidence that Clark County's elected public administrator Robert Tellus
31:03
Speaker 5: is the person who dressed up in this disguise to murder.
31:06
Speaker 5: Investigative reporter Jeff Garman of the Las Vegas Review Journal
31:11
Speaker 5: is growing. Garman was found stabbed to death outside his
31:14
Speaker 5: home last week, but in court, the prosecutor suggested German
31:19
Speaker 5: didn't go down without a fight, as DNA was found
31:24
Speaker 5: under the dead man's fingernails. The DNA recovered from the
31:28
Speaker 5: victim's hands under his fingernails.
31:31
Speaker 1: They do identify the DNA as the defendis Crime Stories
31:41
Speaker 1: with Nancy Gray. Thank goodness, a twelve member jury found
31:49
Speaker 1: Robert tell Us guilty of murder I after three excruciating
31:54
Speaker 1: days of deliberation, tell Us stood in the courtroom with
31:57
Speaker 1: his head down, shaking it. No, no, as the guilty
32:01
Speaker 1: verdict was read, Okay, you know what.
32:03
Speaker 3: Save it for the appeals court.
32:04
Speaker 1: Following after the verdict, The Vegas Review Journal editor Glenn
32:09
Speaker 1: Cook said there had now been a quote measure of
32:13
Speaker 1: justice for German.
32:14
Speaker 3: I kind of disagree with.
32:15
Speaker 1: That, because how can you ever make up for losing
32:19
Speaker 1: your life. German was known for his incredible investigative work.
32:23
Speaker 1: He covered the courts, He covered politics, organized crime over
32:27
Speaker 1: thirty years he worked at the Vegas Sun and then
32:31
Speaker 1: the Vegas Review Journal. That was where he was working
32:34
Speaker 1: at the time of his death. By all accounts, the
32:37
Speaker 1: big question was why would anybody kill Jeff? Well, I
32:43
Speaker 1: think I know why. And as you know, the state
32:45
Speaker 1: never has to prove motive. Why does the state have
32:49
Speaker 1: to go lurking around in some killer's mind and figure out, Wow,
32:52
Speaker 1: what was he thinking?
32:54
Speaker 3: They don't, But here we've got a very clear motive.
32:58
Speaker 3: He had a wife and children on the lane, plus
33:00
Speaker 3: his job. Well, that's all down the tubes now.
33:05
Speaker 1: Also interesting to point out, during an interview tell Us
33:09
Speaker 1: did with German before he murdered him, he denied having
33:14
Speaker 1: an affair with the staffer, but on this past Thursday,
33:18
Speaker 1: during cross exam, tell Us reverse course say yes he
33:22
Speaker 1: did have the affair, and the head lied. He admitted
33:26
Speaker 1: he and the staffer were romantically involved. I guess that's
33:30
Speaker 1: one way of putting it. They were basically having sex
33:33
Speaker 1: in the backseat of a car. Now, if that's romantic,
33:36
Speaker 1: maybe for some.
33:36
Speaker 3: People it is.
33:37
Speaker 1: That said, I guess that's something the jury would have
33:41
Speaker 1: to consider.
33:42
Speaker 3: What more do we know?
33:43
Speaker 1: Doctor Kristen Meddleman, the Chief Development officer of Athram, Inc.
33:50
Speaker 1: And you can find her at dnasals dot com. Doctrmittleman,
33:55
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us all arrest. While it
33:59
Speaker 1: is circumstance actial evidence, which is equally as probative or
34:04
Speaker 1: proving as probative means as direct evidence, I would not
34:10
Speaker 1: kick a little direct evidence in the teeth. I'm talking
34:13
Speaker 1: about DNA, DNA under the dead victim's fingernails.
34:19
Speaker 16: Explain absolutely so the DNA was found underneath the victim's fingernails,
34:26
Speaker 16: and the DNA was a match to the perpetrator. And
34:33
Speaker 16: so at that point you can see very clearly that
34:37
Speaker 16: you know that there is beyond any reasonable doubt the
34:41
Speaker 16: person was there and somehow his DNA was under the fingernails.
34:45
Speaker 16: There was also DNA found on the victims DNA found
34:48
Speaker 16: on the shoes of the perpetrator, and so you can
34:52
Speaker 16: see that there was exchange of DNA in both directions
34:55
Speaker 16: from that crime scene. And I think that without a
34:58
Speaker 16: shadow of about that show bag, it confirms all of
35:03
Speaker 16: the other evidence that may or may not be for
35:06
Speaker 16: whatever may be circumsperential.
35:08
Speaker 11: As you said to.
35:09
Speaker 1: Doctor Michelle Duprey, author of homicide Investigation Field guide. Have
35:13
Speaker 1: you ever heard the phrase training on the job.
35:16
Speaker 13: Absolutely, Nancy, And we see it and we do it
35:18
Speaker 13: all the time.
35:19
Speaker 1: You know, doctor Duprey, I wanted to ask you this
35:21
Speaker 1: specific thing. I just immediately flashed back to my very
35:25
Speaker 1: first murder case. And before I went to the morgue
35:30
Speaker 1: to cross examin the medical examiner to get myself, I
35:34
Speaker 1: thought I was preparing him. I was really preparing myself
35:38
Speaker 1: to put him on the stand. I was looking at
35:40
Speaker 1: crime scene photos and I saw paper bags over the
35:44
Speaker 1: victim's hands with a rubber band at the wrist. I thought,
35:48
Speaker 1: why are the paper bags on the victim's hands? Then
35:51
Speaker 1: I found out, explained.
35:52
Speaker 13: Absolutely, Nancy. In any type of a personal crime like this,
35:56
Speaker 13: we always try to bag the victim's hands with paper bags,
35:59
Speaker 13: not plastic, but paperbags, so that we can catch any
36:02
Speaker 13: evidence that might fall off, any trace evidence, hairs, fibers,
36:05
Speaker 13: anything like that that might fall off during transport of
36:09
Speaker 13: that patient. And one of the things that we do
36:11
Speaker 13: in cases like this is we always scrape the fingernails.
36:15
Speaker 13: You'd be surprised how many times we do find those
36:18
Speaker 13: epithelial cells or those skin cells under the fingernails which
36:21
Speaker 13: point to the suspect, and.
36:22
Speaker 1: Then of course you want to get a shot if
36:25
Speaker 1: the arrest is in time, of the defendant's body, to
36:28
Speaker 1: see if there are scratches about the neck or face,
36:30
Speaker 1: or arms or really anywhere that would match up to fingernails.
36:36
Speaker 1: They look like a furrow or where you're planting something
36:39
Speaker 1: out in a field lines, you can tell their fingernail scratches.
36:44
Speaker 1: Another thing about this, doctor Kristen Millman joining as Chief
36:49
Speaker 1: development Officer at Authram Inc. When you say there's a match,
36:53
Speaker 1: you make it sound so simple, But could you talk
36:56
Speaker 1: about these statistical likelihoods that you have seen in other
37:00
Speaker 1: cases that the killer is anyone other than the defendant.
37:05
Speaker 16: So usually with SDR testing, there's not enough people on
37:09
Speaker 16: Earth for it to be anyone else. So it would
37:12
Speaker 16: be one in some sort of quintillion or something that
37:15
Speaker 16: some number that is so high that there's not enough
37:18
Speaker 16: people on Earth. Or if the SDR's match to the
37:23
Speaker 16: testing that was done here using DNA analysis, then there
37:26
Speaker 16: would not be enough people on Earth for it to
37:28
Speaker 16: be someone else.
37:29
Speaker 1: So in many DNA gioxyriba nucleic acid reports I've seen,
37:33
Speaker 1: the match is you so simply refer to it as
37:38
Speaker 1: is something like statistically, statistically scientifically, there is a one
37:44
Speaker 1: in five trillion chance it's not this guy one in
37:51
Speaker 1: five trillion. In other words, it's him that DNA under
37:58
Speaker 1: his fingernails, under the victim's fingernails, and the DNA on
38:03
Speaker 1: the defendant shoes. Lisa Daddio joining us, Lisa, why is
38:08
Speaker 1: it the defendants always forget about their shoes? Although this
38:12
Speaker 1: guy didn't forget, he tried to destroy them. I believe
38:14
Speaker 1: didn't even aska it appears.
38:16
Speaker 8: That way that yeah, he tried to destroy a couple
38:19
Speaker 8: of things.
38:20
Speaker 1: What did he try to destroy?
38:21
Speaker 8: I believe they found a hat in pieces that hat
38:25
Speaker 8: from that video.
38:26
Speaker 1: And the shoes. Yeah, I mean, I mean right there,
38:31
Speaker 1: Lisa Daddo, who goes home and tears up their straw
38:34
Speaker 1: hat and their tennis shoes and then you just happen
38:37
Speaker 1: to find the victims DNA? Why do people why do
38:39
Speaker 1: killers forget about their their shoes?
38:41
Speaker 9: I mean, I would like to think a lot of
38:42
Speaker 9: times it's because they like the shoes. They spend a
38:45
Speaker 9: lot more money on the shoes, and they're just not
38:48
Speaker 9: thinking that there's any evidence on the shoes, where there
38:51
Speaker 9: would be more evidence on a shirt or on a
38:54
Speaker 9: pair of pants. They're not thinking how small in this
38:59
Speaker 9: case blood? You know a droplet could be on the shoes,
39:03
Speaker 9: because they don't.
39:04
Speaker 1: I mean, that's one of the first things I do,
39:06
Speaker 1: they say, is go to the defendant's closet. Yeah, get
39:10
Speaker 1: all those shoes. Take a listen now to our friend
39:14
Speaker 1: John huck at Fox five.
39:15
Speaker 18: Rob Tellis faces open murder charges and the killing I've
39:19
Speaker 18: reviewed journal reporter Jeff German, investigator say tell us how
39:23
Speaker 18: to grudge over articles Garman wrote about him.
39:26
Speaker 1: They say that.
39:27
Speaker 18: Brought him to german Summerland home on Friday, where he's
39:30
Speaker 18: accused of stabbing the journalists to death.
39:32
Speaker 19: The nature of this case and the nature of mister
39:35
Speaker 19: German's assignments required a good investigator to make inquiry. You know,
39:41
Speaker 19: what was mister Garman working on was the investigating certain persons.
39:46
Speaker 19: Could those persons be the perpetrator?
39:50
Speaker 1: It did not help tell us at all that at
39:52
Speaker 1: trial police could link tell Us to a maroon GMC
39:59
Speaker 1: yukon Denali and a vehicle of the very same type
40:03
Speaker 1: register to tell us his wife when asked on cross exam.
40:07
Speaker 1: Another thing that didn't help tell us why he should
40:10
Speaker 1: never have taken the stand that. Once he was on
40:12
Speaker 1: cross exam, the prosecutor asked if he tell Us believed
40:17
Speaker 1: he tell Us would win the primary if German had
40:20
Speaker 1: not written the articles. Tell Us responded, probably yes. I
40:27
Speaker 1: think the defense that everyone was out to get him
40:34
Speaker 1: didn't help with the jury.
40:37
Speaker 3: So who should they believe?
40:39
Speaker 1: Who's lying?
40:41
Speaker 3: Everybody else or tell.
40:43
Speaker 1: Us Note to suspects, taking the stand usually is not
40:49
Speaker 1: a good idea.
40:51
Speaker 3: Justice has unfolded.
40:54
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace crime story, signing off goodbye friend,