48 Hours - The Assassination of Jeff German

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

A Las Vegas journalist is stabbed to death while investigating claims a boss was toxic. Did his reporting make him a target?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I'll never forget that day. Something sinister happened. Something unimaginable. My cell phone rings, and it's Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

Sheriff says to me, Glenn, I'm calling about Jeff Gehrman. And he says, Jeff's dead. Just like that? Just like that. Jeff Gehrman was found dead with stab wounds outside his home around 10.30 yesterday morning. Metro police are asking for the public's help. They're saying this is the suspect. I couldn't even believe it. I had so many questions. Who would do this? I mean, how did this happen? Just how big a list of people

might have wanted Jeff dead. That's a line of people that runs from here to Los Angeles. This guy's written about terrible people who've done awful things for over 40 years. The worst kinds of people. They called him Tony the Ant, but Tony Spolacro was a big figure in the mafia. He had a special interest in covering organized crime.

You know, he was gutsy and fearless. Jeff Gehrman was guided by an innate sense of right and wrong. If he knew someone was engaging in criminal activity, unethical activity, inappropriate behavior, he wanted to do that story. He wanted to bring it to light. We couldn't believe he would even take a call from us.

But he did. Give me a sense of what state you were in when you called Jeff Garam. We were desperate. In fear every day. It was just survival. One step in front of the other, one day at a time. The only person that listened to us and the only person that tried to do something. That concretely put their name on the line to try to do something. He's the first person that listened to us. Was Jeff Garam. Was Jeff. He did something and he fought for us and he is a hundred

percent our hero. And if I was to talk to him today I think the first thing I would say is I'm sorry. I think the first thing I would say is I'm sorry. As Jeff's editor, his colleague, did you ever sense any danger in covering this story? There was absolutely no suggestion, no hint that this would end the way it did. None. Peter Van Sant reports the assassination of Jeff Gehrman. On September 2nd, 2022, it was a boiling hot late summer day in Las Vegas, and people were getting ready for the Labor Day weekend.

It was late morning when in broad daylight, something terrible happened. As investigative journalist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Brianna Erickson and Rhonda Prast had seen a lot of bad people do a lot of bad things. But nothing came close to the Machiavellian plot to murder their friend and colleague, Jeff Gehrman. Jeff Gehrman was at his house on vacation. He'd gone out to get something to eat. He came back, shut his garage door. You could see in the surveillance video from across the street that someone, an assailant, came into his yard, went to the left side of his house,

went inside the gate, shut the gate. And then we see Jeff, moments later, opening his garage door and he was instantly ambushed when he turned the corner to where that person was lying in wait. In the video, you can kind of see a struggle. But Jeff ultimately falls to the ground and he never gets up. What happened to him in that attack?

Jeff was stabbed. He was stabbed seven times, four times in the neck, three in the torso. Seven stab wounds. Did that suggest what kind of a killing this was? To me, this was a very personal attack, to stab someone in such a short time, viciously, seven times, with no warning. A concerned neighbor found Jeff Gehrman's body hidden behind some bushes 24 hours later. 911 emergency, Corbeal 10965, do you need police, fire, medical? I have a neighbor across the street from me, and he's living in the side yard. I believe he's dead, he's got blood over. It was just a terrible thing to know that he was lying there,

and we wondered whether he could have been saved, but medical experts told us later that he likely died within a minute or two. It was a small mercy for a man who had spent his life fighting for the underdog. At the base, he just wanted to help people and protect people, you know, and expose wrongdoing. From the start, Jeff Gehrman was shooting for big game. And when he came from Wisconsin in the 70s, Vegas was the Serengeti. Mark Fierro, a TV reporter at the time, became a lifelong friend and trusted source. Jeff Gehrman at the outset was a reporter who caught the most important beat in Las Vegas of his day that was organized crime.

Then a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun, Jeff took on one of the biggest, meanest mobsters on the strip. A prime target of the feds is Tony Spolatro, the outfit's representative in Vegas. Tony Spolatro, a power player for the Chicago mob, played by Joe Pesci in Scorsese's film Casino. You said I'm bringing heat on you? Here's Jeff Gehrman talking about Spilatro in the podcast Mobbed Up. He had a reputation for being a brutal killer, yet he was never convicted of a single murder. A podcast Jeff made about a year before he died. He had the coldest eyes I've ever seen.

In my stories, I got used to calling Spolaccio by his street name, Tony the Ant. He hated that, and it sometimes left me at the receiving end of Spolaccio's nasty stares and his menacing fits of anger. The irony of all of this is that Jeff was not a tall man, was not a strong man, but he toughed it out and he went toe to toe with these guys year in and year out. And some of these guys were dangerous guys. Try as they did, they couldn't scare him, says Brianna. After his tires had been slashed and some spooky things were happening to him, he told a mob affiliate in a bar to call off his dogs.

Then he got punched in the face. He later described that as a badge of honor. A couple of hours later, with four stitches under my lip, I had a war story to tell. As the mob slowly lost its grip on Vegas, Jeff built a career exposing dirty business, government corruption, and crime. Rhonda, the former assistant managing editor for investigations at the RJ, worked with him for three years. He kept digging and digging and digging, and he was like the dog, the little dog that would take a bite of your pants and wouldn't let go. You know, he was just so laser-focused

on continuing to go deeper and deeper and deeper into a story. That tenacity helped him expose the truth in stories that could have remained in the shadows. He was one of the few journalists, along with his colleague David Ferrara, to report on the Susan Winters case, a woman whose parents doubted the suicide ruling in their daughter's death. And Jeff started putting pieces together, working with the attorney for the family,

that the way that she killed herself was so unseemly that it just didn't add up. And once he started, and he started pulling on that thread, and then he started pulling on a rope, and then it turned into a chain. That chain turned into a series of stories that targeted the husband. Turns out Susan died from ingesting a lethal combination of painkillers and antifreeze. The husband, who was charged with murder, ultimately pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sent to prison. As hard-charging and public as Jeff was in his work life,

the lifelong bachelor was notoriously private about his personal life. He was always back to business, back to business. This man was born to be a reporter. A man who lived for his job, and as it turns out, a man who may have died for it. The entire newsroom rallied together. His colleagues had no idea who did this or why. But they were determined to do what Jeff Gehrman would have done. Find out. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand,

lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn. And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn.

When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The RJ staff was in mourning. Their sorrow in full display on Jeff Gehrman's desk. It's a reminder that this team is not going to be the same without him,

but we can carry on the way he would want us to. And that meant doing what he would have done. The staff started tugging on threads and searching for clues, working nonstop on one of the most important stories of their careers. Who killed Jeff Gehrman? Immediately, I started thinking in my head, all right, who had threatened Jeff in any way in the last five months? Who could have possibly done this?

had threatened Jeff in any way in the last five months. Who could have possibly done this? Executive editor Glenn Cook asked Rhonda to come up with a short list of people to consider. One of the names I gave him was Robert Tellis. And who is Robert Tellis? He was a Clark County elected official in charge of the public administrator's office, which handles estates of people who

are deceased. One of the estate coordinators in Tellus' office, Alicia Goodwin, had reached out to Jeff Gehrman in March of 2022. She had filed a formal complaint with the Clark County Office of Diversity on behalf of herself and some colleagues, claiming Robert Tellis harassed, bullied, and discriminated against them. He was a horrible, horrible human being. Monster is the right word. But Alicia says the county did nothing. It was always, he's an elected official, there's nothing we can do. Jeff agreed to hear what Alicia and her colleagues,

Jeff agreed to hear what Alicia and her colleagues, Noreen Pagdanganan, Rita Reed, and Jessica Coleman, had to say. And when he finally talked to us and he let us tell what had happened to us, and he said, no, I'm going to look into this, I think that's the only thing that gave us enough energy to keep going. According to the women, the trouble began almost immediately after Robert Telles took office in January 2019. Rita, a supervisor, was his second-in-command and a 12-year veteran of the office. He came in very abruptly into the office and he slammed his palms down on my desk with a real loud bang. Like a...

Oh, yes, absolutely. And he leaned forward and he said, we're ripping off the bandage. You no longer supervise anyone. No one reports to you. They all report to me. And he turned around and he walked out. And I just sat there stunned. The women say they were ordered

not to speak to each other in the office. It felt dangerous to even have a hello, good morning conversation with coworkers in passing. If caught, the consequences could be severe, says Alicia. She remembers getting called into Tellis' office after he saw her and two other women talking. We walked into his office and he said, sit down and shut up. You're not going to talk. I'm going to talk. And he just got this look on his face. He sat back and he pointed at

Naren and said, f*** you. What was it like to be in that room and receiving that? It was scary because I did not want to upset him because I knew how he could be. Despite years of service, all the women say they feared for their jobs. And Jessica, who safeguarded the property of the deceased in a caged room, says she feared for her physical safety.

She says Telus would sometimes come in and threaten her. There was an instance where he got in my face and, you know, he's yelling and I'm sort of backed up against the cage door. He was trying to physically intimidate you? Yes, yes. He would bring his chairs up really close and demand that you really pay attention and look him in the eye while he told you horrible things. One of those horrible things, says Jessica, almost did her in.

Alone in the cage together, she says, Tellis started by saying that he noticed she never talked to anyone in the office, a bizarre comment considering his no talking rule. And he goes, if you keep going down this road, you're going to be like our cases and you're just going to die alone and nobody's going to find you. And I sat there and cried. And then after that, it's hard to admit. Then I started thinking the best thing I could do would be to sacrifice myself for the girls. And I had actually picked out a place that I was going to hang myself in the vault in view of the door because he would

always come by and make sure sure i was working and i thought this will be good if they have to find me this way then the county will have to do something mercifully jessica realized that was not the solution to the problem but they came up with another plan the women believed telus was having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate in the office named Roberta. Roberta, they claimed, used that relationship to assume power and privilege beyond her job title. Is there any doubt in your mind that the two of them

were having a romantic affair? No, absolutely not. romantic affair? No. Absolutely not. None whatsoever? No. But they needed proof. So they decided to follow them. We had seen a pattern, short dress day. If they went the same direction, we knew that we needed to go.

It was always to the same place, says Alicia, a parking garage in a nearby mall. The alleged lovers would park next to each other. We started to take pictures and we started to video. That's Roberta's car on the left, Robert Tellis' on the right. So how did you position yourselves where you could get some video? Very carefully. In a car? Sometimes in a car, sometimes we would get out of our car. There were kind of some cutouts and pillars where you could get angles here and there, and

we just tried to move around and to get the best that we could. According to the women, the alleged lovers would ultimately end up in the back seat of Roberta's car. Roberta has said that they would sit in the back seat because she wanted to be able to make eye contact with him as they were having important office discussions. That is what she said. And your reaction to that?

Well, that last video we got, we had a little better recorder. You can see the shadows and you can see those heads going together. We felt it was so inappropriate. But this was the shot they believed was the most telling. Roberta leaving the car and smoothing down her dress. It was so unbelievable and it just took a moment to to digest that it was, I mean at that moment it was like so real. After seeing the videos, Jeff asked Roberta about them.

She responded, I have not had an inappropriate relationship with him. The RJ published the story. Let me read the lead in this first article. The Clark County Public Administrator's Office has been mired in turmoil and internal dissension over the past two years, with allegations of emotional stress, bullying, and favoritism leading to secret videotaping of the boss and a co-worker outside the office. That story went all over the state of Nevada and before long all over the country. As this settled in, are you thinking mission accomplished or are you thinking what's going to happen to us next? Both.

Yeah, the terror didn't stop. The terror almost just got worse. It just changed face. What do you make of Robert Tellez's alleged behavior in the workplace? Chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and X. Jeff Gehrman's story, with its allegations of turmoil, bullying, and hostility, had a swift and searing effect at the public administrator's office. The county finally sent in an outside consultant, and Robert Telles lost his bid for re-election in the primary, ironically to his arch-enemy, Rita Reid. But Jeff wasn't through with Robert

Telles yet. He wrote three more scathing pieces, chronicling the fall of the once up-and-coming young Democrat. And another story was in the works. But Jeff Gehrman did not survive to write it. Jeff Gehrman was found stabbed to death outside his home in the Northwest. When news of Jeff's murder broke, the women Jeff had fought for were overcome with grief, but also dread, afraid of what they may have unleashed. Alicia's dad, a former Las Vegas police detective who introduced her to Jeff and said that Jeff had been killed. And I didn't even

get to react before my dad's next word where I know who my first suspect is. As soon as those words came out of his mouth, I knew immediately, too. That it was Robert? That it was Robert. The staff at the Las Vegas Review-Journal was wondering the same thing. Could Robert Tellis have been involved? The journalistic hounds are released, right? Yes.

We weren't going to do anything until every little rock was overturned and every little fact was found out about what this guy was and who he was. Art Kane, now the investigation's editor, was a reporter at the time. We started finding out a lot of interesting things about him. For example, he was arrested while he was public administrator for choking his wife. Can you please send somebody here? My husband is going crazy. There's body cam video that we have obtained of that.

Who did I hit? Cameras! Our cameras are on. You guys just want to take me down because I'm a public official. Tell us slurring his words was arrested for domestic battery and resisting arrest. There is sufficient evidence to book me right now. There is sufficient evidence to book you right now. Yes. And I'm not trying to be like, I'm a public official, so, you know, do what I want you to do. I'm saying I'm not a idiot.

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. No one ever heard about it because no one covers DUIs and domestics, and that flew under the radar. Looking back, there were other warning signs, says Brianna, such as these. A series of tweets Telus posted in response to Jeff's reporting. Read that one for me. Looking forward to lying smear piece number four by at Jay Gehrman, RJ. Hashtag one trick pony. I think he's mad that I haven't crawled into a hole and died.

Laughing emoji. What did you think of that one? Somebody who's pretty pissed off. But the journalists knew angry tweets didn't prove anything. They needed facts, and facts were hard to come by. All they had were these two still surveillance photographs the police had released of the suspect in Jeff's neighborhood. The outfit, bizarre as it seems,

may have been a strategic choice, says Art. The outfit is very typical of what construction workers and people who do landscaping wear because they want to cover up all their skin from the sun. When the police released a surveillance video, Review Journal photographer Kevin Cannon immediately noticed something the big hat and orange reflective shirt couldn't hide. The man's walk. His gait.

How would you describe that gait? It's a bit of a limp and a favor on one side, it seems. Kevin went digging in his files and found this. a walking shot he had taken of Robert Tellis when Jeff interviewed him at his office. The staff compared both videos side by side. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it was definitely the identical gate in my mind. Kevin then went through hundreds of still photos he had taken that day and found this it's a very chilling photo and it's the one and only photo where jeff and telus are in the same photo executive editor glenn cook says his staff moved forward on the operating theory that robert tellus could have been the killer but they still didn't have hard evidence. Then, the police released this, a photo of the suspect's car,

a maroon Yukon Denali. Show me what you did. But you just type in the address, you pull up the Google Street View. Assistant City Editor David Ferrara immediately typed Tellus' home address into Google Earth. And if you zoom in on the house, that maroon vehicle is there parked in the driveway. The maroon SUV was registered to Tellus' wife. And at that moment, we send reporters and photographers straight to the house.

reporters and photographers straight to the house. And the message I give our Metro editor is, do not engage, do not approach, do not be seen. This man is very likely a suspect in the murder of your colleague, and we can't predict how he's going to react to anyone being near him. But the photographer, crouching behind his dashboard, managed to get what he came for. And is this the picture that is taken? That's the photo. This is the money photo. It's the money shot. Robert Tellis, on a scorching hot 110 degree day day is in jeans in his driveway washing the maroon GMC Yukon Denali. This must have been a moment where, I don't know if there's any cheering going on in your newsroom,

but what a development. What does this mean? Well, it means that possibly Jeff was killed by the last story he wrote about. I mean, this was his last investigation, and the suspect appears to be the guy he wrote about and basically took him out of office. Without corroboration from police documents, the Review-Journal couldn't go with the story. But Glenn Cook was betting it wouldn't be long. His reporters had seen unmarked police cars outside Robert Tellis' home. We have every reason to believe at this point that it's only a matter of time before a search warrant is going to be executed at that house. A search that will uncover crucial evidence.

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early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. As the investigators geared up to serve Robert Tellis with a search warrant, the Review Journal up to serve Robert Tellis with a search warrant, the review journal needed to be sure it would be the first to break the news. It was important because Jeff was always first, and we wouldn't want to let him down and not be the first. We polish that story, and then we sit on it until police move in.

that story and then we sit on it until police move in. In the early morning of September 7th, 2022, just five days after Jeff Gehrman's murder, Tellus was brought in for questioning as police searched his home and cars. While he was in custody, detectives collected a DNA sample from Tellus. They also took the jeans he was wearing into evidence and gave him a white paper suit to change into before he was taken back to his house and swarmed by reporters eagerly awaiting his arrival. Did you do this? Did you make this harder? Did you do this?

Can you tell us anything? Inside Tellis' home, investigators say they found gym shoes and a duffel bag similar to what was seen in the surveillance video. And when they looked in the garage, detectives say they discovered even more. A straw sun hat, or what was left of it. The sun hat. The sun hat. Cut up into pieces. Yes. left of it.

The sun hat. The sun hat. Cut up into pieces. Yes. But police say the most crucial piece of evidence would come from the DNA sample that was taken from Tellis earlier that day. We received positive DNA results that showed Robert Tellis' DNA at the crime scene. Tellis' DNA was under Jeff's fingernails. There's no doubt in my mind that Jeff knew exactly what was happening in that split second,

and he made sure he got the evidence. With a DNA match apparently secured, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department descended on Robert Tellis' home once again and began clearing the area for an arrest. And this is where he was arrested? Yes. Reviewed Journal photographer Kevin Cannon was one of dozens of media who had been waiting outside Tellis' home that day.

What happens when the cops arrive? Suddenly, the police said, okay, everybody out. They kicked the entire news, everyone who was here, out. Where do you go? So I made a beeline to the front door of a neighbor who I befriended earlier when I arrived. And they, without saying a word, opened the door and welcomed me in and welcomed me to their backyard where I could have a view of Tellus' house. And you could still see the house from your vantage point there? From the backyard, yeah.

of Tellis' house. And you could still see the house from your vantage point? From the backyard, yeah. Back in the RJ newsroom, some of the staff anxiously kept up with what was happening at the scene through the office's police radio and heard that Tellis refused to come out of his home. Our target is still calm on the phone. However, he has made a couple of 405 comments. However, he has made a couple of 405 comments.

405 comments, a code Las Vegas police use to indicate comments associated with self-harm. It was kind of scary at that point. We were thinking, is this all going to end on his terms now? At least 405 comments. We're going to go ahead and make the official request for SWAT. now? Well, my colleagues heard through the scanner that they were gonna move in because he had cut himself and they wanted to save him before he harmed himself more. And they wanted to get to him. Right. The SWAT team made its move and that's when Kevin got ready. And so you were positioned, you were ready to go then? Right, I was ready to go the whole time.

I mean, I had my finger on the button the whole time. Where do you look, what do you see behind you? Well, I see them rolling him out on a stretcher down around that corner, down that path, out the driveway and put in an amulet right here. Kevin was the only photographer that day to capture Tellis' dramatic arrest. His image of Tellis on the stretcher

made the front page of the Review-Journal the following morning. The next day, I opened the paper, and there was the photo on the front page with the banner headline, Stunning Arrest. And it was stunning. And satisfying for you after all that. Very satisfying.

It becomes huge news, obviously, all over the country. A reporter allegedly killed by a politician for a story he wrote. That's pretty unheard of. After Tellis was treated at the hospital for his self-inflicted injuries, he was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. Six weeks later, Tellis was indicted by a grand jury for murder with use of a deadly weapon. How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?

Not guilty, Your Honor. Soon after, evidence from the grand jury was released by the Clark County District Court, including that grainy surveillance attack video. I think probably what we found some of the most disturbing is the last three videos. Minutes later, it shows the assailant returning to the scene of the crime and parking that maroon Yukon Denali in front of Jeff's driveway. And now you'll see him walk over and make sure that Jeff is dead. And you're theorizing he is checking to see if he's dead,

because obviously Jeff saw this person. He wants to make sure that there's not a witness that's still alive. Seemingly satisfied, the suspect walked back to his car and left. Since his arrest, Tellis has been in jail awaiting trial. Did you murder Jeff Gehrman? What do you make of the evidence

found inside of Robert Tellis' home? See more evidence photos from the case at 48hours.com. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet. A brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time,

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Good morning. We met Robert Tellis for a video interview at the Clark County Detention Center and began with the question on everyone's mind. Did you murder Jeff Gehrman? No, sir, I did not. If you did not commit this murder, who did? I will reserve that for trial. You have said that you were framed.

Do you stand by that in this conversation? I do. I absolutely do. Tellis says he can explain the evidence against him. The torn up sun hat, the Yukon Denali, and his DNA under Jeff's fingernails. I say that that evidence, or so-called evidence, was planted, along with the other items that were allegedly found in my home as well. And we will go ahead and prove that at trial. How could someone who is trying to frame you plant your DNA under his fingernails?

How would that have happened? First, they would have had to have gotten your DNA, and then when would they have planted it under his fingernails? It seems far-fetched. Well, you know, crazier things have happened, and I'll tell you that I didn't kill Mr. German. Come on, man. That's overwhelming. DNA ends up under his fingernails, your DNA. This is an overwhelming case against you, Robert, that you committed this murder.

And again, sir, you know, you have the facts wrong. And I will demonstrate at a trial. He also says he will show he didn't do those things Gehrman wrote about in his articles. Robert, you're saying that what these women have said to me, what they told Jeff Gehrman and he printed, those are all lies? If you look at what Mr. Gehrman printed, none of it was, none of it had any facts within it, right? It was all alleged opinion about, you know, how they felt that I acted.

But it's hard to argue with this. The footage the women shot of their boss and his alleged lover in the parking garage. Let me ask you straight. Were you and Roberta having an affair? No, she was a confidant, but I'll leave it at that. But Jeff was not willing to leave it at that. He was planning on writing another piece. According to police documents, Tellis and Roberta got word the day before the murder that there was a planned release of emails and messages between her and tell us to the Review Journal.

There was a freedom of information request that Jeff had put out and you were told that new messages and emails were going to come out describing the relationship between you and Roberta, communications between the two of you, and it suggested that you made a decision to murder him to try to silence that, to prevent that from being published. What do you say about that? I say that's a mischaracterization of things. I'll tell you that what was going to be released, and I saw it was going to be released, had no inklings of any type of, you know, confidential relationship, any type of supposed affair.

It was all business related. So that would not have been a motivation because there was nothing that was going to be produced that would look bad. Prosecutors have mentioned this as a contributing motive to the murder. In Robert Tellis' mind, Jeff Gehrman ruined his marriage, ruined his political career, embarrassed him,

and was continuing to report on him rather than leave him alone. If the intention of the alleged killing was to stop Jeff's reporting, it didn't work. After his murder, the RJ journalists hunted through Jeff's notes. Picking up where Jeff left off. And completed the stories Jeff had been working on at the time of his death, including another on Robert Tellis' toxic past, a story that investigates claims of sexual harassment, all of which he has denied. The main thing here is you cannot kill a reporter and kill the story.

You just can't do that. In life, Jeff Gehrman was known to protect his sources at all costs. In death, Jeff was still protecting them. After the murder, the police took all his devices, which harbored the names of countless sources. The Review-Journal went to court. And in a hard-fought case that went all the way to the Nevada Supreme Court,

the paper won protection for his sources. That'll be the Gehrman rule, that you will not be able to go into a reporter's files, you will not be able to go through their phone, you will not be able to look at their sources, even after death. even after death. These four Jeff Gehrman sources are not about to let the world forget the reporter who fought to protect them. They have attended almost every hearing trying to come to terms with their feelings of guilt. Because no matter what logic is in your head, it's not your fault that Jeff made his choices and that he was a professional. Your heart tells you

if we wouldn't have made that call, he wouldn't have died in that violent way that day. And if I was to talk to him today, I think the first thing I would say is I'm sorry, but not for him, for me, because he wouldn't accept my apology. But I need to give it. Jeff Gehrman was a reporter's reporter, one of the good guys, a man who spent a lifetime speaking truth to power,

truths that are now baked into the history of this place. A neon strip of gritty stories laid bare beneath the desert sky. He told anyone who asked that he was never going to retire, that he was going to report until his last breath. And that's exactly what he did. And he gave his life to this job. He literally gave his life to this job. I think that's his legacy. Join me Tuesday for Postmortem from 48 Hours, where we'll dive even deeper into today's episode and answer your questions about the case. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.

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