The Journalist Who Dug Too Deep - Jeff German

September 30, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the story of Jeff German, a fearless journalist who took on some of the most dangerous investigations in the U.S., until one case led him too far.

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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband.

I'm Payton Morland.

I'm Garrett Morland.

He's the husband.

And I'm the husband, and I'm very upset because we just recorded for 15 minutes and didn’t hit the record button on the audio.

Round two! Round two, here we go. You know, it’s kind of weird repeating the same things you just said for the last 15 minutes, but here we go. At least we noticed it before we did a whole episode.

All right, jumping right into it. Merch: Thanks to everyone who has bought merch—we really appreciate it. We're glad you guys like the designs. It’ll be up for another week. Seriously, thank you for the support!

Halloween’s coming up soon, so get your merch. Second, to our Apple, Patreon, and Spotify subscribers: Thanks for paying for extra bonus content! We really appreciate it. Thank you for supporting us. A reminder: two bonus episodes a month, as well as ad-free content on everything. We love you guys so much. We love all of you!

Should I just hop right in? Should I just keep firing away?

Keep going!

All right, I’m going to keep firing away. Payton and I bought season tickets to the Utah Hockey Club. It’s an NHL team. They were Arizona’s team, but they’re now in Utah. Honestly, it’s Payton and I’s new favorite thing. We love it! We love eating some food, watching hockey, and hanging out. Payton loves standing up, yelling at all the people when they fight. She’s the first person to stand up as soon as a fight breaks out. I love it, she loves it, and we’re having a good time.

It’s crazy how 15 minutes can turn into three minutes. Payton doesn’t really stand up and start cursing—I made that up.

No, I do stand up and yell, though, when they fight because it’s so fun to just scream at the top of my lungs: “Punch him in the face! Rip off his helmet!”

Uh-huh, you tell 'em!

"Knock the teeth! Get the teeth!"

You tell 'em, baby!

That’s what I like to yell. So it actually has been really fun. Other than that, just a reminder, we have our Twitch streams every Tuesday and Thursday—come join us!

We have our new YouTube channel. It’s called Payton and Garrett. Look it up on YouTube; it’s all of our Twitch content, plus new content that you guys aren’t seeing if you're just listening to this. We post three videos a week on there—shorter videos of basically what’s happening on Twitch, clips, shorts. Go and check it out—Payton and Garrett. There will be links in the description somewhere on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere that you are listening.

Also, I’ve still been going to the gym, staying consistent. Hold me accountable! I’m actually kind of proud of myself that I keep forcing myself to go, but I’m doing it and it feels good.

What about you, babe? You got anything?

Uh, no, I’m not going to the gym.

Well, baby, and I, you know, it doesn’t matter, I’m just living. Payton has a little bit of a headache and hasn’t been feeling great this morning, but she’s here, she’s with us, supporting us as we support her.

And now, let’s hop into today’s case.

Our sources for this episode are CBS News, CNN, Seattle Times, AP News, Las Vegas Review-Journal, NPR, People.com, New York Times.com, UPI.com, Columbia Journalism Review, BBC.com, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and 8NewsNow.com.

It's safe to say that being a journalist today can be a little difficult, especially because, in this day and age, the title comes with some sour connotations. Sure, there are the TMZ-type journalists—the ones who follow around celebrities looking for the next salacious, maybe not even true, story. Then there are the few who are just looking to make a buck, capitalizing off someone’s hardships.

But there’s a whole other side to journalism that is so underappreciated, and it's made up of those who are willing to put their necks on the line to expose the ugly truths about our world. Think about it: you have journalists who head into war zones to show the world what’s happening there. Some are tasked with interviewing powerful subjects accused of terrible crimes. And then there are those looking to expose some criminal or government organization that’s meant to be kept a secret.

This doesn’t just put the journalists' reputations at risk—it puts their lives at risk, too. In 2022, 69 reporters were killed around the globe for taking on difficult stories.

Holy crap. I guess we’ll get into it. I assume most of those killings happened outside the U.S.?

Yes, only one of them happened right here in the United States. And that’s obviously the case we’re going to be covering.

All right. But it’s not under the circumstances you’d imagine. See, the story of Jeff German proves that any assignment can be a matter of life or death, and you should never underestimate your subject.

Like many of our cases, I would normally travel back in time and tell you a little bit about the victim. But this story is not going to be like that, because, to be honest, there’s not a whole lot of information out there about the hard-hitting journalist in today’s case, Jeff German. Maybe that’s strategic, or maybe it’s ironic. Despite his years of game-changing stories, Jeff’s early years have flown under most people’s radar, even when it was time for him to become the story.

But here’s what I can tell you about Jeff. In 2022, he was a bachelor, and from what I found, he was never married—at least not to a person.

Okay, I thought you meant he was on The Bachelor.

Oh no, no, no! He was an actual bachelor.

Okay, got it.

And people speculate that he was never married because he was married to his career. If you asked his colleague, Jeff Scheuer (not Jeff German), he’d tell you that Jeff was, quote, “a reporter probably from birth to death. Ink was running very heavily in his veins.”

I know he went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he got a master’s degree. Eventually, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, this might have been for personal reasons, but it was more likely for a job. In the 1970s, when Jeff made the move, Vegas had plenty of hard-hitting stories to report on. There were casino robberies, political scandals, murders, and of course, the Mafia.

After joining the publication known as the Las Vegas Sun, Jeff got one of his first big breaks, focusing on one of Vegas’s hardest-to-nail mobsters: a man named Tony Spilotro.

It just sounds like a Mafia name, you know? It just has the ring to it. It was a name so infamous that Joe Pesci's character in Scorsese’s movie Casino was actually modeled after Tony. See, Tony was known not just for being a conniving thief—he was responsible for a lot of the violent mob-related crime in Vegas. But he had never once actually gotten blood on his own hands. For years, he managed to fly under the radar.

That is, until our reporter, Jeff German, came along and picked up his story. But right after printing his first piece on Tony, Jeff found himself on Tony's radar. Jeff would go back to his car only to find his tires slashed. He received menacing phone calls at his house, and other concealed threats were hurled his way. But Jeff didn’t let up.

In fact, when he ran into one of Tony's henchmen at a Las Vegas bar, Jeff walked right up to him and said, “Hey, you guys need to back off of me.” Which—man—that’s scary.

Crazy. That's insane.

And Jeff was actually met with a stern punch to the face as a response.

I’m sure he was.

But this was something that Jeff wore as a badge of honor. It was proof that his stories were valid. He was on to something. And through it all, he managed to continue covering the topic without much more harassment or serious threats. Probably because Jeff was like a dog with a bone—there was no taking a good story away from him.

The former Gaming Control Board chairman of Vegas even called Jeff, “the most tenacious reporter I have ever dealt with,” and said that he "would not take a simple platitude for an answer."

Jeff even went on to compile his stories and run-ins with the mob into a true-crime book titled Murder in Sin City: The Death of a Las Vegas Crime Boss. This was in 2001.

Okay.

Then, in 2009, after nearly two decades at the Las Vegas Sun, Jeff was laid off. But he quickly joined another Vegas publication—the Las Vegas Review-Journal. There, Jeff kept breaking stories on some of the biggest things to happen in Las Vegas, from the 2017 mass shooting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel to a series of failed inspections that led to the disastrous 2019 Alpine Motel apartment fires.

His subjects and sources ranged from whistleblowers to government officials to FBI agents.

I can’t believe that shooting in Vegas was in 2017—it feels like it was only a couple of years ago.

I know. And Jeff German was the one to cover it all.

Now, in 2022, Jeff was still pursuing tough assignments. He had just exposed a $500 million Ponzi scheme that was targeting members of—wait, don’t tell me—cryptocurrency?

Nope—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What?

One of the two. And he was also breaking a case on a corrupt government official who had been verbally abusive to his employees and was carrying on an affair.

But through all of this, there was one thing Jeff never lost: his integrity as a journalist. He always maintained close, trusted relationships with his contacts and sources, and he protected them too—refusing to ever give up their identities, no matter what the situation. And then, in 2022, the now 69-year-old Jeff German was at the height of his career, and he told his colleagues he had no plans to retire anytime soon. That would all change on Labor Day weekend.

On Friday, September 2, 2022, Jeff German was at his Las Vegas home, taking a little vacation from work. That day, he left his house to grab something to eat. He came back, opened his garage door—but he never shut it again. This was something Jeff’s neighbors found suspicious when they noticed an entire day had gone by, and his garage door was still open. They texted Jeff a few times to check if everything was okay, or if maybe he needed them to shut it for him. But Jeff wasn’t answering their messages.

So, around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 3, they walked over to Jeff’s house to knock on his door. When they entered the yard, they saw Jeff. Only, he was lying on the side of his house, next to a set of bushes. They walked up, and it was obvious—Jeff was dead.

Wow.

He had been stabbed seven times—four in the neck and three in the torso.

Jeez, man.

He was completely unresponsive, and after calling 911, first responders arrived at the scene only to pronounce the 69-year-old Jeff German dead from his injuries. With no family of his own, no partners, no roommates, police were left wondering—what could have happened here?

Now, luckily, Jeff’s neighbors did have something of use: a video from their personal security cameras taken around the time that Jeff had come home the previous day. It showed a man dressed in an orange vest—sort of like one you’d wear while doing construction—and he also had a large straw hat on. He was carrying some sort of duffel bag.

The man appeared to be walking down the street before making a turn toward Jeff’s yard. The suspect opened the gate and let himself into the side of Jeff’s house. Here’s where things got really shocking: in this video, you can see a sort of struggle in the bushes along the side of Jeff’s home.

Oh my gosh.

You can’t really make out what’s happening, but based on the state Jeff was found in, this was clearly the murder.

Yeah, he’s being killed—like, on camera.

Uh-huh. And then, after about just two minutes, the man dressed in orange emerges from the bushes, walks down the sidewalk, and gets into a maroon SUV that was parked across the street. Then, he just drives away. And Jeff is never seen on footage again.

But the assailant does come back to the scene later. He’s spotted on the footage again, getting out of his car and walking around the side of the house. Now, police are wondering: why would he come back? Did he leave something behind? Was he checking to see if Jeff had actually died?

Either way, police thought, okay, obviously, we have our suspect. But who is this person, and what is their connection to Jeff?

After speaking with other people in the neighborhood, police learned that a suspect fitting the same description had been seen casing the block over the last few weeks. There had also been a few home burglaries in the area recently, as well as what neighbors described as "weird people walking around in the middle of the night."

So, this is what neighbors say once Jeff is found dead.

Okay.

But here’s the thing: investigators knew from their years of experience that Jeff’s murder did not look like a robbery. Nothing was missing from Jeff’s home, and the number of stab wounds felt more like a personal attack—perhaps even an act of revenge. On the other hand, this didn’t really look like a professional hit job either. If it was, the hired man didn’t do a very good job of covering his tracks, not to mention the crime was committed in broad daylight on a holiday weekend when people would be off of work.

When police spoke with Jeff’s colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, they found that Jeff had never raised any concerns about his safety or reported any threats against him. But as we know, that doesn’t mean Jeff didn’t have enemies.

As I mentioned, Jeff wasn’t the kind of guy to write up a big puff piece. He was the kind of person who went toe-to-toe with some of Vegas's toughest outlaws for over 40 years, and he had gained quite a few enemies over the years, including members of the mafia. So, police had to consider—could there have been someone holding a grudge against Jeff German?

It’s like, why now, though?

Right. Right. He’s, what, almost 70 at this point?

Yes, like why now? There were probably a lot of people who had kept a close eye on him, but would any of them be as bold as to murder him?

Jeff’s colleagues at the Las Vegas Review-Journal thought it was very likely, actually. So, they began doing their own investigation. I mean, obviously, the police were looking into the murder, but don’t put it past a group of journalists to say, "We are going to solve our colleague’s murder."

Diving into Jeff’s ongoing stories, they began tracking down some of his sources to see if they might have any indication of what Jeff was working on, or what could have possibly put him in danger. They went through his emails, his computer files, his notes, and they paired the information they had with some of the details that had been released by police—like that suspicious maroon SUV that the main suspect was seen getting into.

Jeff’s colleagues found that the car matched the description of one of the subjects Jeff was reporting on. So instead of calling the police and saying, "Hey, we went through his notes and there’s a subject who has a maroon SUV," the journalists themselves decided to go down to this guy’s house. Because, of course, they wanted the first scoop—they didn’t want the police to get it.

Yup.

And sure enough, he was in the driveway washing a maroon SUV—the same make and model that had been seen leaving the scene of the crime.

Do you want to take a guess at who you think this is that he was reporting on?

Like, you're not going to have a name, but like, what type of person?

I mean, the mafia, right? I mean, what other group would kill someone for reporting on them?

You’ve got my head thinking right now.

I'm glad—that's what it's supposed to do.

Yeah, thanks, babe.

So, if not the mafia, what other group? Another corrupt group of people—the government?

The owner of that vehicle was a local politician.

No, get out of here, dude. No freaking way.

Was that a hot take? Insane. Was that a hot take?

I mean, if it’s a local politician, it’s not a hot take. I just feel like… shady. Look, shady character. If anyone wants to disagree with me, go ahead, but our government’s nuts. No one can deny that.

We have for sure been hiding things and continue to hide things. If you deny that, then I don’t know what to tell you. You’re oblivious.

I’m not sure it was always this way, but I think today, if someone’s in politics, I’m like, "Look, if they would just come out and show me the aliens they have hidden, then I would be happy, and everything would be fine."

So, this local politician’s name was Robert Tellus. Now, the 47-year-old Robert was a Clark County public administrator, a department whose job was to handle the estates of the deceased.

I can’t believe that his exact car was seen leaving the murder scene. The police are going to have a field day with this when they find out that the journalist already confronted him.

Yeah. So, they would handle estates of the deceased along with other things like budget analysis, urban planning, networking, and PR—a whole bunch of political stuff. But earlier in 2022, Jeff Gman obviously received a tip about this man, Robert.

And it was a tip that suggested there were a lot of disturbing things happening around Robert’s office. It was around March, about seven months before the murder, when Jeff got a call from a woman named Alicia Goodwin. Alicia told Jeff she didn’t know who else to go to. She had already filed formal complaint after formal complaint to the County Office of Diversity about her boss, Robert Tellus, but the county reportedly was brushing her concerns aside.

All they told her was, “Hey, he’s an elected official. There’s nothing they could really do to help her.” So, Alicia was like, "I’m going to go to Jeff and see if he can take this story public." It was a story that claimed Robert had made a very toxic work environment. He was harassing Alicia and her colleagues, bullying them, discriminating against them. This was something that had started almost the day Robert Tellus stepped foot in their office back in January of 2019.

And here’s just a little taste of what he did, or at least what Jeff had uncovered. Robert refused to let the women in the office speak to one another.

What? That’s insane.

“Good morning,” or “Have a nice night,” was off-limits. They could not talk to each other, and if they broke that rule, the punishment was being called into Robert’s office and screamed at. Literally, “Sit down, shut up, and F you.”

No way. That’s…

Okay, so Alicia actually got a few of her other female colleagues to come forward to Jeff and say, “Hey, she’s not making it up.”

I was going to ask, like, did other people come forward?

Yes, other female colleagues came forward and said, “No, we’re validating her claims. This is happening, and this is real.”

And I will say, this is a very manipulative and toxic way to control people. I mean, to say you can't even talk to someone?

A woman named Jessica Coleman said there were times when she feared for her physical safety in the workplace. Robert would get in their faces, scream, and corner them up against walls. He would just yell at them. It’s insane to me that people like that are real. A few of them even said that he would look at them and force them to look him in the eyes, as he said these horrible things.

In fact, Jessica said Robert once told her she was going to, quote, "die alone, and no one was ever going to find her."

He said that to a female employee?

"You're going to die alone, and no one is ever going to find you."

These are words and actions that pushed Jessica so far that she admitted to Jeff she had considered dying by suicide because of the work situation. She was like, "If I was going to do it, I was going to do it at the office, so he had to find me."

In Jessica's mind, this was the only way to get the county to take any action against Robert because they had tried to come forward and say, "Hey, this elected official is abusing his power," and no one was listening. But obviously, that was not the solution.

When the women came together, they saw an opportunity to secretly take Robert Tellus down. Once they had the evidence they needed, they knew they would take it to the media, and hopefully, people would begin to listen. The women had a strong feeling that Robert was having an affair with one of the female staffers in his office—one of the only people he ever acted favorably towards. That person was a 45-year-old woman named Roberta Lee Canette.

Now, Robert was also giving Roberta... I mean, what are the chances? Yeah, that’s pretty funny. He was giving Roberta tasks that were above her pay grade. Between that, the short dresses, and sneaking off at lunch, Alicia, Jessica, and the rest of the women were like, "Something is going on between these two."

Something the married Robert Tellus—who was also up for reelection in June of 2022—would definitely want to keep a secret.

So, the women began following the two of them. Both Robert and Roberta would set off in their own cars and always head to the same destination: a mall parking garage just a few miles away from the office. One would get into the other’s car, and I’ll let you fill in the gaps of what the women from the office discovered.

But now it was like a full task force. Alicia and her co-workers began assigning different days to follow their boss and this fellow co-worker. They were tasked with taking video and photos of this ongoing affair happening in the car—that’s what I’m talking about, man—including one where Roberta is clearly getting out of the car, pulling her dress back down.

Now they had something on their boss, Robert, that could not only blow up his career but also his marriage. They knew they had to bring it to someone who would take this story seriously. So, that’s when they called up Jeff Gman. The women said Jeff was the first person to ever really sit and listen to them about what was happening at work. For the first time, they felt seen, and if there was any hope in exposing Robert Tellus, Jeff Garman was their guy.

I mean, he faced off against the Las Vegas mob, for crying out loud. Someone like Robert probably felt like child’s play to Jeff.

Alicia said that Jeff not only pursued the story; he spent countless hours listening to all of their experiences, and he would even check in with them repeatedly to make sure they were doing okay as the story broke. So, Jeff really did break this story.

It was a day that came in May of 2022. Jeff released an article titled “County Office in Turmoil: Secret Videos and Claims of Bullying and Hostility.” The piece ultimately cost Robert Tellus the June election. Oh, poor Robert. He was removed from his seat in the public administrator's office.

But Jeff didn’t stop there. That summer, he wrote three more pieces that continued to expose the corrupt official, and he had a fifth piece in the works, which he obviously never got to complete. Thanks to Jeff’s articles, four of the women actually went on to file a lawsuit against Robert Tellus.

But Robert was not the kind of guy to take any of this lying down. After the articles were published and Robert lost the election, he began posting angry messages on social media directed towards Jeff. He tweeted things that read, “Looking forward to lying smear piece number four. I think he’s mad that I haven’t crawled into a hole and died.” He also tweeted, “Jeff himself texted me to tell me article three is coming out, and I’m sure article four will come out soon enough. Jeff, I know you’re obsessed with me, but I’m over you.”

It’s not funny because we know that Jeff got murdered. It’s just embarrassing on Robert’s part. Like, it’s embarrassing, man. Okay? You got exposed. I don’t know else to tell you. You’re a dirtbag. You’re a horrible human being, and I don’t know else to tell you, man.

Apparently, this was followed by some crude text messages from Robert to Jeff as well. But look, these tweets aren’t really that alarming. I’m sure Jeff is used to this kind of thing when he breaks stories on people. I mean, the guy had his tire slashed and was punched in the face at a bar by a mobster.

Yeah, this is baby stuff to him. So, Robert didn’t even register as a threat. But it turns out there was even more dirt on Robert that Jeff hadn’t even gotten around to digging up yet. Like back in 2020, Robert had been arrested for domestic violence after his wife called the cops, saying he came home drunk and was, quote, “going crazy and choking her.”

Oh my gosh!

He then resisted arrest when police showed up, both of which were met with little more than a slap on the wrist for the public official. All to say, it’s very obvious that Robert did have a violent temper in him, and by underestimating this, it might have cost Jeff his life.

So now, with confirmation that Robert Tellus not only had motive to kill Jeff Garman but also that his car was seen at the scene of the crime, police started to look for more confirmation that this is their guy. It starts with that video.

Now, it’s hard to make out the person’s identity because of the giant straw hat, but they also find the orange vest. That might be strategic, like someone was trying to blend in with local construction workers or landscapers.

But it's not the clothing that sets off alarm bells for investigators; it's the person's gait, almost like they are limping or favoring one leg over the other in the video. When it's compared to videos of Robert, that walk is nearly identical.

So by Wednesday, September 7th, police were knocking on Robert's door. They also towed away the maroon SUV that was actually registered to his wife. I think it’s insane that maybe he didn’t care about getting caught. Like, he had to have known he was going to get caught. The car also ran a risk of being caught on camera. That's what I mean. Did he even care? It's 2022; everyone has a Ring doorbell. Do people even think about this ahead of time? Simply Safe doorbell, by the way, you know? It’s like, I don’t know.

So when police searched his home that day, they found a shocking amount of incriminating evidence.

So, Garrett, if you think that Robert was a little silly with his murder plan, just wait until you see what he kept around.

Yeah, let's hear it!

They found the straw hat at Robert's home, the same one seen in the video. I don’t think he cared about getting caught; only it was cut up into pieces and stuffed inside a shopping bag. It also had blood on it. Then they found a pair of shoes matching the suspect's—um, they were stuffed underneath Robert's sofa. Again, they were cut up and had blood on them. They also saw the same duffel bag the suspect was carrying in the video as well.

Oh my gosh!

And as all of this was being uncovered, Robert was down at the police station answering questions. That’s where detectives noticed a pretty nasty cut on Robert's finger. So they went ahead and asked him for a DNA sample. Later that day, police drove Robert home, but they'd be back a few hours later because that DNA sample came back as a match to the DNA found underneath Jeff's fingernails.

How did it take him ten seconds to do that, but we still can't test DNA from 15 years ago? Don’t ask me! Riddle me that, Batwoman!

So, between all of this physical evidence and cellular data that showed Robert had searched for Jeff's house on Google Maps hours before the murder, police had more than enough to arrest Robert. When they arrived at his house that evening, surprise! Robert did not leave peacefully; he refused to come out of his house. A SWAT team was called in.

Oh my gosh!

Then Robert was finally removed from his home, and it wasn't just in handcuffs; he was left on a stretcher after trying to harm himself.

Okay, Robert was treated at a hospital for his injuries and then booked at the Clark County Detention Center. Six weeks later, he was indicted for murder with a deadly weapon.

Wow, fast!

So Robert was denied bail, and prosecutors worked quickly to piece together their case against him. The main theory was that Jeff's story, exposing the behavior of Robert, had demolished his career, blown up his affair, and very possibly ruined his marriage. In an act of rage, Robert premeditated a plan to kill Jeff and executed that plan on September 2nd, 2022.

And we know it's premeditated because eyewitnesses saw him casing the area before the actual crime.

It's weird because at this point, his life’s already ruined—ruined! So like, why? I mean, it's just anger at that point. I get it, but killing him wasn't going to change anything.

Right now, Robert refused to play into any of this; he pleads not guilty to the charges of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Instead, Robert comes up with a very solid explanation for everything during his trial in the summer of 2024. So, just recently, he said he was framed.

This is so ridiculous that I'm not even going to get into the weeds of it, but Robert claimed the whole thing was orchestrated by a team of office colleagues, business owners, and real estate agents he knew, as well as the police—all because he had dedicated his career to trying to rid the city of corruption. Many of those corrupt players existed within his own office, the police force, real estate agencies he was working with, etc. Robert even took the stand at his own trial to try and argue this as his defense. But considering Robert's history and the evidence that was stacked against him, there was very little chance that he would win this case.

Could someone have planted bloody shoes and a hat in his home? Maybe, sure. But could someone have planted his DNA under the fingernail of Jeff Garman? Maybe not—very likely! Like, how do you get skin DNA and put it under someone's fingernails? No, he did it. This is ridiculous!

So when Robert was questioned about the fingernail detail, his response was, "Well, you know crazier things have happened. And I'll tell you that I did not kill Mr. Garman." Good defense! Good defense! I’m sold!

There was one detail the defense relied on heavily to support this—an additional video of that maroon SUV driving by the crime scene after the murder. The defense actually zoomed in on another neighbor's security video to show that the person inside driving the vehicle couldn't have been Robert because Robert was bald, and this person had hair. They also tried to point to some body cam footage from the officers during his arrest and said several minutes of that footage had gone missing or was destroyed.

But the prosecution's argument was a heck of a lot stronger than the defense’s because they had a few more tricks up their sleeve. As I mentioned before, Jeff was working on another article about Robert at the time he died—one that hadn't been finished yet because Jeff was waiting on some public records that he'd requested to come across his desk. But the day before he died, Robert learned about what Jeff was seeking: it was a series of text messages that Robert and his mistress, Roberta, had shared.

I'm not sure what was in those texts, but Robert clearly did, and it must have been pretty damning because it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I’ll tell you what I think it was: I think that they were going to kill his wife to be together. Am I right?

We don’t know.

Oh, I’m right!

So before Jeff could get his hands on that information, Robert obviously showed up and stabbed him to death. After just 12 hours of deliberation, the jury came back to say that they found Robert Tellis guilty of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years.

And that August day, Jeff Garman’s reporting meant justice for another one of Las Vegas’s hard-hitting criminals.

Glenn Cook, a former colleague of Jeff's, actually put the case into perspective nicely. He told CBS that Jeff was "going to report until his very last breath," and that's exactly what he did. He gave his life to this job, and I think that's his legacy.

And that is the story of Jeff Garman. I do want to say that according to everyone in Jeff's life, he loved journalism. He was married to his job, and I think that's what his colleagues mean when they say he took it to the grave—like, he literally made this his legacy.

It's crazy that this stuff happens, and it's crazy that it happens. I mean, this is a true crime podcast. It's just unbelievable that a government official literally killed someone because he found out about his affair—he was being exposed! I bet you they were talking about killing his wife.

It's quite the jump!

Oh no, for sure! I'm right; I can feel it in my bones. I mean, I think that—I don’t know if it was killing his wife, but I’m sure the text messages were going to be very embarrassing and even more harmful to his marriage if it was still trying to stay intact.

For sure. Either way, that is our story for today's episode, and we will see you next time with another one.

I love it.

And I hate it.

Goodbye!

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