A former elected official in Las Vegas (Nevada, west) was sentenced yesterday Wednesday to serve life in prison for the murder, in 2022, of a journalist-investigator, who had mentioned in his report about harassment and favoritism in the office that the politician ran.

At trial, the jury heard that the defendant, Mr Robert Teges, hid in September 2022 outside the home of veteran reporter Jeff German and then stabbed him to death.

The jury unanimously ruled that the killing was “intentional” and “premeditated”.

“Justice was served,” Steve Wolfson, the district attorney for Clark County, Nevada, told reporters.

“Today’s verdict should send a message, and that message is clear: any attempt to silence the media, or to intimidate journalists, will not be tolerated,” he added.

Jeff German, 69, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had written a May 2022 report on a county service run by Robert Teges, who was running for re-election.

The article, published a month before the election, referred to allegations of favoritism and an inappropriate relationship between the elected official and a female employee.

Mr. Teges denied the report, but lost the election.

According to what was filed in the trial, he went, enraged, in September of the same year to the house of Jeff German, hid in bushes and then attacked the reporter and stabbed him to death.

The former elected official denied that he was the perpetrator of the crime, insisting that police ignored evidence that could incriminate others.

In his lengthy speech in court, the defendant, who had studied law, assured that he is the victim of a conspiracy.

After returning his guilty verdict, the jury retired again to deliberate on Robert Teges’ sentence; he then sentenced him to life in prison, specifying that he must serve at least 20 years before he would be eligible for parole. conditions.

“Jeff was murdered for doing the kind of work he was proud of: the work to hold elected officials accountable for their bad behavior and allow voters to elect someone else to the position,” noted Las Vegas Executive Director Review-Journal, Glenn Cook.

The NGO Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recorded the deaths of 14 journalists and one female media worker as a result of their work in the US since 1992.