Murder & Loathing in Las Vegas

The employees of the deeply dysfunctional Clark County public administrator's office were at odds over their ambitious boss, Robert Telles. Then Vegas's biggest newspaper published an exposé on his chaotic leadership, the investigative reporter behind the story turned up dead-and Telles was charged with his murder. Now his staff is left wondering: How did it come to this?

- ZOË BERNARD

ROBERT TELLES ISN'T WILLING TO DISCUSS how his DNA ended up under the fingernails of Jeff German. Or why his wife's car was spotted near the sixty-nine-year-old investigative reporter's house on a warm Friday morning in early September, a day before a neighbor discovered German's lifeless body at the side of his Las Vegas home. Or how an outfit matching the one worn by the suspect captured on security-cam footage wound up in Telles's home.

Speaking to me at the Clark County Detention Center, a couple miles north of the Vegas Strip, Telles is serious but engaged. Eager to please, even. But he must be careful about what he says.

His court-appointed lawyers at the time made that clear. The man charged with premeditated murder in one of the most sensational cases in recent history here-one that drew the attention of virtually every major newspaper and network in the country-is short and lean, with dark eyes framed by black caterpillar brows beneath a gleaming bald head. He's no longer wearing the thick white bandages that were wrapped around his forearms, covering up what officials said were defensive wounds, when he first appeared in court, six days after German's murder. He faced the judge that day with a wry smile before being led back to jail in shackles.