Robert Telles is on his way to prison for the murder of journalist Jeff German, investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Telles will spend much of the rest, if not all of the rest, of his life behind bars. For the past few months, just thinking about that fact has given me pause to celebrate. 

In some ways, celebrating Telles going to prison is like celebrating taking out the trash: Nothing but waste. German’s murder certainly wasted a life. Jeff was doing the job he was put on Earth to do. He was 69 years old, but Jeff wasn’t heading for retirement. He had the contacts. He had arrived at the perfect niche in the news business that had precious few solid jobs left for journalists. In his last years, German discovered he had a whole new talent in podcasting. He was telling a story in a novel way in the Review-Journal’s “Mobbed Up: The Fight for Las Vegas” podcast. German was on the move.

The murder itself was a complete waste. It will go down in the history books of Las Vegas as one of the most ill-conceived, overtly obvious crimes of all time. Everyone was convinced within days that it was Telles who killed German. We just couldn’t believe Telles was dumb enough to do everything but sign his name to the arrest warrant. We couldn’t believe that Telles was dumb enough to kill someone over a job heading up a backwater county department that consisted of overseeing the property of the recently deceased.

It was hard to believe Telles was angry enough to kill when German was just doing his job. German didn’t destroy Telles’s life by exposing him for the way he treated employees of the County Public Administrator Office. Telles destroyed his own life by mistreating employees who weren’t even his employees — they worked for the county. They worked for taxpayers. Telles’s power games, his treatment of women who worked for him, and his disregard for others opened the door to prison for him. Killing German when the reporter called him out on his dealings and inappropriate office affair sealed his fate. 

After the verdict in August, jurors sentenced Telles to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 20 years for the first-degree murder charge. In October, District Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced Telles to 28 years to life in prison, the maximum she could impose, giving him the additional time for enhancements for murder with a deadly weapon and murder against a victim 60 or older. 

There are some things worth celebrating in this story. You have to remember that the saga of the bully in the Clark County Public Administrator Office wasn’t all that big of a story initially. Reporters get leads on stories just like that on a constant conveyor belt: My boss is a jerk. My landlord is spying on me. 

It wasn’t until Jeff German sat down with the staff of the Public Administrator Office and listened with a reporter’s open mind that he realized they had a real story. They really were being bullied. The treatment was bizarre. It drove at least one staffer to contemplate suicide. Moreover they were being intimidated by a man that we as voters had elected to public office. That’s a story.

German standing up for the underdog, for the women who had been victimized, and doing the reporting — that’s worth celebrating. The Review-Journal giving their top investigative reporter the time to dig down and seeing that there was something worth looking at more closely was crucial. Standing up for these women — that’s worth celebrating. German digging down and requesting Telles’s county email communications — that’s worth celebrating.

When Telles’s crimes were figured out by reporters and the police, and the truth kept coming through so quickly and so obviously — that was worth celebrating. 

The courts only work when even the least of us can get effective counsel. Telles was represented by an outstanding attorney, Robert Draskovich, who did not have much to work with, but because of Draskovich’s efforts, Telles had his day in court. Telles sat before a jury and even though the defense Telles had devised was as ill-planned as the murder he committed, Telles did have his day in court. 

It was telling that during the entire trial, after what German’s family had been put through, after what Telles’s own family had been put through, one of the few times Telles at least looked as if he was crying was when he described having his house searched by police. How terrible for him. The horror of it all. But that is one of the most important cornerstones of what America is: When the least of us can get a fair hearing, that’s worth celebrating.

Former Metro Detective Cliff Mogg, one of the lead investigators on the Telles case, had to sit and listen to Telles try to dirty the officer’s name with nuthouse accusations. But in the end, the case showed Mogg brought a case that gave jurors the evidence they needed for a conviction. That cop’s work against Robert Telles is worth celebrating.

The District Attorney’s office stood tough: They announced from day one, there would be no plea negotiation. That was a decision worth celebrating.

It’s pretty clear based on Robert Telles’s comments in court and out of court that he intends to waste a good deal of his family’s remaining money on an appeal. It’s sad that they could be put in that position after already suffering so greatly at Robert’s hands. Whatever is left to them will be wasted on appealing a case that is going nowhere. 

Robert Telles has probably worn a business suit for the last time in his life. He’s going to be sitting in a jail or a prison cell for much of the rest of his life. He may be shuffled from one prison to another from time to time, but that is probably the only travel time he will be seeing in the next few decades. 

Robert Telles going to prison for much of the rest of his life is no reason to celebrate. That would be like celebrating taking out the trash.

Mark Fierro began his career as a reporter/anchor at KLAS-TV, the CBS television station in Las Vegas. He worked at the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He served as communications consultant on IPO road shows on Wall Street. He provided litigation support for the Michael Jackson death trial. He is president of Fierro Communications, Inc., which conducts mock juries and focus groups in addition to public relations and marketing. Fierro is the author of several books including “Road Rage: The Senseless Murder of Tammy Meyers.” He has made numerous appearances on national TV news programs.