A local official who had been investigated for months by a journalist in Las Vegas has been arrested on suspicion of his murder.
Robert Telles, the public administrator of Clark County in Nevada, was arrested on Wednesday after Jeff German was stabbed to death outside his home on Friday after what police described as an altercation.
The body of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter, 69, was found the next morning.
He died of “multiple sharp force injuries”, the Clark County Office of the Coroner and Medical Examiner said.
The arrest of Telles, 45, was confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which said that Mr German had written stories about him.
Steven Wolfson, the county district attorney, told The New York Times that Telles had been taken into custody.
Telles, whose office oversees the estates of people who have died without a will or family contacts, was arrested on suspicion of murder, Clark County Detention Centre records showed.
Mr German was well known for his decades of reporting on political wrongdoing and organised crime in Nevada’s biggest city.
He had spent months reporting on complaints that Telles had an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate and oversaw an abusive workplace, which the county official denied.
Police outside Robert Telles’ home on Wednesday. Pic: AP
In June, weeks after Mr German’s investigation was published, Telles failed in his re-election bid. He was due to leave office in January.
Las Vegas police confirmed in a Twitter post that a suspect in Mr German’s murder had been arrested but did not identify him.
Glenn Cook, executive editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, said Mr German’s colleagues were devastated by his killing.
“He was the gold standard of the news business,” he said.
“It’s hard to imagine what Las Vegas would be like today without his many years of shining a bright light on dark places.”
