A jury found a former Democratic politician from the Las Vegas area guilty on Wednesday of murdering an investigative journalist who had written articles critical of him.

Jurors began deliberations Monday to determine whether they agree with prosecutors’ allegations that Robert Telles, 47, stabbed veteran investigative journalist Jeff German to death in September 2022, just months after German wrote stories critical of Telles and his workplace behavior, including allegations of an inappropriate romantic relationship with a female colleague.

Las Vegas jurors deliberated for about four hours Monday before adjourning for the evening. The panel of seven women and five men deliberated for about six hours Tuesday after a two-week trial. Attorneys presented arguments Monday morning.

On Monday, they sent the judge a note asking for more stationery and a court technician to show them how to zoom in on laptop videos while sitting in the jury room.

DEM VEGAS POLITICIAN STUNNED AS SHE IS CONFRONTED WITH SURPRISING THREE-WORD TEXT IN MURDER TRIAL

A jury resumes deliberations Tuesday in the trial of former Democratic Las Vegas politician Robert Telles, left, accused of murdering investigative journalist Jeff German, bottom right. Prosecutor Christopher Hamner, top right. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Pool, top right and main, Elizabeth Brumley/Las Vegas Review-Journal via Getty.)

Prosecutor Christopher Hamner said during his plea Monday that German was not done with his work to expose Telles, which ultimately led to the politician calling the veteran journalist to account.

Telles lost his Democratic primary for a second term after German’s first stories for the Las Vegas Review-Journal in May 2022 about Telles’ conduct as head of an obscure county office that handles unclaimed estates. He practiced civil law before being elected in 2018 and had his law license revoked after his arrest, days after German was killed.

“And he did it because Jeff wasn’t done writing,” Hamner said. “It’s like connecting the dots. He killed him because Jeff’s writing was destroying his career. It was destroying his reputation. It was probably threatening his marriage. It was bringing things to light that he himself admitted he didn’t want the public to know.”

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Defense attorney Robert Draskovich argued that the prosecution’s case did not meet the legal standard and reminded the jury of Telles’s argument on the stand that he was accused of fighting corruption in the industry. He has maintained his innocence.

“Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest standard in this country,” Draskovich said. “It’s not presumption. Preponderance of the evidence. It’s not clear and convincing. It’s proof and reasonable doubt. This concept is borrowed from Old English common law. Our founders thought it would be better to let ten guilty men go free than to wrongly convict an innocent person.”

German was the only journalist murdered in the US in 2022, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

The day before German was stabbed to death, Telles learned that Clark County officials were about to provide German with emails and text messages that Telles and the woman had shared, in response to the reporter’s public records request. There was another story brewing, Hamner said.

The next day German was murdered.

Prosecutors said Telles accused German of writing stories that destroyed his career, ruined his reputation and threatened his marriage.

DEM VEGAS POLITICIAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING JOURNALIST TESTIFIES: ‘I AM DEFINITELY INNOCENT’

A surprising text message presented at the murder trial of former Democratic Las Vegas politician Robert Telles appears to shed light on his whereabouts on the day of the killing. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

German was found dead in a side yard of his home, where he had been slashed and stabbed. Telles is accused in a criminal complaint of “lying in wait” for German to come out.

Telles was arrested a few days later after police released a video of a person wearing an orange work shirt and a wide-brimmed straw hat and carrying a shoulder bag walking toward German’s home.

Prosecutors say they presented strong evidence, including DNA believed to be Telles’s that was found under German’s fingernails. Also found in Telles’ home were pieces of a straw hat and shoes that matched the shoes the person in the video was wearing outside German’s home.

Hamner acknowledged that two key pieces of evidence were never found: the orange work shirt and the knife used to attack Germans. He wondered why those who wanted to frame Telles had not included them in the evidence inventory.

During the trial, the jury heard that Telles had hundreds of photos of German’s home and neighborhood on his cell phone and computer.

Other photos captured by Telles’ devices included an image of a single gray sneaker with a distinctive black pattern and a photo of Telles’ work computer at the Clark County Public Administrator and Guardian’s office showing results from Internet searches conducted through a password-protected site. The results included German’s name, home address, license plate number and date of birth.

Hamner noted to the jury that the photo was taken on August 23, 2022, less than two weeks before German was found dead in a pool of blood.

Clark County Public Defender Robert Telles, right, speaks with Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German in his office in Las Vegas, on May 11, 2022. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV, which a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing in front of his home days after the murder. The SUV was driven by a person wearing an orange outfit and a large straw hat.

District Attorney Pamela Weckerly presented a timeline and videos of Telles’ maroon SUV as he left the neighborhood near his home just after 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2022, and drove through the streets near German’s home a short time later.

The driver of the SUV was wearing a bright orange outfit that resembled the outfit of a person captured on camera walking toward German’s home and sneaking into a side yard.

Telles himself referred to that person several times during his testimony as German’s murderer.

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An evidence photo of Robert Telles’ Yukon Denali SUV. (KM Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

An unearthed text message – reportedly deleted from his phone but recovered via his wife’s Apple Watch – shrouds the mystery surrounding the suspect’s alibi, as the message shows her asking where he was around the time of the murder.

Prosecutors told the jury they believe Telles failed to respond because he left his cellphone — and the means to track it — at home.

Robert Telles washes his car in front of his house, September 6, 2022, in Las Vegas. (Benjamin Hager/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Archive)

About a dozen German family members sat in silence in the quiet courtroom on Monday. Telles faces life in prison if convicted.

Bradford Betz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.