Transcript

Robert Telles Thought he could pull it off

From TRUE CRIME Loser · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 4 min · 10,542 words · 60 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Robert Telles Thought he could pull it off", an episode of TRUE CRIME Loser published September 5, 2024 (1 h 4 min, about 10,542 words). It mentions 16 people, works and ideas, including Robert Tullus, Jeff Gearan, Murder, Public Administrator, Election.

What this episode is about

Former Las Vegas official Robert Telles was convicted of the 2022 murder of journalist Jeff Garman and faced claims of abusive leadership, including hostile work environment, public outbursts, and extreme managerial behavior described as domineering and corrosive to office morale. The discussion outlines alleged workplace bullying, aggressive actions, and the resulting impact on colleagues and staff.

Key takeaways

  • Journalist wearied by excess theatrics: one relentless scoop can topple even entrenched power.
  • Toxic leadership habits—rage, secrecy, micromanagement—multiply risk, not morale, in public offices.
  • Public trust hinges on accountability: gossip-worthy behavior shadows policy failures more than headlines.
  • Near-constant media pressure can erode a failed politician’s shield, turning scandals into electoral liabilities.
  • Power, not personality, sinks careers: the pursuit of control often unravels a public administrator.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Public Administrator, Jeff Gearan, Election, Robert Tullus
  2. – 20:00: Murder, Maroon Yukon Denali, Jeff Gearan, Slasher Movie
  3. – 30:00: Murder, Robert Tullus, Narcissism, Jeff Gearan
  4. – 40:00: Compass Reality, Public Administrator, Detective Jappy, Murder
  5. – 50:00: Murder, Compass Reality, Combat Trained Assassin, Detective Jappy
  6. – 1:00:00: Compass Reality, Murder, Detective Jappy, Slasher Movie
  7. – 1:03:54: life in prison, Compass Reality, Detective Jappy, Combat Trained Assassin

Notable quotes from "Robert Telles Thought he could pull it off"

  • The all right so you probably saw but last week Robert Tellus former Las Vegas politician he was the public administrator was found guilty of the 20122 brutal murder of…
    about Robert Tullus · at
  • Administrator that was two years ago and when Robert tus was up on the stand last week he almost started crying talking about losing that election it was very important to him…
    about Election · at
  • Vehicles over the car I think is technically registered to his wife but he drove a maroon Yukon Denali to the area got out walked so this is 15 hours after the county reached…
    about Maroon Yukon Denali · at
  • Cutup Hat they find the shoes he's got the cut finger and then DNA the big slam dunker is they tested DNA under journalist Jeff garman's fingernails and that also came up Robert Tellus and so they rushed they found.
    about DNA Evidence · at
  • Relatives come forward well as he is as Robert tulus is doing that job he realizes that there's a reality company in town called Compass reality that according to Robert tus…
    about Compass Reality · at
  • Right this is a scheme this is a scam and so he reached out to law enforcement in the area his contact became a guy named detective d jappy so now Robert tulus this is years…
    about Detective Jappy · at
  • Public administrator Robert tulis was getting Kickbacks because how it works is when the public administrator's office takes over one of these properties and they process it however they do and then when it's time to sell the property.
    about Public Administrator · at
  • He said over and over again that because the journalist Jeff Gman was stabbed right in the heart that it had to have been a combat trained assassin it couldn't have been him…
    about Combat Trained Assassin · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Robert Tullus — Person · Core subject (accused/convicted murderer; former public official) · 11 mentions · first at
    The episode centers on Robert Tullus being found guilty of murdering journalist Jeff Gearan and the alleged motive tied to negative reporting, election loss, and a public records request.
  • Jeff Gearan — Person · Victim; referenced journalist · 8 mentions · first at
    Jeff Gearan is the journalist who wrote negative stories about Robert Tullus and was later stabbed to death; his reporting is presented as the motive for the murder.
    Gearan journalist Jeff gearan had been covered ing politics at the time in the Las Vegas area and had put out three negative stories about Robert Tellus and the alleged hostile…
  • Detective Jappy — Person · Referenced investigator; alleged conspirator in defense narrative · 13 mentions · first at
    Detective Jappy is the law enforcement contact who investigated Compass Reality and later investigated allegations about Robert Tullus; Tullus claims Jappy framed him.

Companies & orgs

  • Compass Reality — Company · Referenced organization (alleged scheme; part of framing claim) · 19 mentions · first at
    Compass Reality is described as a real estate company allegedly involved in questionable property practices; Robert Tullus claims it conspired with law enforcement to frame him.

Products & tech

  • Maroon Yukon Denali — Product · Key physical evidence (vehicle) · 4 mentions · first at
    A maroon Yukon Denali is repeatedly cited as the vehicle seen on camera and associated with Robert Tullus, forming a major part of the circumstantial case.

Concepts & topics

  • Murder — Concept · Core topic (crime) · 22 mentions · first at
    The episode analyzes the killing of Jeff Gearan, the evidence presented at trial, and the defendant's alternative framing narrative.
    Politician he was the public administrator was found guilty of the 20122 brutal murder of journalist Jeff gearan journalist Jeff gearan had been covered ing politics at the…
  • Public Administrator — Concept · Key role/office discussed · 18 mentions · first at
    The public administrator role is central to the backstory: workplace allegations, election context, and the estate/property processes tied to the Compass Reality narrative.
  • DNA Evidence — Concept · Key forensic evidence · 2 mentions · first at
    DNA under Jeff Gearan's fingernails and DNA found on items (e.g., shoes) is described as the 'slam dunk' evidence supporting conviction.
  • Public Records Request — Concept · Triggering mechanism (motive escalation) · 3 mentions · first at
    A public records request for communications between Robert Tullus and Roberta is presented as a key trigger that preceded the murder by ~15 hours.
    Hours after the county reached out to Robert tullas and said we're going to start putting together all of the emails and stuff for this public records request for journalist…
  • Combat Trained Assassin — Concept · Defense claim (alternative perpetrator theory) · 5 mentions · first at
    Robert Tullus claims the stabbing indicated a 'combat trained assassin' hired by Compass Reality, used to support his framing narrative.
  • life in prison — Concept · Sentencing outcome · 2 mentions · first at
    The episode ends noting the jury voted for life in prison with the possibility of parole, framing the legal consequence of the conviction.
    Guilty and the way I understand it in Nevada they the jury votes on the sentence and they voted for life in prison with the possibility of parole which damn I'm thinking going…
  • Narcissism — Concept · Psychological lens used by narrator · 2 mentions · first at
    The narrator interprets Robert Tullus's behavior (blame-shifting, rage, victim narrative) through narcissism and related personality dysfunction.
    That bottoming out process and I thought this was is pretty interesting it says due to their lack of self-restraint narcissists tend to spiral out of control it's not rare that…
  • Slasher Movie — Concept · Descriptive framing of the killing · 5 mentions · first at
    The host repeatedly characterizes the stabbing as 'slasher movie' style to emphasize brutality and the implausibility of getting away with it.
    The side of his house backyard area side of the house tolis runs into that area the side of the house area goes full slasher movie Psycho Killer stabs him to death walks out of…

Places & events

  • Election — Event · Key precipitating event (motive context) · 6 mentions · first at
    The election/reelection loss is portrayed as a major grievance for Robert Tullus and part of the motive narrative tied to Jeff Gearan's reporting.
  • Las Vegas — Place · Primary setting · 5 mentions · first at
    Las Vegas is the geographic setting for the public administrator office, the election, the investigation, and the murder discussed throughout the episode.
    Talis represent the all right so you probably saw but last week Robert Tellus former Las Vegas politician he was the public administrator was found guilty of the 20122 brutal murder of journalist Jeff gearan journalist Jeff gearan had been.
  • 2022 — Event · Time anchor for the crime and arrest · 3 mentions · first at
    The transcript places the murder and subsequent arrest/investigation in 2022, framing the timeline leading to the recent guilty verdict.
    Last week Robert Tellus former Las Vegas politician he was the public administrator was found guilty of the 20122 brutal murder of journalist Jeff gearan journalist Jeff gearan…

Full transcript with timestamps

hey folks welcome back so today we got a talk about old Robert Talis represent the all right so you probably saw but last week Robert Tellus former Las Vegas politician he was the public administrator was found guilty of the 20122 brutal murder of journalist Jeff gearan journalist Jeff gearan had been covered ing politics at the time in the Las Vegas area and had put out three negative stories about Robert Tellus and the alleged hostile work environment that Robert tulis was creating within his public administrator's office so story started coming out that Robert tulus is a mean little bully that he was having episodes of pure rage all right listen Tellus if you could at least try to limit your episodes of pure rage as much as possible I think it would go a long way as far as morale here at the office just as much as you can the Pure rage episodes just as few and far between as possible pal thank you then

there was another story where a lady that had worked for the previous public administrator was sitting in her office it was the time of transition Robert Tullis had just taken over the role and she was just sitting in her her office not doing much H oh hey look the sun's coming through the window I like that then all of a sudden Robert Tolus barged in her office walked straight up to her desk slapped her desk with both hands really loud and said listen lady I'm the new public administrator around here we're going to rip the Band-Aid off hard and fast I'm in charge now and she was sitting there like I didn't say anything and also bar ing in like that and slapping the desk like a lunatic is not even close to acceptable behavior Robert and then as things in the office were really starting to get kind of bad apparently Robert tus made a new rule saying all right listen up everybody Robert tullus Is Here the new rule

everybody working in this office you are no longer allowed to speak to each other no one speaks to each other at all starting now that's the new rule I'm Robert tulis it's like what do you mean we can't speak to each other what are we dating our Kelly this is horrible Robert it this is beyond awful working for you I can't believe how bad this is and so as all of this stuff is happening a small group of employees within Robert ts's public administrator's office were saying you know what this something's got to give this is awful this is not right right we got to do something and the plan was you know what let's go tell a journalist about this the people that voted for Robert tulis he's a public official the people that are maybe going to vote for him in the next election they really should know what's happening within his office and how he is conducting them himself and so they went and they found journalist Jeff

gearan and told him the scoop yeah episodes of pure rage rules you can't speak to each other he's slapping desks like a LUN tick listen to all this stuff and so journalist Jeff gearan with his new scoop he wrote a story puts it out he puts out another story he puts out another one all the while Robert tulis is heading to his reelection and then the reelection is here and he loses he took actually third place but it was really close all of them were within a couple thousand votes and so a couple thousand votes is nothing that is really close so it is probable to say that these three articles that were written by journalist Jeff gearan about what how he was conducting himself in his public administrator's office most likely did cause him to lose his reelection and Robert tullus his personality is so bad whatever serious mental disorders he has going on make it he has a total inability to have the thought process of you know

what this is my fault of course it's going to make the news I was a elected official anytime an elected official has stories like that in their office and misconduct and stuff like that it always is a new story if it wasn't if it wasn't journalist Jeff gearan that put it out it would have been some other would have been some other journalist what do I expect making rules that people can't speak to each other and conducting myself like a little bully this is my fault and I just need to be better and whatever my next chapter is in life I need to learn from this chapter and try to treat people right and be better next time he does not have the ability to have that thought process Robert ts's thought process was this journalist took everything from me I was the public administrator that was my title and that was my power that I earned I was supposed to do that I made $130,000 a year my family depended on

that salary what am I going to do now I that little rat journalist took everything from me and so three of them came up leading to the reelection he loses then a week later another article comes out about him from journalist Jeff Gman and then about a month later so it's been a month since he lost his highly COV Ved role as the public administrator that was two years ago and when Robert tus was up on the stand last week he almost started crying talking about losing that election it was very important to him that role he thought that was his going to be his life in politics it was his new chapter he liked the power he liked the feeling that it gave him he thought this is I finally found what I'm supposed to do and this journalist RoR ruined it and so he loses the election a month later so he's been dealing with losing the election and bl he blames it on journalist Jeff gearan a month later the county reaches out to

Robert tulis and said journalist Jeff gearan made a public records request of all of the in office Communications between you and oh yeah that's another Scandal is that Robert tus was having an affair with someone in the office her name was Roberta so a month after he loses four articles by Jeff Gman had come out already and then a month later the county reaches out to tus and says all right so the journalist that's been writing those stories he he put in a public records request for all of the in office Communications between you and Roberta the alleged Affair which he did admit to and so we're going to start getting that together and at that point Robert tulus former Las Vegas public administrator lost his reelection made the insane decision you know what this guy he thinks he's going to write another article about me he already ruined my life ruined my career he thinks he can just do whatever he

wants and nothing's going to happen you know what I'm going to kill this journalist and he I mean we know the plan just from the way it played out and so let's just quickly go over Robert tulis because it's it's doesn't come around very often where somebody has not only the capability of brutally murdering someone I mean a lot of people you might fantasize about it you might say God I hate that guy there's nothing more in the world that I just want to stab that guy to death that my boss well whoever ever it is but very few people when it comes down to it like all right here's a knife go do it you're like are you serious there's no way I could do that's what AM my psycho killer no I want to fantasize about it I want to think about it I want to enjoy the thought but I'm never GNA do it you know at the end of the day that person I want to kill I hope at the end of the day I hope nothing you know I

hope the best for them and their family I do hate them and I whatever but but Tolus whatever severe mental disorders he has he is capable of doing it so there's that one thing but that coupled with the stupidity that he could pull it off a lot of times there aren't both of those maybe someone's dumb enough to do it but they don't have the ability to actually do it or someone has the ability to actually do it I could do it but I'm not stupid enough to ruin my freedom over this journalist but Robert tulus has both and so we get to see and his plan was get a disguise he went with a giant Sombrero I actually put an order in I think I found the one online but it's going to take like two weeks to get here and I I just wanted to do this episode I was going to do the whole episode wearing a big the same giant sun hat that he was wearing so he's wearing a big Sombrero or actually I think it's the Asian version of the

sombrero great hats either way I think I've said it on this channel before I think the number one best hat ever invented is the Mexican sombrero with the dangly balls all the way around so when you go like this they all like jiggle and stuff but anyway so he's wearing an Asian Sombrero the orange construction vest pants and Nike shoes so get the he got a disguise and then really the main planning from what I can see is the disguise leaving his phone at home home that was his big he thought that was going to be a total showstopper oh his phone what that we checked the data his phone didn't go over to journalist Jeff garan's house so he couldn't have done it that was his big so leave the phone at home disguise I also think he probably either put a wig on under the the big sun hat because I'm thinking the chances of once you start trying to stab someone and you're in a fight a knife fight with somebody the Chan is the big

sun hat gets knocked off so I assume he either had like a hood or a wig even cuz he's very bald right a wig under the sun hat but anyway from what you can see from the security camera footage big giant sun hat that hangs over his face orange construction vest pants and shoes and someone in the Las Vegas area said that's a very typical outfit for landscapers it's brutally hot the sun is brutal and so they want full coverage full sun and so and there was Construction in the area so it's safe to say he thought to himself all right so I'm going to dress up like a construction worker they're walking around everywhere if some if I do end up on camera it's oh look there's a hardworking landscaper headed to some shade to have some lunch good for good for them and so leave the phone at home landscap or disguise and then that's really about it where the the thinking was was good because he drove one of his

Vehicles over the car I think is technically registered to his wife but he drove a maroon Yukon Denali to the area got out walked so this is 15 hours after the county reached out to Robert tullas and said we're going to start putting together all of the emails and stuff for this public records request for journalist Jeff gar and just letting you know we're going to put it together and so that must have been the breaking point like I said earlier I think he was thinking you took everything from me and still you think you can just keep writing articles like this is just some happy day of of article writing day and nothing there's no going to be repercussions you can just keep poking me well you can't I'm Robert tulus and I'm a total psycho and so I 15 hours after the county reached out to Robert tulus is when the murder happened and so after I think he got that final message from the county we're

going to start putting together the records it really kicked into gear and he did it quickly and so it gets the disguise together leaves the phone at home drives over in the car not the car that he normally uses but it's his car and he drives over Parks a distance away goes to he had there were hundreds of search and pictures of journalist Jeff garan's apart or of his house his property his neighborhood from Google Maps we definitely did some Google Map research to get a lay of the land and then he goes he waits for journalist Jeff gearan who I think they said he was 69 years old he's an elderly journalist journalist Jeff geans I think gets home gets out of his car and walks to like the side of his house backyard area side of the house tolis runs into that area the side of the house area goes full slasher movie Psycho Killer stabs him to death walks out of there gets back in his maroon Yukon Denali and drives home

his phone Robert ts's phone sat at his house for six hours while he was getting calls and text messages including one from his wife going where are you so 6 hours went by and until Robert tulus was back home and answering texts and whatnot so they never found the murder weapon so he stashed it during that there were I think the main massive mistake that Robert tulus made and this is where it just gets mind-blowing like you really thought you could pull that off and just kill your critic and just go get away with it and live a a happy life you really didn't think you were ruining your old life yet you'd already lost the election Just Let It Go all right some emails with you and Roberta are going to come out about God knows what it's not it's it's really insane that Robert tullas being a lawyer he was a lawyer before the public administrator thought that this was going to work I really can't get over it but anyway so he gets

home and after 5 days the investigation into journalist Jeff garman's murder had turned out a lot of stuff so one they were easily able to follow Robert tulus on various cameras they do like painstaking Video Collection where they make grids and go to every single place do you have a ring doorbell camera do you have a security camera can we look at it during this specific time it's painstaking it takes forever and a lot of people that think I'm going to get away with this I got this don't realize just how much effort they're going to put in to finding security camera footage and how many cameras there are and so I think that Robert T us thought I'm going to stab him to death dressed like a construction worker landscaper and then I'm going to walk off maybe they'll follow me on a couple ring doorbells on a couple cameras but all of a sudden they'll lose me at some point I'll be back at my car which is a

distance away and I'll be good look at that well they were able to follow him way longer and more detailed than I think he ever thought was possible so they follow the person wearing the sun hat back to the Yukon Denali so it comes out the next day journalist Jeff gearman has been stabbed to death and the V and this is the the security camera footage of the person that we think did it and then this is them getting into the maroon Yukon Denali well everybody knew that Robert tulis hated journalist Jeff gearan and drove a maroon Yukon Denali so all of a sudden a lot of people are suspecting that it was Robert Tellus that killed the journalist that he hates and so as soon as that's come out that it was a maroon Yukon Denali journalists go over there and actually get footage of Rob tus frantically washing all of the cars also another big downside with going with I'm going to go full slasher movie Psycho

Killer and do it with a knife the chances that you end up with a really serious cut I mean it is a brutal process it could take a while it takes a lot of muscle to do it and the chances that you end up with a serious cut on your own hand as the night the knife could also break and then you're just standing there like uh now I just have to run away and sure enough Robert Tas had an extremely severe cut on one of his fingers and so let's just so toas gets back stashed the murder weapon somewhere you know he's trying to get rid of evidence I think he thought he got a little freaked out when he realized oh man they have more camera footage than I thought they have the car what am I going to do about the car and I think he was planning to stash the giant sun hat and the shoes he was wearing other places and I think the fact that they had him on camera and the the vehicle I think he got really scared

and instead of going off and ditching the sun hat in some garbage dumpster or getting rid of it throwing it in the lake whatever he did with the murder weapon I think he changed his plans and thought they're going to be tailing me they're going to be all over me they're going to follow me to the dumpster and so he cut up the sun hat put that in a like a tool box and he cut up the shoes put those under the couch he washed the car he put a bandage on his finger the phone looks a little suspicious for the six hours of hey where are you and no responses but other than that I think we're all right I think we're okay and 5 days after the murder they get search warrants they come in they find the cutup Hat they find the shoes he's got the cut finger and then DNA the big slam dunker is they tested DNA under journalist Jeff garman's fingernails and that also came up Robert Tellus and so they rushed they found

that he had DNA under his fingernails and then they really rushed to get that so now they found the sun hat cut up the exact same Nikes that the killer that was on footage was wearing with Robert ts's DNA in the shoe they have the circumstantial evidence of the exact vehicle his phone doesn't hurt him necessarily but doesn't help them why were you for six hours that happen to be where we're all concerned did you kill this journalist all right well let's look at the phone if he's was here and texting and making calls and stuff it wasn't him wait 6 hours and then on top of that the DNA and the poor journalist's fingernails and that was enough to arrest Robert tulis for the murder of journalist Jeff gearan so that was in 2022 I want to actually now that he's arrested I want to actually go back to 2020 when he was the public administrator at this point and a 911 call comes in to the Las Vegas Police

Department and it's Robert ts's wife and and she's going you got to send somebody quick please my husband he's going crazy he's he he had too much to drink he's scaring me and the kids please if you could just hurry please send someone quick and then they send someone out there and they arrest Robert tullus and that you can watch the body cam footage he's out getting arrested in his driveway going who did I hit who the hell did I hit tell me who did I hit you're just trying to take me down cuz I'm a public official you're just trying to take me down cuz I'm a public official he says it over and over again you're trying to you guys are just trying to take me down because I'm a public official who did I hit tell me who did I hit that bitter inflection that drunk people get like the who the hell did I hit just makes my skin crawl once you've heard it too many times in life it just becomes insufferable and so he's going I'm a

public official and as he keeps saying it it's getting sadder and sadder and it sounds like he's trying to convince himself I'm a public official I'm a public official everyone's trying to take me down because I'm a public official and after I saw that the everyone's trying to take me down because I'm a public official body camera footage that was in my head I'm trying everyone's trying to take me down and then in interviews he'll say that exact sentence they're trying to take me down and up on the stand he said it and in the body cam footage he said it 20 times and I think it's safe to say that Robert tullus his his motto is pretty much is everyone is trying to take me down right I already said he has he has the inab the he has a total inability to blame any of the bad stuff that happens to him on his awful personality because if you have an awful personality not much goes good and what happens with

these people that are like Robert tulus is they start a new chapter in life they start a new career a new job a new relationship where no one knows them and they usually interview pretty good they're not he's not a he's not dumb or he doesn't smell or like really ugly or anything and so a lot of times they interview really good and they'll get hired and the new chapter in life starts and it goes pretty good for a year or maybe two and then all of a sudden everybody realizes what they are which is a narcissistic Vortex to hell and there's nothing you can do there's no way to handle them you can't there's nothing and so people take once either the new job that they get people take drastic action to get away from them anybody that has a chance to transfer to a different business they're going to immediately people are going to request I'm not working with this guy I mean I just I'm not going to work with them so

all of a sudden it becomes a huge problem for the owners of the company or the managers because everybody's all their good people are leaving or refusing to work with this new person and so now they have to deal with the Robert Tellus type person and then so their task they have to figure out a way to legally fire them so when inevitably it turns into a wrongful termination lawsuit they have some sort of leg to stand on and really a person like Robert tullus being hired is worst case nightmare scenario for any company or business and then all of a sudden Robert you know the Robert tlis type person is having to have meetings with the bosses and HR and they're telling them listen everybody's refusing to work with you and we have to fire you and then it turns into a lawsuit and eventually they bottom out they hit rock bottom and they're life because of how awful their personality is it's just a

series of those both big and small so they're starting a new job every hey they're the new person's pretty good it seems kind of smart that's awesome and then you fast forward two years and it's at total Rock Bottom the people have transferred people have refused to work with you the bosses hate them and it's just one of those after another I was kind of reading about that that bottoming out process and I thought this was is pretty interesting it says due to their lack of self-restraint narcissists tend to spiral out of control it's not rare that a narcissist will find themselves in a heap of trouble and I think so two things really fascinate me about this story one stories like this always remind me damn politicians really do murder each other and murder their critics it really is a blood brutal ruthless Arena like to go into the the political Arena you got to wear rain boots at this point it's always been like this cuz

there's two inches of standing Blood on the ground planes fall out of the sky people get shot people get poisoned someone's underwear got poisoned naval's underwear got poisoned that was like a year or two ago I mean what what an insane World politics is can you imagine poison underwear who saw who would see that coming that's got to be the worst maybe that's how you really spice up the bedroom it's like you've heard of crotchless underwear well that's nothing compared to poison underwear so anyway that's the one thing that's one of the things that truly fascinate me about this story it's like man politics really is a blood sport they murder each other and they're critics and then the second thing that fascinates me about this story is people like Robert tulus with the the you know whatever he is a narcissist or aoo they how it says they they often times wind up in a heap of trouble people like this they wind up in these

situations where all you can do is go look at you look at what you are doing and where it really hit me in this case is so Robert tulus right pretty solid evidence against him the Hat the shoes the DNA the whole thing and so he is left the only really defense that he was left with was I was framed and so he took the stand in his murder trial last week and taking the stand in your own murder trial when you don't get to tell the truth because you did do it has to be one of the most horrible experiences you can do as a human put yourself pretend tomorrow okay today's the night before you have to get up on the stand in your murder trial and it's probably going to be the defining footage of your whole life you know you can't tell the truth on a bunch of the questions that are going to be asked you're probably going to start sweating everyone's going to be staring at you it's going to go on for hours and hours I mean truly a

brutal experience to go through well it's not even like Tolus has to lie about a couple things he's going with I was framed I was totally framed and having to go up on the stand and realistically try to explain how you were framed for this murder and it wasn't you and again once again you actually are the victim I'm the victim again that's how incredibly insane place to be in life like I I was watching tullus up on the stand trying to get across yeah I was I was framed by this and just kept thinking look at you Robert how did you end up here that is that is something right you're up on the stand pretending you were and so all right so let's let's talk about Robert tus up on the stand the before that I just wanted to say the prosecution's case was about as straightforward and simple and nothing crazy as you can imagine it just here's the motive these articles are coming out here's the evidence the DNA under

poor journalist Jeff garan's fingernails the found the hat at his place the shoes the car this is his car in the pictures the same exact car you know they didn't have to like hide any parts of what actually happened it it just was like yeah this is here's the evidence okay so that's the prosecution the defense the defense really his defense lawyers weren't pushing the he was framed as much as Robert tus was the defense's case was pretty much there was one picture of the car where he didn't have the sun head on and you could just see the profile the shadow of it and it looked like he po like the person possibly had hair but it doesn't really look like real hair that's why I think it's either a wig or a hood or something but they basically base their whole defense on that one picture is look that is the profile of the person in the car that had just walked to the car and gotten into the car after the murder look they

have hair that can't be Robert tulus because he's very very bald and so because there's hair because tus does not have hair he could not have done it so that was really the defense attorneys but Tois was way more I was framed and the story of how he tried to convince everyone he was framed for the murder was while he was public administrator what the public administrator's office does is when someone dies and their property and their house is just sitting there because they just died if no family members come forward or loved ones to deal with the estate and close it out and sell it and sell the belongings if no one comes forward and it's just the person that died and their house is sitting there and nothing's happening then the public administ administration's office takes over you know processes all the belonging sells them puts the house on the market does anything you know protects the house during all that

process so squatters don't they take over the property in the house and process it until everything is sold and then whatever money is sold they can give to relatives if they do if they do come forward so it's managing properties and Estates of people that died where no relatives come forward well as he is as Robert tulus is doing that job he realizes that there's a reality company in town called Compass reality that according to Robert tus which it does seem like he may have been right according to Robert tus they were essentially doing a scam that once someone dies and no one comes forward for the property before the public administration's office could take over the property and deal with it they could take over the property and then once the reality Compass reality had control over the property there's a bunch of things that you can do kind of scammy and schemy to make more money to give your friends more

money so just one of the little schemes is sounds like Compass reality would somehow take take over the property after the person dies and then maybe rip out like the kitchen and then have it appraised with the kitchen ripped out so the appraisal of it is very low and then sell it at that low appraisal figure to someone in compass reality that works there so all of a sudden say I'm an employee for Compass reality I buy this property that we sort of in a with a little scheme maybe weren't even supposed to take over but then they sell it to me I got to close this hold on boiler kicked on um so then they sell it to me then I quickly put in a cheap kitchen and flip it and make a bunch of money so stuff like that so Robert tulus noticed that this reality company Compass reality was doing this and he thought this is not right this is a scheme this is a scam and so he reached out to law enforcement

in the area his contact became a guy named detective d jappy so now Robert tulus this is years before the murder at least a year is communicating now with Detective jappy about this potential reality scheme that comp that Compass reality is possibly doing well detective jappy opens up an investigation in the compass reality and agrees that there is enough suspicion to keep the investigation going and to uncover every Rock that he can there doesn't seem to be anything detective jappy got up on the stand there doesn't seem to be any weirdness with that or that he stopped investigating early or he didn't investigate far enough he started investigating Compass reality and while he was investigating Compass reality he was in communication with Rob tulis telling him what's going on asking him questions stuff like that well after Robert tulus Los is his election the next public administrator's office that gets in

whoever won after Robert toess and whoever the PE people they brought in as their people also contacted detective jappy and said we think the previous public administrator Robert tulis was getting Kickbacks because how it works is when the public administrator's office takes over one of these properties and they process it however they do and then when it's time to sell the property they use a realtor in the area and real that's how realter make money right it's not rocket science they get a a property to sell they sell it and they get a percentage of it so how it had always worked is all of the properties that the public administrator's office ends up selling they spread those around to a group of realitors so it's like all right we're going to sell 30 properties this year it's all going to be divided evenly among all of these realators well as soon as Robert tulis took over and he was the public administrator all of a

sudden the big group of lawyers they used it was changed to just one lawyer so one lawyer was getting all of these properties from the public administrator's office and and so they're telling the new public administrator's office is telling detective jappy who happens just coincidentally also to be still investigating into Compass reality after the old public administrator tulis had tell told him about that and so now he's hearing yeah that guy that you've been working with about the compass reality thing we think he's getting Kickbacks we think he gave is giving all of the properties to this one realtor and then they're splitting you know the allegation was that Robert TS was getting 30% of all of the the properties he was giving this one realtor and so then the realtor would sell them and then get his and then tus would get 30% of that so now detective jappy is actually investigating Compass reality

because of the allegations Robert tlus told him and he did say I did think it was suspicious and I didn't think it was a cockamamy allegations that tus was saying things were coming up as suspicious with compass reality but now he's also opened an investigation into the previous public administrator Rob tulis and so he doing both investigations simultaneously and he gets up on the stand and there was nothing suspicious about him he actually investigated Rob tulis as far out as he thought was acceptable and thought I didn't find anything that he was getting Kickbacks those allegations from the new public administrator don't seem to be real I don't think anything's happening but I'm going to give my investigation everything I've come up with to the FBI I assume because Robert TS was a public official just to make sure I'm going to give my investigation that came up with I don't think we should charge Robert

tullus with some scam or anything I'm GNA give that to the FBI and then they can look over it and see if they agree so he gave his investigation to the FBI and they agreed with him and said we don't think he's getting any Kickbacks we don't think that anything really happened no charges will be brought okay so that's the tulus investigation that detective jappy was doing the compass reality the reality scheme that he was investigating because of the tip from tulus he is working through that investigation he's finding some stuff things do look a little bit suspicious so he thinks I think the next point of this investigation is I'm going to bring I think I need to get phone taps I think I think the next logical step in this is I need to get phone tapped so he brought his folder of everything he's investigated on him the whole thing he brought that to the district district attorney's office and said here's what

I've investigated so far here's the deal I think to get anything further and to really close it down I think that we're going to have to get wir Taps try using everything I've done so far to get these wir Taps well the district attorney looked over it and said technically these are loopholes we're not saying they're good loopholes but no as we can see no law is being broken at this time and so we're not going to bring any charges so detective jappy was like all right well I guess that's the end of that one and it was the end of the Robert tulus investigation when the FBI said yeah we agree we don't we're not going to bring any charges so those two investigations ended right and then oh I'm sorry the compass reality one ended before the Robert tus one they actually had put surveillance on Robert tulus during this so the compass reality one had ended and the Robert tullus investigation that ultimately led to no

charges in the FBI saying but that one was still going so they were actually tailing Robert tulus and detective jappie set up on the stand they have a they kind of have a rule or a procedure that if they follow someone with one day they don't follow them two days in a row because they have they use the same vehicles and the same people to do their tailing and so they actually followed Robert tulis tailing him trying to see if he was doing anything with this getting Kickbacks allegedly which turned out to be nothing but they were tailing him and then they stopped tailing him because it's like all right no two days in a row and that next day he committed the murder and so that right there is I think what Robert tell us now that he has to get up on the stand and do the nearly impossible push the narrative that this was not me going slasher movie Psycho Killer because he wrote stories about me and all the

evidence this is I was framed by detective jappy he must be in with compass reality I was framed with by detective jappy and Compass reality because I was trying to put an end to their their reality scheme where they were taking over these properties and making a bunch of money and so they hired a combat trained assassin he said over and over again that because the journalist Jeff Gman was stabbed right in the heart that it had to have been a combat trained assassin it couldn't have been him Robert tulus because hey I'm not combat trained the amount of times he said that got a little bit ridiculous I mean I think I might start saying that too just anytime I go into a room hey everybody excuse me a second over there excuse me sorry yeah just it'll take a second I just want everybody to know and just I just thought it would be important to let everybody know that I am not combat trained officially in no way am my

combat trained okay so that was one of his big that was one of Robert tullus once he's up on the stand his reasons that this couldn't have been him this was definitely a combat trained assassin Compass reality because they because Robert tulis righteously was stopping their scam they want they hired a combat trained assassin got the same vehicle as Robert tulis had the combat trained assassin drive over do the murder make sure he was on film with all of the car and everything the same and then plant the evidence the shoes under the couch plant the sun hat in the toolbox and then this is where it starts to get really involved then they get his DNA somehow get that in place it either under the fingernails or have law enforcement say we found this under his fingernails but really it wasn't to give that to the DNA expert and where it really starts to get dumb this whole consp all of these people is so many

people would have had to come together that really had no dog in the race no reason to risk their life or reputation for little old Tas so it starts as Robert tulus is ranting and raving that all of these people conspired against poor victim Robert tulis it starts to almost sound like when someone thinks that the CIA is listening to them through the radio where he was going it's detective jappy and they're working with compass reality and they hired a combat trained assassin and they're trying to ruin me it's like you ever heard of people think they're being gang stocked Vice did an a video about it years ago where they followed this guy named Richard Bruce who is homeless guy in La he just lives in his camper but he thinks because he makes YouTube videos about how like politicians are lizard reptilians because he makes lizard reptilian videos on YouTube that he is constantly followed by the CIA or the government

using helicopters but he lives in LA and so there's always helicopters flying over but when he looks up and he sees a helicopter he thinks it's for him and if a cop car drives by that's for me and it really is it's a whole like that Vice video it's like a it's pretty interesting if you type in Vice gangstalking it'll come it'll be the first one but it's a rough it's almost like some schizophrenia something's happening to these people but it ruins their life because they're driving down the highway and they're thinking people are following them and it's the CIA and it's the government and it's really just someone behind them driving and they it ends up just truly ruining their life and sitting and hearing Rob tus up there trying to make it sound realistic that upwards of 30 or 40 people all came together to conspire against victim Robert tulus it starts to be like man you got some issues tus

that and so anyway he has to try to convince the jury that a reality company wanted him to be out of the picture and so they hired the combat trained assassin they were able to do that without anything without it getting out I mean imagine the Adon who actually did try who actually did hire an assassin to kill Dan Markle that's a I think a realistic of what it looks like to actually hire like you think it's going to go so smooth I'm going to hire the Assassin and then they're going to do it and no one's going to tell anything and it's just going to be smooth as silk baby we're going to get away with it no problem and in reality you got to use the girlfriend to get to the person that's going to do the the actual hit and then both of them know and then all of a sudden too many people know and the cops get the one person and they give it up and then they're testifying and it it's way harder than

you think to just yeah I'm just going to hire a hit man we're going to do the hit it doesn't matter that 50 people know everyone's just going to go along with it and keep their mouth shut it's just not realistic and so then think about Robert tulus the night before he got up on the stand sitting in jail twitting twiddling his thumbs knowing that the next day he's going to have to get up there and look at a jury and his life is on the line and try to paint the realistic picture that all these people conspired against them and it was detective jappy and Compass reality and also the local law enforcement which toas was calling overzealous police officers that are willing to plug up a weak case for detective jappy and also the DNA experts are in on it and also you know who else is in on it the phone extraction experts they used what is it called celebrite they used the same process to look at

all everybody's phones and not only did Robert tell us or Not only did the state's phone expert pull off all of the the phone data with all of the pictures of journalist Jeff garman's neighborhood and his house and his property but Robert tus hired his own phone expert that also all of those pictures and everything and so once tus was up on the stand he was saying that the shoes was placed the Hat was placed all of those images on his phone those were all placed there and they were like well your expert your expert that imaged your phone found all of that the images of the murder victims house and everything too so and and he's you know well it was hacked it was compromised and it just gets so stupid after a while and that's where like these people like Robert T us where they just have these bottom outs in life where they hit rock bottom and it's such a ridiculous situation that they end

they end up in all you can do is say look at you Robert tell us look at you you're up on the stand trying to say that half the town of Las Vegas came together to conspire against you and they this reality company was able to hire an assassin and nothing came out and it's just gets so dumb and I don't I really don't think people realize having that task to go up on the stand and try to pull that off has to be one of the worst things that you can do as far as like public speaking situations I don't think it could get much worse like imagine how nervous you are when you know you have to give a speech at a wedding and you just want it to be over it's like I can't even really enjoy life until I just am on the other side of that speech multiply that by about 10 million that's what getting up on the stand and trying to realistically portray that it's just this ridiculous conspiracy and so I followed this the whole the story the

whole time for two years since the murder happened all the way to Robert tulus up on the stand and then being found guilty and the two things I was really interested to see how what Robert tus how he dealt with it was one the car because I think he thought if I park far away they're not going to follow me on all those cameras all the way back maybe a few at the close but I'm going to get far enough away they're going to lose me and I'll safely drive my car home so driving his car very dumb that sealed the deal really the DNA and the car sealed the deal in my opinion so how is he going to one deal with the car and then two I wanted to know how if he's going with the I was framed and it was a conspiracy and a combat train assassin how is he gonna link realistically detective jappy and all of that together so it's actually believe even somewhat believable for a jury those are the two things the framing how

is how are you gon to be believable with that and the car and so it took two years he's finally up on the stand it was last week and I'm like all right here we go I was sitting there going I want to know how how you going to deal with the car and the this the ridiculous I was framed and it was stupider than I could ever imagined how he dealt with the car was he goes um so I I did see that it was um my exact car and but I was looking online and I saw this comment and it's from a colonel Bob Sanders it's just like some person on the internet hey so it's this person Colonel uh Bob Sanders if you see on their post they said look the rims of the murder vehicle don't are different they don't match each other there there's some rims on the car that are different from the other rims and so he's up on the stand saying this so look Colonel Bob Sanders commented this and so I saw that and go oh well my rims

match so so it couldn't be me and then he looks at the jur the jury like huh see look some random guy on the internet thought the rims didn't match my rims do match and so this could not have been me I couldn't have done it and so I kind of was like wait two years I've been waiting how are you you going to attempt to deal with the fact you drove your own car tulus and his best shot thinking about it for two years in jail preparing his defense and the best thing he could do is hey look some Rando on the internet commented this and I I attached myself to that and that's what we're going with I was picturing myself him frantically searching for what just one comment that was backing him up saying it was a different vehicle come on oh come on Wait nothing all of these are saying it's the same vehicle and it was definitely Robert wait a second Colonel Bob custard it's the the rims don't there it is the

rims don't match Colonel Bob yes all right well that's what we're going with even though the rims on my car do match and also the rims on the murderer's car do match too just some Colonel Bob kustard made a comment and that made it onto the stand in a murder trial imagine Colonel Bob custard sitting home watching the trial going that's me Callin his mom mom I finally did something with my life turn on the channel and Rewind like five minutes that the murderer that went full slasher movie Psycho Killer and killed that journalist he's using my comment and then the mom is like why did you call me on the phone just come come upstairs and tell me he's like sorry Mom hangs up the phone in the basement but anyway so so that was just a random probably Facebook comment I assumed was used as evidence as I didn't do it look a comment and then the second chunk that I was really interested in is how are you going to

make it sound not insane that all of these people came together to conspire against Rob tulis when there's no motivation to do it someone would have in all of that group that was framing him would have said I'm not doing this why would I do this I don't I don't give a crap about detective jappy or Compass reality or whatever I'm blowing this whole thing up and so Tas gets up on the stand he first tells his little backstory he did a bunch of different careers which makes sense because he probably bottomed out in all of them and hit rock bottom and then had to switch to a new one in a new chapter and so we tells his backstory but that's really easy for him and then he tells the whole story about Compass reality and possible scheme that they were doing and that's incredibly easy for him to talk about because he has this righteous I caught this scheme and I was going to see it to the end this

was not right they were stealing from these families and so that's a really easy part for him to talk about up on the stand not too hard not too stressful doesn't have to lie about it anything and then we move into the part where he has to make a realistic connection between jappie Compass reality the law enforcement that investigated it the DNA expert the crime lab the phone experts he's got to make that somehow that all of those people come together and make it sound realistic and good and remember his freedom is on the line doing it and you can tell he's nervous he was stammering he even said up I'm I'm I'm nervous at one point and so you could tell what he planned to do was say I am allowed my opinions and my opinion is this and he was kind of did that a couple times well you can't do that up on the stand I don't think he knew that he chose to do a narrative testimony where it's not his lawyer

asking questions he just stood up uh sat up there during his part and told like a three-hour story and when it came to this part and also Parts about the killer he wanted to say like in my opinion the killer when he drove there well you can't your opinion up on the stand is irrelevant so anytime he would say he would start to like get into that section of like all right I'm about to explain how this big conspiracy Works he would inevitably because it's dumb and didn't happen he would inevitably have to give his opinion well then they would there would be an immediate objection to either objection hearsay or objection relevance and so the judge would say stop him and say your opinions aren't relevant please stick to your observations about the facts is that what she said something about like please stick to your observations and the facts your opinions are not relevant right now well that really jammed him up

and he he started he would he would start on like a a thought process and then get to a point where it's like uhoh here's I got to use my opinion and then if he did the opinion it would be objected and then he so he would he would stop and so a lot of that this is supposed to be the most important part you got to explain if you are going with I was framed and this is a wild conspiracy with half of the law enforcement and everything you better have a pretty good explanation for the thing and here it is he had just given his backstory he had just explained the scheme that he blew up with compass reality and Now's the Time he's going to put it all together here's the frame job and he can't because she's not letting him do anything with hearsay or that's his opinion and so he starts doing things it's like over and over he starts going so like with compass reality and then he can't say what he

wants to so he says I'll just leave it to you to realize the importance of that part or I'll I'll let you check your notes later or he really wanted to talk about what someone else had testify and the judge was like you can't say you can't get up here and say someone else testified this this and this and that's my opinion on it you just have to say what you were going to say and the jury can they can decide what the other person said and if it's real so he gets really jammed up that the judge won't let him say anything about hearsay or anything about his opinion and so he starts just going well I'll I'll let you the jury I'll let you figure out why that's important so everything turned into these little riddles like I'll let you make the connection or I'll let you realize while that's important or I'll let you go back and check those notes and it wasn't hitting and then as he can feel in his

bones and his soul this isn't going to be enough I I I'm not I'm was planning to get up here and tell this wild conspiracy story and I'm not allowed to do that because I'm not allowed to give my opinion and now I'm talking in riddles and they're having to make these connections and it's not and then I think because Robert tlis could feel it up there this is not going great this is not enough to get me off of these charges as almost a crutch or a Lifeline he started he he'd run into kind of a dead end in his testimony where he he couldn't say the thing he wanted to say and so he started going he'd all of a sudden look over at his lawyers who are sitting at the table he'd look over and go should we should we bring out that that exhibit I I should we do that and of course his lawyers aren't going to say no so they're like yeah all right and so now they're frantically trying to find some random exhibit that Tolus wants to re

what do they call it republish it's already published but yeah should we do that but none of it was hitting none of it seemed relevant and there were these giant pauses so he would be kind of running out of theme and talking in riddles and I listened to that chunk three times and he never was able to even have one coherent sentence about how detective jappy ended up working for Compass reality and the combat trained assassin and how that worked not even one coherent sentence about that it was just all all right so I'll let you so at that point Detective happy was still investigating them and I'll let you decide while that's important and then you kind of run out of steam and go hey should we publish that republish that that one exhibit and they're like yeah and then so it would take a break and there'd be this long five minute pause while they find the exhibit okay it's republished it doesn't hit it's

like barely even relevant and then he starts it again 2 minutes 3 minutes later hey should we rep should we republish that one exhibit too and his lawyer you could tell his lawyers like what is he what are you doing just tell your tell your story what we're it's it was all chopped up and a five minute break every five minutes and it really he didn't he was not able to even close articulate while the giant why the giant conspiracy was realistic or believable at all and so the jury couple days after after that found him guilty the jury forers I thought it was interesting did an interview in the I think it yesterday or the day before and he said that actually what sealed the deal it could have possibly been a mistrial I think the the profile picture where it looks like the killer has some sort of hair or a wig or something that coupled with I think the fact that Robert tus was trailed and then not Trail the next day okay those

two things were making some of the jury feel a little bit I don't know that is a little weird and they were feeling that way and then when he got up on the stand and told and did and couldn't didn't have any explanations and hey should we republish that and just kind of waste time I'm up here just floundering and I'm trying to just grab for a Lifeline let's just publish some more stuff once he got up there and told them all of that that according to the jury for person sealed the deal they were like this guy did it and he was found guilty and the way I understand it in Nevada they the jury votes on the sentence and they voted for life in prison with the possibility of parole which damn I'm thinking going full slasher movie on someone I don't think you should probably see the light of day but it would probably also be hard once you're on the jury and they're like all right inside the sentence and it's

probably a little bit easier to go home and sleep at night knowing listen we didn't send someone away forever there if they rehabilitate and they do things I guess they'll see the light of day again but man was this one one for the books I'm gonna cut it off there got pretty long I love you all see you next time why Sten why sh beta

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Robert Telles Thought he could pull it off"?

Robert Tullis (Guest), Jeff Gearan (Guest), Detective Jappy (Guest), Compass Reality (Guest).

What is "Robert Telles Thought he could pull it off" about?

Former Las Vegas official Robert Telles was convicted of the 2022 murder of journalist Jeff Garman and faced claims of abusive leadership, including hostile work environment, public outbursts, and extreme managerial behavior described as domineering and corrosive to office morale. The discussion outlines alleged workplace bullying, aggressive actions, and the resulting impact on colleagues and…

What is mentioned in this TRUE CRIME Loser episode?

16 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Robert Tullus, Jeff Gearan, Murder, Public Administrator, Election, DNA Evidence. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Robert Telles Thought he could pull it off"?

The episode runs 1 h 4 min; the transcript is about 10,542 words in 60 timestamped sections.

More from TRUE CRIME Loser

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated October 29, 2026.