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(ST. LOUIS) — A county prosecutor in St. Louis, Missouri, presented DNA evidence Wednesday alleging that a death row inmate convicted of first-degree murder is innocent in a case that has drawn opposition from the state attorney general.

Marcellus Williams, 55, who has maintained his innocence, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, according to court documents. He was charged in 1999 and found guilty in 2001.

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, headed by Wesley Bell, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday that the lead prosecutor and investigator who initially tried the case two decades ago handled the knife used to kill Gayle without gloves and their DNA was found on the evidence.

“DNA from two members of the trial team were found on the murder weapon in testing we did for this hearing,” Bell’s office told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “In open court today, a DNA expert testified that their improper handling of the weapon could have eliminated other DNA evidence. Williams’ DNA was never recovered from the knife.”

Bell’s office did not address whether they are asking the judge to invalidate the knife as evidence because of improper handling.

Williams was set to enter an Alford plea after a circuit court judge, and Bell agreed to it last week. An Alford plea would allow him to accept the consequences of a guilty plea but would not require him to admit specific wrongdoing to get his sentence reduced to life in prison without parole, according to the county prosecutor’s office.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued that the move to vacate Williams’ death sentence should not have been allowed, saying in a statement that the “defense created a false narrative of innocence in order to get a convicted murderer off of death row and fulfill their political ends.”

Wednesday’s hearing came after the Missouri State Supreme Court ruled last Thursday in favor of a request from Bailey for the circuit court to first hold an evidentiary proceeding before considering vacating the death sentence.

“It is in the interest of every Missourian that the rule of law is fought for and upheld – every time, without fail,” according to a statement from Bailey last Thursday. “I am glad the Missouri Supreme Court recognized that. We look forward to putting on evidence in a hearing like we were prepared to do yesterday [when the circuit judge agreed to vacate Williams’ death sentence].”

The State Attorney General’s Office did not respond to ABC News’ request for further comments after the evidentiary hearing.

The county prosecutor’s office submitted the 63-page motion on Jan. 26 to vacate Williams’ conviction.

“Despite the fact that no reliable evidence has ever connected Mr. Williams to the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle,” The Innocence Project, who is representing Williams, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday. “Attorney General Andrew Bailey has vigorously fought to prevent the court from vacating Mr. Williams’ conviction and to execute him on September 24.”

In the summer of 2024, Bailey has litigated against three wrongful-conviction claims opposing local prosecutors and judges, according to The New York Times, including the Christopher Dunn case, in which the state attorney general did not accept the recanting of testimonies of two witnesses who previously tied Dunn to the murder of a teenager in 1990. Dunn was released from prison after Bailey appealed the ruling of a circuit court judge who vacated Dunn’s conviction.

Williams was convicted on June 15, 2001, of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, armed criminal action and robbery connected to events at Gayle’s home in suburban St. Louis, according to court documents.

Gayle was found murdered with more than 43 stab wounds in her home on Aug. 11, 1998, according to the county prosecutor’s motion. The kitchen knife used in the killing was left lodged in Gayle’s body, according to court documents. Blood, hair, fingerprints and shoe prints believed to belong to the perpetrator were found around the home. Gayle’s purse and her husband’s laptop were declared missing after the attack, according to county prosecutor’s motion.

“None of this physical evidence tied Mr. Williams to Ms. Gayle’s murder,” according to the motion filed by Bell’s office. “Mr. Williams was excluded as the source of the footprints, Mr. Williams was excluded by microscopy as the source of the hairs found near Ms. Gayle’s body … and Mr. Williams was not found to be the source of the fingerprints.”

About a year after Gayle’s death, Henry Cole, a man who had been recently released from jail, told authorities that he had been Williams’ cellmate and heard him admit to the murder, according to court documents.

In November 1999, Laura Asaro, Williams’ girlfriend at the time, told police that Williams confessed to her that he killed Gayle, according to Bell’s motion. The prosecution’s case was largely dependent on these two witness accounts, the motion said.

In court documents, Bell’s office claimed there were significant issues with the credibility of Cole and Asaro’s accounts, which they said were inconsistent over time and contained testimony that didn’t line up with physical evidence. Bell’s office also alleged that both witnesses had incentives to testify, including a possible cash reward to find Gayle’s killer and, in Asaro’s case, an offer of help from police with her outstanding warrants.

Williams pawned the laptop stolen from Gayle’s home, but the motion alleges the buyer of the computer told investigators that Williams explained to him that Asaro had given him the laptop to sell for her. The jury who convicted Williams was not allowed to hear testimony that Williams said he received the laptop from Asaro because the testimony would have been hearsay. Williams was convicted in June 2001 and sentenced to death.

In 2017, when Williams was hours away from execution, then-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens granted him a reprieve so a panel could evaluate his conviction.

Last year, Gov. Mike Parson disbanded the panel, according to court documents. A day after the governor dissolved the panel, Bailey asked the State Supreme Court to schedule an execution date. Parson said that he is open to discussing clemency for Williams, according to a statement on Monday obtained by ABC News.

“One of the defense’s own experts previously testified he could not rule out the possibility that Williams’ DNA was also on the knife. He could only testify to the fact that enough actors had handled the knife throughout the legal process that others’ DNA was present,” read a statement from Bailey last week.

The county prosecuting attorney’s office said the state’s claim that one of their expert witnesses could not rule out Williams’s DNA on the weapon was insignificant.

“The AG (attorney general) is arguing about a motion that was not taken up by the court today and has no bearing on the matter,” read the statement from Bell’s office.

The circuit court has until Sept. 13 to make a ruling on Williams’ case after the evidentiary hearing, according to court documents.

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(NEW YORK) — A United Airlines flight en route to Chicago was diverted to Tennessee after experiencing “severe turbulence” Wednesday, the airline said.

Seven people were injured, including one who was transported to a local hospital, authorities said.

Flight UA1196 encountered “a brief period of severe turbulence” Wednesday afternoon, United Airlines said in a statement. The seatbelt sign was on at the time, the airline said.

The crew reported the severe turbulence over Louisiana before landing safely at Memphis International Airport around 2:40 p.m. CT, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Paramedics met the aircraft at the gate and transported one passenger to the hospital, United said. The person suffered non-critical injuries, according to the Memphis Fire Department.

Six others declined treatment and transport and the extent of their injuries is unknown, the fire department said.

“We’re grateful to our crew for their efforts to ensure the safety of our employees and customers,” United said.

The Boeing 737-900 was traveling from Cancun International Airport to Chicago O’Hare International Airport at the time, the airline said. There were 172 passengers and seven crew members on board, according to United.

The plane was back in the air on its way to Chicago as of Wednesday evening.

The FAA said it is investigating.

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(LAS VEGAS) — A former Nevada politician was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on Wednesday of killing journalist Jeff German in September 2022.

As the jury’s foreperson read out the guilty verdict, former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles looked down and shook his head.

Telles was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after a minimum of 20 years served.

In a press conference after the verdict was announced, Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfson thanked the jury for their work on the case.

“Today’s verdict should send a message, and that message is a clear message that any attempts to silence the media, or to silence or intimidate a journalist, will not be tolerated,” Wolfson said.

Prosecutors said former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles, 47, stabbed the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter to death after German exposed corruption in his office, destroying both his political career and his marriage. German’s story detailed an allegedly hostile work environment in Telles’ office — including bullying, retaliation and an “inappropriate relationship” between Telles and a staffer — all of which Telles denied.

Telles was arrested days after German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home. Police said DNA evidence found in Telles’ home tied him to the crime scene, and a straw hat and sneakers — which the suspect was seen wearing in surveillance footage — were found cut up in his home. His DNA was also found on German’s hands and fingernails, police said.

He had pleaded not guilty to murder.

In her opening statement, Chief Deputy District Attorney Pamela Weckerly walked through the timeline of the murder and how Telles came to be pinpointed as the suspect.

“In the end, this case isn’t about politics,” Weckerly said. “It’s not about alleged inappropriate relationships. It’s not about who’s a good boss or who’s a good supervisor or favoritism at work — it’s just about murder.”

Telles took the stand in his own trial on Aug. 21, “unequivocally” maintaining his innocence and insisting he was “framed” in a sweeping conspiracy by a real estate company that he said he was investigating for alleged bribery.

“Somebody framed me for this, and I believe that it is Compass Realty, and I believe it’s for the work that I’ve done against them,” Telles told the court.

In a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in January, Compass Realty owner Takumba Britt denied Telles’ conspiracy claims, calling him a “desperate man who has been charged with violently murdering a beloved local journalist” who would “do and say anything to escape answering for this charge.”

Wolfson also hit back against Telles’ conspiracy claims after the jury announced its verdict.

“There was no conspiracy,” Wolfson said. “The only conspiracy was between him and his evil mind.”

When police took Telles into custody, he had what they said were non-life-threatening, self-inflicted stab wounds. His defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, said the suicide attempt was not out of guilt, but because Telles’ “life was coming apart.”

Draskovich echoed Telles’ claims of a conspiracy against him, saying in his opening statement the “old guard” in the public administrator’s office had been upset by Telles’ efforts to root out internal corruption. He also claimed that, because of German’s track record of investigating corrupt figures, there were other people who may have wanted him dead.

“There were others that had far more motive to make it look like [Telles] was the killer, and to conduct this killing because Jeff German was a good reporter — he would ultimately get to what the truth was,” Draskovich said.

Ahead of sentencing on Wednesday, German’s three siblings addressed the court, speaking about what their oldest brother meant to them.

“Jeff was our leader — he was the older brother we all leaned on,” his brother, Jay German, said.

The siblings remembered him as a “wonderful” uncle, a “fearless” journalist and a lover of football and sitcoms.

His sister, Jill Zwerg, who said German was “like a second father,” recalled how he bought a whole round of champagne for the bar when she told me she’d gotten engaged.

“He’s so deeply missed every day,” Zwerg said through tears.

Telles’ wife and ex-wife also spoke, tearfully asking the jury not to sentence him to life in prison without parole.

“I would love at some point to give my children the chance to have their father back,” his wife, Mary Ann Ismael, said.

Telles wept as his mother, Rosalinda Anaya, took the stand.

“I accept the verdict, but if you could — please — give my son the chance of parole,” Anaya said. “His family is still very young and I would like for him to someday be back with them again.”

Before sending the jury off to deliberate on sentencing, Draskovich urged jurors not to hand down a life sentence.

“Give him the opportunity — give his children the opportunity — decades from now, to have their father back,” Draskovich said.

But prosecutors argued a life sentence — either with or without parole — was necessary in such a case. Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Hamner said Telles “decided to be judge, jury, and literally executioner” of German “because he simply wasn’t happy about what was being written about him.”

“When you think about the situation he was in, the world wasn’t going to end. He simply lost an election,” Hamner said. “The way Robert Telles chose to handle this was devastating, and it was his choice and his choice alone.”

German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, with a total of at least 67 journalists killed worldwide that year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo previously described the case against Telles as “unusual,” and said that “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”

“It is troublesome because it is a journalist. And we expect journalism to be open and transparent and the watchdog for government,” Lombardo said. “And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case.”

In a statement published by the paper, Las Vegas Review-Journal executive editor Glenn Cook praised the verdict “as a measure of justice” for German, as well as for “slain journalists all over the world.”

“Jeff was killed for doing the kind of work in which he took great pride: His reporting held an elected official accountable for bad behavior and empowered voters to choose someone else for the job,” Cook wrote. “Robert Telles could have joined the long line of publicly shamed Nevada politicians who’ve gone on with their lives, out of the spotlight or back in it. Instead, he carried out a premeditated revenge killing with terrifying savagery.”

“Let’s also remember that this community has lost much more than a trusted journalist,” Cook added. “Jeff was a good man who left behind a family who loved him and friends who cherished him. His murder remains an outrage. He is missed.”

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(NEW YORK) — Police in Iowa said they have captured a “dangerous,” injured water buffalo that had been on the loose since Saturday.

The Pleasant Hill Police Department said the animal was transported Wednesday morning to the Iowa State University Veterinary Hospital after being located in Des Moines the previous evening.

The capture followed a dayslong search that at one point saw an officer shoot the animal, nicknamed “Phill” by some in the community, and sightings of the water buffalo in yards and on a home Ring camera.

Officers said they initially responded to a call Saturday about an “animal in the road” in Pleasant Hill, located about six miles east of Des Moines.

The owner “shared that it was an aggressive animal they were preparing to butcher for its meat and asked the Pleasant Hill Police Department to ‘put it down,'” the Pleasant Hill Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.

The responding officer said the department does not “put animals down” unless they pose a threat to the public, according to the police department.

An officer did shoot the animal, injuring it, later Saturday morning after the water buffalo showed “aggressiveness” toward responding officers, the police department said. The water buffalo was near a busy intersection “creating a dangerous situation,” police said.

The injured animal was then able to escape.

Pleasant Hill police said they employed ATVs to search bicycle trails and a creek for the loose animal. They said they also partnered with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office to use their drone technology and with “local individuals who have expertise in containing this type of animal,” they said.

Amid the search, the water buffalo was seen on Ring footage on Monday near the front door of a home in Pleasant Hill. A Pleasant Hill resident also filmed the animal in his backyard on Monday.

The water buffalo was located around 7:30 p.m. CT Tuesday in water in a sand pit in Des Moines, though first responders decided to wait to corral the animal until daylight, police said.

The animal was coaxed out of the water and a tranquilizer dart was administered around 9:30 a.m. CT on Wednesday, police said. A second tranquilizer dart was administered about 30 minutes later, police said.

The immobilized water buffalo was then loaded into a trailer and treated with reversal drugs, antibiotics and vitamins, police said.

“The water buffalo was awake and prognosis is guarded,” police said.

The animal was transported to the veterinary hospital to be monitored and receive any necessary medical care, police said.

The Polk County Conservation, Blank Park Zoo, Animal Rescue League of Iowa and other law enforcement agencies were involved in the capture, police said.

“An investigation into the escape of the animal is being conducted,” the Pleasant Hill Police Department said. “Based on the results of the investigation charges may be filed.”

The owner has since surrendered the animal to the Des Moines Police Department, police said. The animal is now a resident of the Iowa Farm Sanctuary and won’t be sent to slaughter, the organization said while commending the humane capture of “Phill.”

“The local community absolutely rallied for Phill and didn’t rest until he was given a fair chance at safety and freedom,” the Iowa Farm Sanctuary said in a statement on Facebook. “The outpouring of love for Phill, a farmed animal, in the epicenter of animal agriculture, is so incredibly heartwarming.”

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(NEW YORK) — The hottest weather of the season is spreading across the eastern half of the U.S. — with cities in the Northeast in the bull’s-eye on Wednesday — after baking the Midwest with extreme temperatures early in the week.

Chicago’s actual temperature hit 99 degrees on Tuesday, breaking the city’s daily record of 97 degrees. The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — soared to a scorching 115 degrees in Chicago on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, heat advisories are in effect from St. Louis, Missouri, to New York City. An excessive heat warning was issued in Philadelphia, where the heat index could hit 105 degrees.

The heat index is forecast to rise Wednesday to 106 degrees in Baltimore, Maryland; 103 in Washington, D.C.; and 97 in New York City.

The final tennis major of the year, the U.S. Open, which is underway in New York City, is operating under an “extreme weather policy,” with stadium roofs partially closed and extended breaks for players.

More than a dozen cities could shatter their record high temperatures, including Washington, D.C., if it reaches 100 degrees.

The extreme temperatures will end in the Northeast on Thursday, but will linger in the Ohio Valley and Tennessee Valley through Friday.

On Thursday, the heat index is forecast to climb to 104 degrees in Nashville, Tennessee, and Columbia, South Carolina; 102 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky; and 105 degrees in Greenville, Mississippi.

Record highs are possible Thursday in cities including Nashville and Louisville.

There are hundreds of deaths each year in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to CDC WONDER, an online database, and scientists caution that the actual number of heat-related deaths is likely higher.

Last year marked the most heat-related deaths in the U.S. on record, according to JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association.

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(GROSSE POINT, Mich.) — The parents of a teenage passenger killed in a high-speed car crash in Michigan are pushing for authorities to charge the mother of the driver.

In November 2023, Flynn MacKrell was riding in a car with his then-16-year-old friend who was driving over 100 mph in a 25 mph residential zone, according to police. The 16-year-old lost control and crashed into a tree, killing the 18-year-old MacKrell, according to police.

MacKrell died two months into his freshman year at the University of Dayton, according to his obituary.

The teen driver was charged with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty. He is awaiting trial. A lawyer for the family declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

But MacKrell’s family said they want the driver’s mother held responsible, too, saying the mother knew her son had a habit of driving excessively fast.

“He had no regard for his passenger safety, no regard for pedestrian safety. And the mother knew it,” MacKrell’s dad, Thad MacKrell, told ABC News.

The 16-year-old’s phone had Life360 — an app that shows how fast a car is going and where it is, according to an investigation report obtained by ABC News.

The driver’s mom repeatedly texted him in the weeks and months before the crash to stop speeding, at one point writing, “I have screen shots of you … driving 123 mph,” according to the report.

“Any reasonable person would have done something very, very simple — they would have taken the keys away. And she didn’t do it. And our son is dead,” Thad MacKrell said.

“Every day, we wake up in shock and disbelief that our beloved Flynn is gone,” MacKrell’s mom, Anne Vanker, said. “And it was 100% preventable.”

The MacKrell family is pointing to the Oxford, Michigan, school shooter case, in which the teenage gunman’s parents were held criminally responsible for giving their son the gun he used in the 2021 shooting, which killed four people. This April, the gunman’s parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were sentenced to 10 to 15 years after each was found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials.

ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire said, “In the Crumbley case, we’re talking about a gun that is a, per se, dangerous weapon. One of its intentions is to harm or kill another. A vehicle or car is not necessarily a, per se, dangerous weapon.”

“It becomes a dangerous weapon when used reckless or negligently,” he continued. “So the way we view those two objects may have a different opinion as to how this case is pursued.”

The prosecutor’s office said it is reviewing the MacKrell case. Investigators have submitted a “warrant request” for a relative of the teen driver, prosecutors told ABC News.

The driver’s case is “adult designated,” according to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. If convicted, “an adult designation allows the judge to have the option of sentencing the defendant as a juvenile, or as an adult, or to fashion a blended juvenile sentence with the option of imposing an adult sentence if the juvenile is not rehabilitated,” the prosecutor’s office said.

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(GRAND CANYON VILLAGE, Ariz.) — An 80-year-old man died in Grand Canyon National Park over the weekend after his boat flipped in the Colorado River, marking the 13th person to die in the park this year.

The man was on a commercial rapids trip Sunday and fell into the water at Fossil Rapid, according to the National Park Service.

He fell in at around 3:40 p.m., according to officials, with an emergency being reported to the National Park Service via satellite phone.

The group said CPR was already in progress as park rangers responded to the emergency.

However, efforts by the group and park rangers, who were flown in by helicopter, were not able to resuscitate him.

The National Park Service and Coconino County medical examiner are investigating the incident. The victim was not identified by officials.

Several people have died in Grand Canyon National Park just in August alone. A 33-year-old woman, Chenoa Nickerson, was washed away in flash flooding was found on Sunday, the same day as the 80-year-old man died in the boating accident.

Three people died in the park on the last day of July and into the first week of August, including a 20-year-old man who fell off a scenic overlook on July 31, a BASE jumper who fell to his death on Aug. 1 and a 20-year-old female hiker who was found dead 150 feet below the rim after she entered on Aug. 3.

A park official told The Associated Press this week that about 10 to 15 people die in Grand Canyon National Park every year, with just 11 dying last year.

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(WASHINGTON) — The FBI has been able to gain extensive analysis on the mindset of the suspected shooter who carried out the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, officials said Wednesday, but it has so far been unable to establish a clear motive.

In a media call Wednesday afternoon, the FBI said it has conducted nearly 1,000 interviews, served numerous search warrants, issued dozens of subpoenas and analyzed hundreds of hours of video footage as part of its investigation into the shooting.

As part of their investigation, officials said, they’ve found that Thomas Matthew Crooks engaged in a “sustained, detailed effort” to plan an attack on some kind of major event, but when the Trump rally was announced, he became “hyperfocused” on it as a “target of opportunity.”

In addition to a previously revealed online search conducted by Crooks on July 6 that stated, “How far was [Lee Harvey] Oswald from [John F.] Kennedy,” officials said he also searched “Where will Trump speak from at Butler Farm Show?” as well as “Butler Farm Show podium” and “Butler Farm Show photos.”

In the 30 days prior to the attack, Crooks reportedly conducted “more than 60 searches related to former President Trump and President Biden,” the FBI said.

Through a review of Crooks’ online activity dating back to 2019, investigators said they’ve also found he had conducted multiple searches related to explosive devices including, “How to make a bomb from fertilizer” and “How remote detonators work.”

The FBI released a picture in tandem with its briefing Wednesday showing an improvised explosive device it has said was found inside Crooks’ vehicle. The FBI said that after an analysis of the device, it determined the components were all purchased legally and “readily available online.”

Officials also provided an update to the timeline of the actions leading up to the moments of the shooting. According to video obtained from a local business, Crooks first climbed onto the roof of the AGR complex at 6:05 p.m. and traversed a series of rooftops before allegedly firing eight rounds at 6:11 p.m., officials said, meaning he was on the rooftop for a total of six minutes before he allegedly began firing and then was killed by a Secret Service countersniper.

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(LAS VEGAS) — A former Nevada politician was found guilty Wednesday of killing journalist Jeff German in September 2022.

As the jury’s foreperson read out the verdict, Telles stared downward and shook his head.

Prosecutors said former Clark County public administrator Robert Telles, 47, stabbed the Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter to death after German exposed corruption in his office, destroying both his political career and his marriage. German’s story detailed an allegedly hostile work environment in Telles’ office — including bullying, retaliation and an “inappropriate relationship” between Telles and a staffer — all of which Telles denied.

Telles was arrested days after German was found dead outside his Las Vegas home. Police said DNA evidence found in Telles’ home tied him to the crime scene, and a straw hat and sneakers — which the suspect was seen wearing in surveillance footage — were found cut up in his home. His DNA was also found on German’s hands and fingernails, police said.

He pleaded not guilty to murder and could face life in prison.

In her opening statement, Chief Deputy District Attorney Pamela Weckerly walked through the timeline of the murder and how Telles came to be pinpointed as the suspect.

“In the end, this case isn’t about politics,” Weckerly said. “It’s not about alleged inappropriate relationships. It’s not about who’s a good boss or who’s a good supervisor or favoritism at work — it’s just about murder.”

Telles took the stand in his own trial on Aug. 21, “unequivocally” maintaining his innocence and insisting he was “framed” in a sweeping conspiracy by a real estate company that he said he was investigating for alleged bribery.

“Somebody framed me for this, and I believe that it is Compass Realty, and I believe it’s for the work that I’ve done against them,” Telles told the court.

In a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in January, Compass Realty owner Takumba Britt denied Telles’ conspiracy claims, calling him a “desperate man who has been charged with violently murdering a beloved local journalist” who would “do and say anything to escape answering for this charge.”

When police took Telles into custody, he had what they said were non-life-threatening, self-inflicted stab wounds. His defense attorney, Robert Draskovich, said the suicide attempt was not out of guilt, but because Telles’ “life was coming apart.”

Draskovich echoed Telles’ claims of a conspiracy against him, saying in his opening statement the “old guard” in the public administrator’s office had been upset by Telles’ efforts to root out internal corruption. He also claimed that, because of German’s track record of investigating corrupt figures, there were other people who may have wanted him dead.

“There were others that had far more motive to make it look like [Telles] was the killer, and to conduct this killing because Jeff German was a good reporter — he would ultimately get to what the truth was,” Draskovich said.

German was the only journalist killed in the United States in 2022, with a total of at least 67 journalists killed worldwide that year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo previously described the case against Telles as “unusual,” and said that “the killing of a journalist is particularly troublesome.”

“It is troublesome because it is a journalist. And we expect journalism to be open and transparent and the watchdog for government,” Lombardo said. “And when people take it upon themselves to create harm associated with that profession, I think it’s very important we put all eyes on and address the case appropriately such as we did in this case.”

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(SALIDA, Colo.) — A worker on an office hiking retreat to a national forest in Colorado had to be rescued after 14 of his colleagues allegedly left him stranded on a 14,230-foot mountain, authorities said.

“In what might cause some awkward encounters at the office in the coming days and weeks, one member of their party was left to complete his final summit push alone,” Chaffee County, Colorado, Search and Rescue said in a statement.

The team-building expedition gone wrong unfolded Friday on Mt. Shavano in central Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, according to search-and-rescue officials.

“Initial reports to our communications center indicated a group of 15 hikers on an office retreat had left the Blanks Cabin Trailhead at sunrise that morning, with a group completing summit attempts and a separate group ascending to the saddle [area of the mountain] and returning from there,” rescuers said in the statement.

While 14 employees made it down the mountain safely, rescue officials said one was left to complete the summit push alone.

The lone employee made it to the summit at 11:30 a.m., but when he tried to descend, “he became disoriented,” according to rescue officials.

Making matters worse, his colleagues descending the mountain ahead of him inexplicably collected belongings left in a boulder field to mark the path down, officials said.

“In his initial attempts to descend, he found himself in the steep boulder and scree field on the northeast slopes toward Shavano Lake,” according to officials.

The man, whose name and company were not released, used his cellphone to pin-drop his location to his coworkers, who informed him that he was on the wrong route and instructed him to hike back up to the summit to get to the correct trail down, officials said.

Just before 4 p.m. local time on Friday, he sent another location pin-drop to his colleagues that he was near the correct trail.

“Shortly after that message, a strong storm passed through the area with freezing rain and high winds, and he again became disoriented, losing his cell phone signal as well,” rescue officials said.

When his colleagues didn’t hear from him, they reported him missing to Chaffee County Search and Rescue at 9 p.m., some eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent, officials said.

A search was immediately launched, but rescue teams on the ground encountered freezing rain and high winds that hampered their hike to the Mt. Shavano summit, officials said. The foul weather also made it difficult to operate a search-and-rescue drone in the area, authorities said.

While an aerial search continued, a rescue helicopter crew flew several search patterns over the area where the lost hiker pin-dropped his last location but found no sign of the man, who was dressed in all black clothing, leaving him to spend the night stranded on the mountain, officials said.

Rescue teams continued to search for the man into Saturday morning and summoned other teams from across the region to help.

The lost hiker regained enough cellphone service Saturday morning to call 911 and report his location, enabling rescuers to find him in a gully near a drainage creek, extract him and take him to a hospital, where he was in stable condition, officials said.

“He reported being very disoriented on his descent and falling at least 20 times on the steep slopes,” rescue officials said in the statement, adding that the hiker was unable to get up after his last fall.

“This hiker was phenomenally lucky to have regained cell service when he did, and to still have enough consciousness and wherewithal to call 911,” said rescue officials.

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