LAS VEGAS (AP) — The trial of a Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him began Monday after the judge denied the defendant’s final request to dismiss the case and began jury selection.

The death of reporter Jeff Germanwho reported on the city, its government and its courthouses for 44 years, and the arrest several days The subsequent case of Robert Telles, the elected official accused of killing him, shocked Sin City and the world of journalism.

In court, Telles’ defense attorney Robert Draskovich called the case “difficult” but said Telles was looking forward to telling his story to the jury. That could happen during defense testimony next week. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Clark County District Judge Michelle Leavitt and prosecutors began questioning nearly 60 potential jurors from a pool of 300 who had been asked to fill out written questionnaires asking what they had heard about the case.

By the end of the day, some had been dismissed. No one had been reinstated. Both sides said they expect to be able to seat 12 jurors and several alternates by the end of Tuesday. Opening arguments could be held Wednesday.

Telles has pleaded not guilty charged with first-degree murder and could face life in prison if convicted. He has been in custody for nearly two years as he prepares for trial. He has said he did not kill German, but in prison interviews with The Associated Press and other media outlets, he did not disclose what he was doing the day German was killed.

Telles has also made no statement to police, apart from “three secret recordings from the day of his arrest,” his lawyer said. He insists he was framed and that police botched the investigation.

“He insists he wants to tell his story,” Draskovich told AP.

Prosecutors Pamela Weckerly and Christopher Hamner declined to comment on the case outside court. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who knew Deutsch, said in a statement Monday: “On behalf of Jeff and his family, the State of Nevada looks forward to finally obtaining justice.”

The murder made national headlines over Labor Day weekend 2022. German was the only journalist killed in the United States among 69 news media workers murdered worldwide this year, according to updated data was provided on Monday from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Prosecutors say articles German wrote for the Las Vegas Review-Journal in early 2022 about Telles and a District office in turmoil provided a motive for the killing.

German, who lived alone, was found slashed and stabbed to death in a side yard outside his house. He was 69.

Telles, 47, was arrested after police released video showing a person wearing an orange work shirt and wide-brimmed straw hat walking toward German’s home. Police also released images of a distinctive maroon SUV, the likes of which a Review-Journal photographer saw Telles washing outside his home four days after the murder. Telles was arrested the following day.

Telles was admitted to the Nevada bar in 2015 and ran for Clark County probate clerk as a Democrat in 2018. After his arrest, he lost his elected office and his law license is now suspended.

On Monday, Leavitt denied Telles’ written motion to dismiss the lawsuit and cancel the trial, as she has done several times before. Telles also twice tried to remove Leavitt from his case, arguing that the judge was biased.

In his court filing, Telles claimed that police illegally detained him before his arrest, that video of his arrest, recorded by a body-worn camera worn by police officers, was not properly deleted, and that blood tests taken after he was hospitalized for self-inflicted cuts to his wrists were not considered as evidence in his case.

German’s relatives have not commented publicly on the murder and have not made any statements about the proceedings through a family spokesman and a friend.

Prosecutors say they have strong Evidence, including DNA presumably from Telles, were found under German’s fingernails. Police also found cut-up pieces of a straw hat and shoes in Telles’ house that resembled those worn by the person in the orange shirt outside German’s house.

Telles wanted his trial to be quick, but progress was partly hampered by a Legal dispute The Review-Journal appealed to the state Supreme Court to prevent the public disclosure of confidential sources on German cell phones and computers.

The material was finally handed over on Monday, prosecutors told the judge. Telles stood in the courtroom in a white shirt, yellow striped tie, dark jacket and grey trousers and declined the opportunity to view the material before the start of the trial.

Telles also lost an attempt to get Leavitt to enter a ruling blocking testimony in a workplace discrimination and hostility lawsuit pending in federal court against Telles and Clark County, and brought by four women who work in the office he heads.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has records of 17 journalists and media professionals In the United States, 1,500 people have been killed since 1992, including 15 whose deaths were work-related. Katherine Jacobsen, the organization’s program coordinator, described the murder of journalists in the United States as extremely rare.

Gabe Rottman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington DC called journalism “essential for the public to hold public officials accountable.”

“The worst way to close the public’s eyes to what is happening is to threaten a journalist with death for doing his job,” Rottman said. “That should not happen.”

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This brings the number of news media workers murdered worldwide in 2022 to 69 from 67, according to updated data released Monday by the Committee to Protect Journalists.