The trial of a Las Vegas-area politician accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him will take center stage in Nevada on Monday, with jury selection scheduled to start in a case that stunned Sin City and the world of journalism.

“It turned everything upside down,” Tom Pitaro, a veteran Las Vegas defense attorney, said of the death of reporter Jeff German, who for 44 years developed deep confidential sources in the city, its government and its courthouses.

Pitaro also taught Robert Telles, the public official accused of killing German, in law school about a decade ago at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

“When you have an office-holder, a respected journalist, and the kind of killing it was, I think people are in shock about how this could come about,” Pitaro said.