On Wednesday night, a former congressional candidate and professional wrestler who was wanted in relation to a murder that occurred on the Strip a year ago was spotted surrendering at the Clark County Detention Center.
Just before six o’clock in the evening, Daniel Rodimer and his lawyer, David Chesnoff, were spotted entering the jail through the front doors. He covered his face as he entered the premises and avoided eye contact with the media.
The Metropolitan Police Department said that Rodimer, 45, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued on Wednesday in relation to the death of Christopher Tapp, 47, in November. Tapp is an Idahoan who was falsely convicted and served 20 years in jail.
Chesnoff and associate attorney Richard Schonfeld sent an email stating, “Mr. Rodimer is voluntarily surrendering to authorities and will post a court ordered bail. He intends on vigorously contesting the allegations and asks that the presumption of innocence guaranteed all Americans be respected.”
The docket for the Las Vegas Justice Court said that Rodimer was “flying in to address the warrant” on Wednesday afternoon.
On Wednesday, Rodimer was observed in the jail going through the booking procedure. According to court documents, he posted a surety bond in lieu of the $200,000 bail. He’s scheduled to go to court on April 10.
According to Metro police documents that reference witnesses, Tapp is said to have provided cocaine or other narcotics to Rodimer’s stepdaughter during a party in a Resorts World room, which is what caused Rodimer’s apparent rage toward Tapp.
The arrest documents state that after entering Tapp’s restroom, a “visibly upset” Rodimer was overheard saying, “If you ever talk to my daughter again, I’ll f—-ing kill you.”
There were then two big bangs heard. According to the witness, Tapp was punched by Rodimer.
When help arrived, it took twenty to thirty minutes, and Tapp was brought to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.
“Dan became very irate.”
According to police documents, another witness informed police that when he returned to the party area, Tapp was still conscious and still on the master bedroom bed. He also had a significant mark on the left side of his neck and a swollen face.
In contrast to the texts he had received from someone else at the party, which stated that “Dan got really mad and punch Chris,” the witness was informed by another partygoer that Tapp had slipped and fallen.
Assistance was indicated by this witness. When hotel emergency services personnel came, they concluded Tapp need paralysis. Next, Tapp was brought to the hospital.
“Knock Christopher to the ground, at which time Christopher’s head hit a small table,” another witness reported seeing Rodimer do.
The police files quoted a witness who identified Dan as the aggressor and stated that Christopher was not retaliating, saying that Dan “continued to punch Christopher throughout his head and body.”
According to the records, the reason the witness fled the room was that she found what Dan was doing to Christopher to be “disgusting,” and she did not want to see it continue.
One of the Resorts World security guards claimed he attempted to speak with Tapp while he lay on the bed following the incident. Tapp struggled to respond to inquiries and spoke incoherently.
After Angie Dodge, then eighteen, died in 1996, Tapp was found guilty of rape and murder. His judicial ordeal, which garnered national attention from the time of his original arrest until his release, followed this course. Before his release in 2017 and his exoneration in 2019, he was incarcerated for 21 years.
In 2020, Republican Rodimer, who had the backing of then-President Donald Trump, was defeated by incumbent Representative Susie Lee in the race for Nevada’s 3rd District. Rodimer then declared his candidacy for Congress in 2021, this time in the Texas 6th District special election. That race was also lost by him.
Rodimer faced “dogging on the campaign trail by old allegations stemming from bar fights and 911 calls made to police by his then-girlfriend alleging theft and domestic violence” during the 2020 election, according to the Review-Journal.
In response, he released an advertisement in which his future wife and ex-girlfriend claimed that their home was violence-free.
Rodimer filed a lawsuit after the election result, claiming voting fraud. A judge in Clark County dismissed the claim.
Text communications between Rodimer and a woman only named as Sarah are included in the police paperwork detailing the allegations surrounding Tapp’s death. It’s unclear from the police files whether Sarah and Rodimer’s chat is about Tapp.
The last name of Sarah has been redacted in the police files. Sarah is the name of Rodimer’s spouse.
In the text exchange, which dates back to the afternoon of October 30, only hours after the incident at Resorts World that would ultimately result in Tapp’s murder, Sarah confronts Rodimer regarding child and marital support and refers to him as a “monster.”
“I watched you nearly murder. Somebody and I had to take your f—-ing hands off from his neck as he laid there and you ran away, and I spent the next two hours trying to take care of him. Nobody should have to watch their husband murder somebody,” Sarah texted.
Metro and the Clark County coroner’s office autopsy report both state that Tapp died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head following a “physical altercation.”
On November 5, he was declared deceased at Sunrise Hospital.
When Tapp sued the city of Idaho Falls in federal court in 2020, he expressed his desire for a fresh start to the local media.
Tapp remarked at the time, “I’m hoping that this nightmare will come to an end.” “I’ve been living it for the last 23 years of my life.”
Another man from Idaho, Brian Leigh Dripps, entered a guilty plea to Dodge’s rape and murder in 2021.
The Death Penalty Information Center states that Idaho Falls, the city, and Tapp reached an agreement on a $11.7 million compensation.
According to Tapp’s autopsy report’s preliminary summary of the investigation, Tapp “suffered an unwitnessed fall and was down approximately one hour until friends found him and called 911.”
Additionally, authorities stated in a press release that on October 29, medical staff answered a need for assistance for a man who would subsequently be identified as Tapp and who was “suffering from injuries as a result of a purported accident.”
However, the initial theory that Tapp’s death was an accident would subsequently be refuted, according to the autopsy report, after further “investigative circumstances” were reported to Metro police in November and witness accounts were provided to investigators on December 11.
According to the autopsy report, “the interview describes Mr. Tapp in a physical altercation with another individual… directly resulting in Mr. Tapp’s head trauma.”
The report stated that Tapp was given a “poor prognosis” upon his arrival at the hospital.
Multiple brain bleeds were discovered by radiology, the report stated, and Tapp tested positive for cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana in his toxicology.
The coroner’s office declared the death to be a homicide on January 2.
