Posted on: April 11, 2024, 09:17h.
Last updated on: April 11, 2024, 09:35h.
Daniel Rodimer, the former WWE wrestler and Republican Congressional candidate charged with murder in Las Vegas last month made his first appearance in court Wednesday.
Rodimer, 45, who wrestled under the name Dan Rodman, is accused of attacking Christopher Tapp, 47, at a party at Resorts World Las Vegas in October.
Tapp was found suffering from serious head injuries in the vicinity of Resorts World on October 19 and died a week later. The coroner ruled the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Rodimer surrendered to police on March 6 after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
‘I Watched You Nearly Murder Somebody’
On Tuesday, Rodimer’s defense lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, asked for evidence from their client’s phone to be suppressed. They argued the evidence, which included text messages and a recorded phone call, should be considered private “marital communication.”
I watched you nearly murder somebody, and I had to take your [expletive] 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,” Rodimer’s wife, Sarah Duffy, texted her husband after the attack, according to court documents. “Nobody should have to watch their husband murder somebody.”
Rodimer and Duffy were attending a Halloween party at Resorts World dressed as Ken and Barbie. The ex-wrestler allegedly became enraged with Tapp when he found him taking cocaine with his stepdaughter.
A witness told police they heard Rodimer tell Tapp, “If you ever talk to my daughter again, I’ll [expletive] kill you,” which was followed by loud banging sounds, although the witness didn’t see the alleged attack.
Rodimer is 6’7” and weighed 300 pounds during his wrestling career, according to his WWE stats. He was active as a professional wrestler from 2004 to 2007.
He ran for Nevada’s 3rd congressional district in 2020, losing out to the incumbent Democratic Rep. Susie Lee.
Tapp’s Wrongful Murder Conviction
In 2019, Tapp was released from prison after serving 21 years of a life sentence for a rape and murder that he didn’t commit. He was exonerated of killing an 18-year-old Idaho woman after the true perpetrator was caught using new developments in DNA technology.
In 2022, Tapp received a $11.7 million settlement from the city of Idaho Falls for his wrongful incarceration.
A preliminary hearing in Rodimer’s case is scheduled for May 21. Chesnoff told The Las Vegas Review-Journal after Wednesday’s hearing he was “looking forward to vigorously defending this case.”
