Following the issuance of an arrest warrant for him in connection with the death of a man who suffered a head injury at a Las Vegas Strip hotel last year, a retired professional wrestler and former congressional candidate turned himself in to police on Wednesday, according to his attorneys.
Earlier in the day, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that 45-year-old Daniel Rodimer was wanted for open murder in connection with Christopher Tapp’s death.
Tapp, 47, was located at the hotel and transferred to a hospital where he eventually passed away. On October 29, medical professionals responding to a cry for help treated him.
It has been Rodimer’s Las Vegas lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that Rodimer was “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,” they said.
Police said detectives opened a suspicious death investigation after they received new information on Nov. 22 about the injuries Tapp had suffered “as a result of a purposed accident.”
“Through the course of the suspicious death investigation … detectives have learned Tapp was in an altercation inside a room at the resort before being located and transported to the hospital,” police said.
The head injury caused by blunt force was later determined to be the cause of death by the Clark County Coroner’s Office. In 2020, Republican Rodimer ran against Democratic Representative Susie Lee for Nevada’s District 3 seat. By about 13,000 votes, he lost.
After moving to Texas, he competed in a special congressional election in 2021 alongside 23 other candidates to replace Republican Ron Wright, who became the first Congressman to pass away from COVID-19. With fewer than 3% of the vote, he placed in the center of the pack.
