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A Republican candidate who ran unsuccessfully for the Nevada state legislature in 2020 with the support of President Donald J. Trump turned himself in to police on Wednesday after being charged with killing a man in Las Vegas last year, his lawyer said. revealed.
Las Vegas police said early Wednesday that former professional wrestler and candidate Daniel Rodimer, 45, was arrested after he was charged with killing Christopher Tapp, 47, at a resort on the Las Vegas Strip on Oct. 29. An arrest warrant was issued for Mr.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement that medical personnel found Tapp suffering from “injuries that were described as an accident” and he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Homicide detectives learned that Tapp had been involved in an “argument inside a room” at the resort, the statement said. The Clark County Coroner’s Office ruled that Tapp’s death was caused by blunt force trauma to his head.
The criminal complaint accuses Mr. Rodimer of punching Mr. Tapp in the head and says the killing was “deliberate, premeditated, and premeditated.”
Rodimer’s attorneys, David Chesnoff and Richard Schoenfeld, said in a statement that Rodimer “has voluntarily turned himself in, posted bail and intends to vigorously defend this case.”
Rodimer, who grew up in New Jersey, used his brash personality to run unsuccessfully for political office and briefly wrestle for World Wrestling Entertainment.
Rodimer entered the 2020 Republican primary for a seat in the Nevada State Assembly after losing the Nevada Senate race in 2018.
In 2019, during the race, the Associated Press reported that Florida court records and sheriff’s office documents show Rodimer had assaulted people in three separate altercations at nightclubs and restaurants between 2010 and 2013. He was accused of punching her and throwing her to the ground.
In one of the cases, Rodimer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge from 2010 and completed a six-week anger management course in exchange for the charge being dismissed, the Associated Press reported. He was not charged in the other two cases.
Rodimer, who calls himself “Big Dan,” won the Republican primary for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in June 2020, defeating five candidates. In October 2020, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter “Dan has my complete and total support!”
Rodimer received more than 45% of the vote in the general election, but lost to Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Susie Lee by fewer than 13,000 votes.
Less than a year later, Rodimer ran for Congress again. This was a crowded special election in Texas’ 6th Congressional District, which had been left vacant by the death of Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Wright in February 2021.
Mr. Rodimer touted his past support from Mr. Trump, appearing in a campaign ad in which he rides a bull talking to a Texas bloke. He received less than 3% of the vote, finishing 11th out of 23 candidates vying for one spot in the runoff.
A spokesperson for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Before his death, Mr. Tapp endured a legal nightmare.
After spending more than 20 years in prison, he was found not guilty in 2019 for the 1996 rape and murder of an 18-year-old woman in Idaho Falls, Idaho. According to the Innocence Project, this is the first time that genetic genealogy, a technique that identifies suspects by matching crime scene DNA to relatives, has been used to clear the name of a convicted murderer. Ta.
Another man, Brian Lee Dripps Sr., later confessed to killing teenager Angie Dodge and was sentenced to life in prison in 2021.
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