Christopher Tapp’s alleged killer surrenders to Las Vegas Police
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KIFI)-The alleged killer in the Cristopher Tapp murder case, a congressional candidate and former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler, has turned himself in to Las Vegas Police, according to court documents Local News 8 received on Wednesday.
The suspect is identified as Dan Rodimer, a 45-year-old man, who is also a father of six.
The court documents indicate that Rodimer is “flying in to address the warrant.” Clark County Justice Court set an initial bail amount of $200,000.
David Z. Chesnoff and Richard A. Schonfeld, Rodimer’s attorneys, released a statement on Wednesday evening. “Mr. Rodimer is voluntarily surrendering to authorities and will post a court-ordered bail,” it read. “He intends on vigorously contesting the allegations and asks that the presumption of innocence guaranteed to all Americans be respected.”
According to the arrest warrant obtained by Local News 8, Rodimer allegedly became upset after Tapp offered Rodimer's stepdaughter cocaine at a party inside a Las Vegas Resort.
A witness from Idaho then heard Rodimer say, "If you ever talk to my daughter again, I'll 'expletive' kill you." A second witness, one of the girls at the scene said she saw "Dan knock Christopher to the ground, at which time Christopher's head hit a small table," according to Las Vegas Police.
The court documents also contain several text messages between Mark, a promoter and Ryan, the host of the party. The text messages seem to indicate a cover-up after the fight.
Ryan refers to Dan getting really mad and punching Chris.
The document goes on to say "immediately after hearing Dan say this to Christopher, the witness heard two loud banging noises."
Christopher was taken to Sunrise Hospital about 30 minutes after the altercation.
In text messages between Dan Rodimer and his wife Sarah. The two were arguing about their divorce several hours after the fight when Sarah brought up the attack against Tapp.
She said “I'm not gonna fill out stupid [expletive] paperwork that I don't need to worry about considering you're going to be in prison for attempted murder. 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. Nobody should have to watch their husband murder somebody.
Sarah later said “I watched you nearly murder someone, let that sink in you psychopath.”
Ultimately Sarah and her daughter retained an attorney who said they will not be providing a statement.
Tapp died in the hospital Nov. 5 from blunt force trauma to the dead and multiple brain bleeds.
Rodimer is expected to appear in court Thursday.
