A FORMER WWE star charged with murdering a man who spent over 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit has handed himself into cops.
Daniel Rodimer, 45, was named the suspect in Christopher Tapp's murder on Wednesday, months after Tapp died from a blunt force head trauma in Las Vegas.
A criminal complaint and arrest warrant for Rodimer - a former pro-wrestler and congressional hopeful - were filed in court on Wednesday, charging him with open murder.
Rodimer's lawyers, however, have said the former wrestler "vigorously contests the allegations."
“Mr. Rodimer is voluntarily surrendering to authorities and will post a court ordered bail,” a statement from Rodimer's attorneys David Z. Chesnoff and Richard A. Schonfeld said in a statement.
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“He intends on vigorously contesting the allegations and asks that the presumption of innocence guaranteed all Americans be respected.”
Rodimer was later seen turning himself into Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday night.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was called to Resorts World on October 29, 2023, and found a man suffering from injuries.
The victim, identified as 47-year-old Tapp, died at the hospital days later, on November 5.
Detectives initially believed that Tapp's fatal injuries were the result of an accident.
However, investigators later determined that Tapp was in an "altercation inside a room at a resort" before he was rushed to the hospital.
At the time, Tapp's lawyer told Dateline that he had gone to a Las Vegas car show and was in a coma after falling and hitting his head on a coffee table in his hotel.
It came years after Tapp was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder in the 1996 death of 18-year-old Angie Dodge.
He spent 21 years behind bars before he was released in 2017, and he was exonerated in 2019.
Wanted suspect Rodimer previously had a career in professional wrestling, appearing in WWE as a contestant in the 2004 Tough Enough competition.
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He went on to work at WWE's Deep South Wrestling development brand, where he received training.
Rodimer also worked for Ohio Valley Wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling but was ultimately released from WWE in 2007.
After his wrestling career, Rodimer went into politics, unsuccessfully running as a Republican for Nevada's third congressional district in 2020 and a Texas congressional seat in 2021 despite being endorsed by former president Donald Trump.
"Dan has my Complete and Total Endorsement. We need Dan in Washington!" Trump wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in 2020.
A decorated Instagram page also shows "Big Dan Rodimer," as he was known in his campaign, pictured with the likes of Trump, Kevin McCarthy, and UFC president Dana White.
"I will always have this man's back because he has always had ours. Who's with me?" he wrote alongside a photo of him and Trump.
Aside from naming Rodimer, police have been tight-lipped on details in the case, including Tapp's relationship to the ex-WWE star.
DECADES BEHIND BARS
In 2022, officials in Idaho Falls agreed to pay Tapp $12 million over his wrongful conviction in Dodge's murder.
Dodge was stabbed 14 times and left half-naked, reported CBS News.
Fluids left at the crime scene were determined to belong to the killer but there wasn't a match to the DNA sample at the time.
New genetic genealogy technology showed that Brian Leigh Dripps, 55, was the actual killer.
Dripps is now serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to rape and first-degree murder.
"No dollar amount could ever make up for the over 20 years of my life I spent in prison for crimes I did not commit," Tapp said in a statement at the time.
"However, the settlement will help me move forward with my life."
The city initially asked for the lawsuit over the wrongful conviction to be dismissed but chose to give Tapp a settlement instead.
"Please accept this sincere apology to you and your mother, Mrs. Tapp, for the city's role in your wrongful conviction and subsequent incarceration, as well the harm and damages that you and your family have endured over these many years," Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper wrote.
FALSE CONFESSION
Despite DNA not matching his at the scene of the crime and repeatedly denying any wrongdoing, Tapp admitted to killing Dodge.
The confession came after Tapp, who was 20 years old at the time, spent more than 28 hours being interrogated by investigators over 23 days.
He later said that his taped confession was a lie and worked with Dodge's mother, Carol, to clear his name before his release.
"You can see 'em specifically pointin' out facts to me. Or — or giving little innuendos … or hints of how the murder went down," Tapp told CBS News while watching his interrogation video.
Carol Dodge said she believed Tapp's confession had been coerced.
"It wasn't until I started studying science that I said, 'It's impossible,'" she told the outlet.
"How could Chris admit in doing what he said he did, and there be no physical evidence?"
