Former Nevada congressional hopeful accused in death of Chris Tapp, who served 20 years for murder he didn't commit
A former Nevada congressional candidate has been identified as a suspect in the death last year of Chris Tapp, an Idaho man who spent two decades in prison for a murder he didn't commit and later became an advocate for the wrongfully convicted.
Las Vegas police said Wednesday they had obtained an arrest warrant on a murder charge for Daniel Rodimer, 45. He turned himself into the Clark County Detention Center later that day and was released after posting bond, police said.
Tapp, 47, died in Las Vegas after authorities responded to an Oct. 29 report of a "purported accident," authorities said in January.
Tapp's lawyer previously told "Dateline" that he'd gone to a Las Vegas car show and was hospitalized and in a coma after he fell and hit his head on a coffee table in his hotel.
Homicide detectives later discovered Tapp had been in a fight before the hospitalization, police said.
Tapp died from blunt force trauma to the head, and the Clark County Coroner’s Office ruled the death a homicide, the police department said.
Police didn’t provide any additional details Wednesday about the death or Tapp's relationship with Rodimer.
Rodimer, a former wrestler and political candidate, was the runner-up for a seat in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020, losing to incumbent Suzanne Lee by about 3 percentage points.
In 2019, Tapp was exonerated for the murder of Angie Dodge, an 18-year-old woman who was raped and murdered in her Idaho Falls apartment in 1996.
Tapp later told "Dateline" that he’d falsely confessed to the murder after investigators repeatedly interrogated him and administered multiple lie detector tests.
In 2017, after Tapp’s lawyer alleged that authorities had coerced his client, prosecutors agreed to vacate Tapp’s rape conviction and reduce the sentence in his murder conviction to time served.
Tapp was cleared in the murder two years later, after Dodge’s former neighbor was arrested in her killing; the former neighbor later pleaded guilty to a murder charge.
Tapp pushed lawmakers in Idaho and other states to pass legislation providing fair compensation to exonerees. In 2021, after Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a bill backed by Tapp into law, Tapp was given $1.2 million — or $62,000 for each year he was behind bars.
Tapp later sued the city of Idaho Falls and its police department over “egregious misconduct.” He settled the suit in 2022 for $11.7 million and an apology from the mayor.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
