Man held in shooting death of his father

Jeffrey Libby

Thursday, Jan. 2, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

Daniel Rodius had allegedly phoned home to Green Valley from a recent vacation in Mexico and said that his 21-year-old son David John Rodius had threatened to kill him. Early Wednesday the younger Rodius carried out that threat, police said.

About 4:30 a.m., David John Rodius allegedly shot his 58-year-old father in the head with a .45-caliber handgun after an argument in the hallway of their quarter-million-dollar five-bedroom home.

When police arrived at the house, in the 2000 block of Majestic Peak Drive, they found Daniel Rodius face down in the hallway and the pistol was in the front yard. David Rodius had run up the street to Wigwam and had a black eye when he was arrested, police said.

Rodius is charged with murder and remained jailed without bond this morning at the Henderson Detention Center, Henderson Police spokesman Shane Lewis said. Lewis said.

Rodius and his parents had just returned from a vacation in Mexico that had been troubled by quarelling, threats and the arrest of David by Mexican police, according to an affidavit police filed with Henderson Justice Court.

During the vacation in Mexico, David Rodius had acted strangely, his mother, Grace Rodius, said, the affidavit notes.

Mark Rodius, David's brother, had stayed home but had received a call from his father, and during that call Daniel Rodius had told Mark that David was planning to kill some or all of the family, according to the affidavit.

Early Wednesday, David and his father argued and then David came out of his bedroom with a handgun and pointed it at his father, according to the affidavit.

When Mark, who is within a year's age of David, came to his bedroom doorway across from David he told his brother to put the gun away, but David threatened to shoot him, the affidavit notes.

Mark Rodius backed into his bedroom and closed the door before the sound of a gunshot sent him jumping from his second-story window, police said.

David Rodius also allegedly threatened to kill his mother.

After David Rodius fled the home, Grace Rodius called police and told them he had shot his father and had run from the home with the gun, police said.