More than 32 years after the death of his then-girlfriend Nancy Argentino, WWE Hall of Famer "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka was arrested Tuesday on murder charges.
Snuka, 72, was arraigned at 1:50 p.m. after being arrested at his New Jersey home and charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter stemming from the death of Argentino at an Allentown, Pa. motel in 1983. Snuka was taken to the Lehigh County Central Booking Center and then jailed with bail set at $100,000.
Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin re-opened the case last year after a Morning Call investigation revealed a never-before-seen autopsy report that labeled the case a homicide.
At the time of Argentino's death, Snuka was a big name in the WWE, known for his high-flying, acrobatic arsenal. Snuka, whose real name is James Reiher, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in the Class of 1996.
On the night of Argentino's death, Snuka was performing at a then-WWF taping at Allentown Fairgrounds on May 10, 1983, and returned to his hotel room to find Argentino gasping for air and oozing yellow fluid from her mouth and nose, according to documents obtained by the Morning Call.
Argentino passed away the following day at Lehigh Medical Center from traumatic brain injuries and she sustained more than two dozen cuts and bruises.
The case was treated as a homicide and Snuka was the sole person of interest, though he was never convicted until Tuesday. Snuka maintained his innocence, despite his story flip-flopping on several occasions.
He had told at least five people that he shoved Argentino and she hit her head, but the later claimed she slipped and fell. Snuka, who was charged for assaulting Argentino in a New York motel four months before her death, also claimed to be innocent in his 2012 autobiography.
"Many terrible things have been written about me hurting Nancy and being responsible for her death, but they are not true," he wrote, according to the Morning Call. "This has been very hard on me and very hard on my family. To this day, I get nasty notes and threats. It hurts. I never hit Nancy or threatened her."
Snuka is suffering from stomach cancer and his daughter, Tamina, currently wrestles for the WWE.
The former Superstar lost a $500,000 wrongful death case to the Argentino family in 1985 by default, but he never paid, claiming that he didn't have the money to hire a legal team.
The Argentino family hopes that his conviction on Tuesday will bring them piece.
"I think that it's been a long road," Argentino's sister Louise Argentino-Upham told the Morning Call. "They did the right thing in face of all the evidence."
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