According to court documents revealed on Tuesday, Chance Comanche, a former NBA G League player, allegedly confessed to strangling a woman in Las Vegas as part of a murder plot in which he posed as a customer for a prostitute. The 27-year-old appeared in a Sacramento County court in California, where he waived extradition to Nevada to face charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
The FBI arrested 27-year-old Chance Comanche in Sacramento, Calif., on Friday. Currently held without bond, he awaits extradition to Nevada. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department attributes the murder of Marayana Rodgers, discovered near Las Vegas this month, to Comanche and his ex-girlfriend, 19-year-old Sakari Harnden.
What Happened to Chance Comanche?
According to court documents obtained by local television station KCRA, Comanche confessed to strangling 24-year-old Rodgers to death with the help of Harnden. The former player for the Stockton Kings, a G League affiliate of the Sacramento Kings, was in Las Vegas “between team activities” when Harnden reached out to him regarding issues she was having with Rodgers, according to police records.
After failing to hire a hitman to kill Rodgers, Comanche and Harnden decided to carry out the murder plot themselves. The documents show that both women worked as escorts and planned to meet up for a double date. The date, however, was only a set-up in which Comanche was acting as a client.
According to police, the professional basketball player said Rodgers agreed to have her hands tied up as part of a “kinky sex” request. That’s when both Comanche and Harnden strangled Rodgers. Comanche told police he used an HDMI cable to strangle the victim from behind while Harnden used her hands to strangle her from the front. The two then hid the body in a ditch and covered it with rocks.
The Discovery
After the victim’s demise, the duo located a ditch alongside the road, where they placed Rodgers, a medical assistant from suburban Seattle, and concealed her remains with rocks, as per police statements. Comanche returned to the M Resort Casino, the residence of the Kings, where he and his teammates were staying, by 6 a.m. Subsequently, at 8:50 a.m., he and his teammates departed, according to police, who referenced hotel security footage.
The same surveillance cameras captured Harnden leaving her hotel room at 10:24 a.m., described as “visibly upset” and in tears, leading to her arrest on December 13. After his arrest, Comanche attended Beverly Hills High School in Southern California and the University of Arizona and was promptly released from the Kings.
What Chance Comanche Confessed?
He reportedly informed detectives that he met his co-defendant 1 ½ years ago through a dating app. Although their romantic involvement lasted only a few months, they maintained communication over time, as outlined by the police. The ongoing discord between Harnden and Rodgers stemmed from an alleged dispute where Rodgers had been telling mutual acquaintances that “she was going to smoke her'” if Harnden did not yield a coveted Rolex watch, according to police accounts.
In response to the conflict, Comanche had purportedly offered to assist Harnden in finding someone to eliminate Rodgers. However, their attempts to enlist external help failed, leading them to “decide to carry out the murder themselves,” as indicated by the police. Comanche’s defence attorney, Michael Goldstein, told reporters outside the Sacramento court on Tuesday that they had nothing to say. He mentioned that they intended to let the courts handle the matter and would address it in Nevada.
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