LAS VEGAS — Chance Comanche, a former NBA G League player, has confessed to strangling a woman in Las Vegas. He was arrested last week in connection with her disappearance, according to court documents.
Comanche, 27, appeared in a Sacramento County court on Tuesday and waived his extradition back to Nevada, where he’ll face charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, KCRA3 in Sacramento reports.
The body of 23-year-old Marayna Rodgers was recovered from a desert area last week by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police after Comanche and his girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, 19, were arrested separately in connection with her disappearance. Rodgers was reported missing on Dec. 7, two days after she had a pre-arranged meeting with Harnden and Comanche in Las Vegas, LVMPD said in a news release.
Harnden was arrested in Las Vegas on Dec. 13 while Comanche, who formerly played for the G-League’s Stockton Kings, was arrested Dec. 15 in Sacramento. He was released by the Kings organization following his arrest.
Rodgers’ death occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 6, just hours after the Kings played the NBA G League’s Ignite in Henderson, Nevada, police said. Rodgers was in Las Vegas for sex work, and Harnden was also a sex worker, court documents show, according to KCRA3. The two had planned to go on a double date, but Harnden had plotted with Comanche to steal from Rodgers, according to documents.
Comanche admitted to police that Rodgers agreed to have her hands zip-tied behind her back before he and Harnden strangled her, KCRA3 reports. He said he used an HDMI cord to choke Rodgers “for approximately 10 seconds” while Harnden used her hands, the court record shows, according to NBC News. Comanche said he stopped choking Rodgers when he heard her struggling to breathe, “but Sakari continued choking her,” the affidavit said.
After Rodgers’ death, Comanche and Harnden disposed of her body in a ditch off the side off a road and covered her body with rocks, according to police. Comanche returned to The M Resort Casino hotel, where the Kings were staying, at about 6 a.m. before the team left the hotel around 8:50 a.m., according to police, which cited hotel surveillance camera footage.
“We really have nothing to say,” Michael Goldstein, Comanche’s defense attorney, told reporters outside court in Sacramento on Tuesday. “We’re going to let the courts deal it. We’re going to deal with it in Nevada.”
Comanche played in 13 games this season for the G-League’s Kings before being released following his arrest. The former University of Arizona standout was in his second season with the Kings. He’s played in one career NBA game, which came during the 2022-23 season with the Portland Trail Blazers, where the 6-foot-10 center recorded seven points and three rebounds in 21 minutes played.
Prior to that, Comanche played in 27 games for the G-League’s Canton Charge during the 2018-19 season and 45 games for the Memphis Hustle during the 2017-18 season. The Charge acquired Comanche in a Jan. 2019 trade with Memphis in exchange for the rights to the Raptors 906′s 2019 second-round draft pick and the returning player rights to Jordan Matthews.
He also played for The Basketball League’s Enid Outlaws, as well as professionally in the Turkish Basketball First League, between G-League stints.
