Chance Comanche, a professional basketball player who played in one NBA game for the Portland Trail Blazers, admitted to the killing of a woman following his arrest this week.
Comanche confessed to helping his ex-girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, kill Marayna Rodgers on December 6 after luring her to a friend’s house in Las Vegas for “kinky sex” she was expecting to get paid for, according to police records obtained by KCRA.
The 27-year-old power forward was in Vegas for a G League game with Sacramento Kings affiliate, the Stockton Kings, and went back to playing basketball as if nothing had happened after he and Harnden murdered the defenseless Rodgers, having tied her up.
The player admitted to planning the killing when they failed to hire a hitman for $3,000 after Harnden and Rodgers, who both worked as prostitutes in Vegas, argued over a Rolex watch. The two women had also gotten into a confrontation two days earlier after Harnden implicated Rodgers’ boyfriend in a double murder in California, leading to his arrest.
“I can snap her neck or just strangle the bitch,” Comanche is said to have written in a group chat with Harnden and another man. “If you get a nice little thick piece of rope or sum sturdy I can do it from the backseat. Like how the killers do it in the movies.”
They discussed multiple ways to carry out the murder, including poisoning and shooting.
The victim was lured to her death by Comanche and Harden, who promised her a double date with another man. When she got to the agreed-upon location, she was told that Comanche was a “trick” who wanted to tie both of them up. She willingly had her hands tied before Comanche strangled her with an HDMI cord while Harden choked her with her hands.
“After the killing, Harnden and Comanche returned to his hotel room before the basketball player eventually left the room to get on his team bus.
“During his police interview, Comanche pointed out the location on a map where Rodgers’ body was later found in a ditch covered by rocks.”
Comanche and Harnden drove the lifeless body to a ditch near the side of the road in Henderson, Nevada, and covered it with rocks. They then smashed her phone and drove back to the team hotel, where they remained until Comanche left with the G League outfit in the morning.
The Kings immediately released the player after he was arrested.
The confessed killers made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday.
