A prosecutor said Tuesday that separate murder, kidnapping and conspiracy cases will be combined so a former NBA developmental league player and his ex-girlfriend can be tried together in the killing of a woman whose body was found last month in southern Nevada.
Chance Comanche, 27, a Los Angeles native who played for the Stockton Kings before his Dec. 15 arrest in Sacramento, California, made an initial court appearance Tuesday.
He stood in shackles and responded, “Yes, ma’am,” to a judge’s questions about whether he understood the charges against him.
Comanche’s defense attorney, Gary Guymon, did not immediately seek bail and declined to comment following the brief court appearance.
But he said Comanche intends to plead not guilty during hearings to come. According to KTLA, Comanche’s 19-year-old girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, was supposedly good friends with the victim.
Rodgers, a medical assistant, had left Washington state on the first of December to seek vacation in Las Vegas.
One of the friends Rodgers came with had dropped her off to a scheduled meeting with Harnden on Dec. 6 around 1 a.m.
Harnden was said to be a trusted friend of many years, however, it seems as if there were tensions unknown to Rodgers’ friends.
Comanche showed investigators where they left her body on a map, near Vincenzo Lane in the Vegas desert suburbs of Henderson.
Police found her body in a ditch, covered in rocks. Her last location was the southwest edge of the Las Vegas Valley.
About two hours after her friend dropped her off, she was gone. Rodgers was reported missing on Dec. 7, and police were unable to find her until Comanche’s arrest.
Harnden was arrested in Vegas with links to the crime on Dec. 13, but Comanche had fled back to Sacramento to be arrested by the FBI two days later.
An arrest report obtained by FOX5 stated that he immediately told investigators information about the situation.
He stated his girlfriend had said she was going to “smoke [Rodgers]” if she didn’t receive a Rolex watch from her. Comanche and Harnden then devised a plan to get her alone.
Comanche’s’ former girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, 19, also is jailed in Las Vegas pending a separate hearing Wednesday on a theft charge related to the disappearance and death of Marayna Rodgers, 23, of Lynnwood, Washington.
Prosecutor Kennedy Holthus told Judge Diana Sullivan on Tuesday that Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson intends to combine all the cases against Comanche and Harnden.
Sullivan said Comanche will remain jailed without bail and set his next court date for Feb. 8. Police in Las Vegas said Rodgers, a medical assistant, was strangled early Dec. 6 and her remains were later found in a roadside ditch in suburban Henderson.
Comanche graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 2015 and played two seasons with the University of Arizona before entering the NBA draft.
He went undrafted and signed a free-agent contract with the Portland Trail Blazers last April but played only one game.
Sacramento signed Comanche in October but waived him 10 days later, at which point he joined the team’s Stockton affiliate.
Comanche, a 6-foot-10 power forward and center, was dropped following his arrest by the Stockton Kings, the NBA G League affiliate of the Sacramento Kings.
He tallied 16 points and six rebounds when the team played the G League Henderson Ignite on Dec. 5.
The case against Comanche is set to happen in Sacramento on the Tuesday, however he will be provided back to Vegas to be tried there instead.
The NBA’s Sacramento Kings signed him to a week after he graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 2015.
The Stockton Kings, whose are tied to the Sacramento Kings, took him instead. He was released by the Kings the same day he was arrested. Sacramento records from Monday do not show that the politician has a lawyer.