NBA G League Player Allegedly Confessed to Murder

UPDATE Dec 21, 2023 1:21 AM CST

The former NBA G League player accused, along with his girlfriend, in a Las Vegas murder allegedly confessed to fatally strangling the victim, the AP reports. Police say Sakari Harnden, girlfriend of Chance Comanche, is a sex worker who had an ongoing dispute with the victim, Marayna Rodgers, who was also a sex worker. Police say the issue had to do with an expensive watch, and that Harnden and Comanche plotted for the basketball player to pose as a customer for Rodgers and then bind her hands behind her back. The two suspects then used a cord and their hands to fatally strangle her, police say.

Dec 18, 2023 1:30 AM CST

Chance Comanche has been released by the Stockton Kings, the NBA G League team for the Sacramento Kings, after the 6-foot-10 center and his girlfriend were arrested on suspicion of murdering a friend in Las Vegas. Comanche, 27, was arrested Friday, two days after his girlfriend Sakari Harnden, 19, ESPN reports. Their friend Marayna Rodgers, who was from Washington state, was last seen in the Las Vegas area and was reported missing December 7. Her remains were found in a desert area in Henderson, Nevada, NBC News reports.

Police say that on December 5 (a day when the Stockton Kings played the G League Ignite in Henderson), Rodgers met up with Harnden, who had Comanche with her, while Rodgers was out with friends. That was the last time she was seen alive. "Early in the investigation, detectives suspected foul play and obtained evidence to arrest Harnden and her boyfriend Comanche for their role in the kidnapping and disappearance of Rodgers," Las Vegas police said in a statement. Harnden was arrested in Vegas and Comanche's extradition to Nevada is pending. The G League is described as the NBA's official minor league; Comanche had played in one NBA game, against the Portland Trail Blazers in April. (More minor leagues stories.)