LAS VEGAS — A former NBA developmental league player accused with his ex-girlfriend of killing a woman whose body was found last month in southern Nevada faced a Las Vegas judge on Tuesday following his transfer in custody from a jail in Sacramento, California.
Chance Comanche, 27, who played for the Stockton Kings before his Dec. 15 arrest in Sacramento, arrived Sunday at the Clark County Detention Center, jail records showed.
NBC affiliate KSNV of Las Vegas reported he attended an initial appearance Tuesday morning in Las Vegas Justice Court, where Judge Diana Sullivan scheduled his preliminary hearing for Feb. 8. An attorney for Comanche said he would reserve the right to address bail at a later date.
Comanche’s defense attorney, Gary Guymon, declined comment Monday ahead of the court appearance.
Comanche’s’ former girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, 19, also is jailed in Las Vegas pending a separate preliminary hearing Wednesday on charges related to the disappearance and death of Marayna Rodgers, 23, of Lynnwood, Washington.
Police in Las Vegas said Rodgers, a medical assistant, was choked to death early Dec. 6. Comanche allegedly admitted to strangling her in a murder plot that had him posing as a prostitute’s customer, court documents revealed last month.
Rodgers’ remains were later found in a roadside ditch in suburban Henderson.
Defense attorney Michael Goldstein told reporters outside court in Sacramento last month that “we really have nothing to say.”
“We’re going to deal with it in Nevada,” he added.
Comanche, a 6-foot-10 power forward and center, was dropped following his arrest by Stockton, the NBA G League affiliate of the Sacramento Kings. The team had played the G League Henderson Ignite on Dec. 5.
