LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — An attorney for a former G League basketball player accused of murdering a woman in Las Vegas says his client's confession should be suppressed.
Chance Comanche, also identified in court documents as Chance Comache, used to play for the Stockton Kings.
According to an arrest report, Comanche told Las Vegas police that he helped kill Marayna Rodgers with the help of his ex-girlfriend, Sakari Harnden, in December 2023.
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According to an arrest report, Comanche told police he helped kill Rodgers after Harnden prompted him to. Detectives learned that Rodgers had arranged a meeting with Harnden, who claimed that she and Rodgers were escorts who provided different services to clients like Comanche.
Comanche told police he and Harnden planned to lure Rodgers away from her friends and described strangling Rodgers with an HDMI cord while Harnden used her hands. Comanche says he stopped strangling her once he saw her struggling to breathe after about 10 seconds. He says Harnden did not stop.
The arrest report said the two then drove around "looking for a place to hide her body" before leaving Rodgers' remains in a desert area in Henderson. Police said Comanche later told them where Rodgers' remains were.
He was arrested on Dec. 15, 2023 in Sacramento, California by the California FBI Criminal Apprehension Team and was extradited back to Las Vegas to face murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and kidnapping charges.
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On Thursday, Comanche's attorney Lance Hendron filed a motion to suppress Comanche's confession stating that police did not let Comanche know that his mother had hired attorney Michael Goldstein to represent him prior to his interrogation.
When Comanche was arrested on Dec. 15, 2023, his mother contacted Goldstein and asked him to represent her son.
According to the motion, Goldstein called the Sacramento Police Department three times and they "denied him access to Mr. Comanche and did not inform Mr. Comanche of his attorney's attempts to reach him."
The document states that five hours and 36 minutes after Goldsten made his first call to the police department, detectives from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department "interrogated Mr. Comanche without informing him of his right to counsel and without Mr. Goldstein's presence."
LVMPD does not comment on pending litigation.
When looking at Comanche's court docket, a status check has been set for May 7 with a jury trial scheduled to start on August 25.