Less than a day before an elderly Midway couple was shot to death, convicted murderer Nicholas Roos and Talmadge Pendergrass went to the Harps food store on Highway 62 East in Mountain Home and bought the 9-millimeter handgun used to kill 71-year-old LaDonna Rice and 75-year-old Donald Rice at their residence on County Road 508. The home was then ransacked and set ablaze. It took several days of sifting through the ashes of the large residence before the couple was identified.
A lawsuit has been filed by family members of the couple alleging Harps Food Stores did not detect a classic “straw man purchase,” meaning one person buys a weapon because the other could not make the purchase for a variety of reasons. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Roos had told Pendergrass he could not buy the firearm because of a prior commitment for mental issues, and Pendergrass completed the required paperwork. Roos took the money for the weapon from a small sack and handed it to Pendergrass who then gave it to a Harps clerk. The clerk is identified in the lawsuit as a 17-year-old high school senior.
Scenes from Harps’ own video surveillance system shows the purchase as it unfolds including an image of Roos examining various firearms while Pendergrass stands by. The lawsuit states the Mountain Home location is one of three in the chain selling firearms.
Roos pleaded guilty to capital murder in May of 2016 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but he is appealing the conviction alleging ineffective assistance by the Public Defender’s Commission attorneys appointed to represent him. Zach Grayham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 25-year prison sentence. Mikayla Mink entered a guilty plea to aggravated robbery and three counts of theft and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Pendergrass was convicted in federal court in November of last year for making a false statement in acquiring the firearm. He was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison.
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