Judge Gordon Webb spent part of Wednesday afternoon in a hearing in Marion County Circuit Court attempting to hack away some of the legal entanglements which now surround Nicholas Roos' attempt to obtain post conviction relief from his current life without parole sentence. The hearing was conducted in Marion County since Circuit Judge Webb was due to hold court in Yellville earlier than he is scheduled to be in Mountain Home.
Roos, Mikayla Mynk and Zach Grayham, all in their 20s, were initially charged with capital murder and arson stemming from the killing of Donald and LaDonna Rice and the burning of their home located on Baxter County Road 508 in early November last year.
Judge Webb said one of the first steps he wanted to take in the case was to appoint an attorney to represent Roos. Since Roos' efforts to obtain post-conviction relief include attacks on the ability of the two lawyers from the State Public Defender Commission who represented him through his guilty plea, Judge Webb said it would be an obvious conflict to appoint any public defender to represent Roos in his post conviction pleadings, and that presented problems. Judge Webb said he would appoint an attorney from "the local pool of attorneys," but the lawyers would most likely receive little or no compensation for his or her work.
Roos pled guilty May 24th to participating in the Rice murders along with other charges that had been filed against him.
Mynk pled guilty to reduced charges, including aggravated residential burglary and theft by receiving, and was given 20 years in prison to be followed by 15 years probation on August 9th. During the reading of the plea agreement in Mynk's case, it became apparent she had played a less active role in the events than had Roos or Grayham. Mynk was said to have dropped the two males off in the vicinity of the Rice home and left to attend a funeral. Mynk did not dispute she knew there was a plan to commit a residential burglary, but claims she had no knowledge that her two companions had any intention of killing the Rice couple.
Grayham has pled not guilty to the capital murder and arson charges filed against him. His case remains open, and he is scheduled to reappear in court on August 25th.
After he entered the state prison system immediately following his sentencing, Roos wasted little time in attempting to back out of his negotiated guilty plea. He started his effort to obtain post-conviction relief acting as his own lawyer and made a muddle of the initial motions he filed.
Roos, who is an inmate in the Varner Unit of the state prison system, is now asking that he be given relief under Rule 37 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure and also asked the court to appoint an attorney to represent him since he claims he does not have the funds to hire a private attorney.
Rule 37 petitions are filed frequently, particularly by inmates in the state prison system. According to a number of legal journal articles, the petitions are often based on the claim that the convicted person received inadequate legal representation.
Roos makes such a claim in his Rule 37 petition against the two attorneys appointed by the State Public Defender Commission to represent him.
Roos contends his attorneys did not investigate his claimed mental health problems. He alleges he informed his defense team he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia that caused both auditory and visual hallucinations. He also claims his request to meet with a mental health professional was "denied by counsel" for unknown reasons.
He said his attorneys failed to develop a defense of mental disease and defect, despite the fact he had "a history of mental health problems, delusions, hunger strikes and suicide attempts".
Roos contends he pled guilty based largely on the "deficient performance and advice" of his lawyers. He said their flawed advice led him to accept the plea agreement offered by the state, enter the guilty plea, accept the life without parole sentence and not pursue a trial.
When anyone accepts a plea arrangement worked out between lawyers for the defendant and the prosecution, the sentencing procedure is fairly lengthy. During the sentencing, the judge questions the defendant on a number of items contained in the plea agreement. One question addresses whether the defendant was satisfied with the representation he received, and if anyone had threatened him in order to get him to enter a guilty plea.
Roos indicated during his sentencing that he was satisfied with the work his lawyers had done on his behalf, and agreed he had not been threatened and was entering his guilty plea freely and voluntarily.
At one point during his sentencing in May, Judge Webb asked Roos if he had "engaged in actions with a firearm causing the death of two people — the Rices?" Roos said he had.
Judge Webb asked twice if Roos had anything to say on his behalf before the court formally passed sentence and Roos answered no both times.
On Wednesday, Roos asked the court to order that he be provided with certain items of information, including audio/visual recordings of him that might have been taken in the Baxter County Detention Center, with a specific focus on a period from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. on November 13 last year which would have been shortly after he was arrested. Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery, who was in the courtroom in Yellville Wednesday, told KTLO News his office would check to determine if any recordings had been maintained for that length of time and would provided them if they were available.
Roos also wanted to have certain notebooks, pictures and other personal records returned to him by his former attorneys, and that the attorneys be ordered to provide him with their "case notes". Judge Webb said it would be best to wait until an attorney was appointed to represent Roos, and the attorney could make those requests to the court which could then issue an order to produce the material if appropriate.
Roos appeared in the courtroom in Yellville in the white uniform issued by the state prison system and was in shackles.
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