One of two family members listed on a lawsuit against Harps Food Stores — filed on behalf of the estates of an elderly Midway couple who were shot and killed with a gun purchased from the company’s mid-town Mountain Home store — has died.The estates of the murdered couple, Donald and LaDonna Rice of Midway, brought the suit in late September 2018.Eighty-year-old Delores Rusinko-Pheland of Hanover Park, Illinois, the administratrix of the LaDonna Rice estate, died late last month, according to court records.
In a letter filed with the courts, an attorney for the family, says the person representing the estate of Donald Rice, Judith Miller of Clarion, Pennsylvania, will seek someone to take the place of Rusinko-Pheland within approximately 90 days.
The lawsuit against Harps was filed in Washington County Circuit Court. The company is headquartered in Springdale.
The suit contends the sale of the pistol used to kill the couple was illegal and a Harps’ employee should have realized one person was buying the gun for another individual in what is termed a “straw man” or “straw purchase.”
On Nov. 6, 2015, Nicholas Ian Roos and a companion, Talmadge Beigh Pendergrass, purchased the handgun at Harps, and it was used the next day to kill the Rice couple, both in their 70s.
Photo: Nicholas Ian Roos
After killing the couple, Roos and a co-defendant, Zach Tyler Grayham, took a number of items from the Rice home along County Road 508 in Midway and set the residence ablaze. Grayham is serving his sentence in the North Central Unit of the state prison system at Calico Rock.
Photo: Zach Tyler Grayham
According to court records, Roos had planned a robbery to obtain quick cash he could use to pay a lawyer to represent him in a custody battle. He is reported to have looked for houses appearing unoccupied to burglarize.
In the probable cause affidavit, Roos was said to have rung the doorbell and asked for assistance with a vehicle that had broken down. LaDonna Rice, who answered the door, called her husband, Donald, to speak to Roos.
When Donald Rice got to the door, Roos is reported to have pulled the pistol and pointed it at the elderly man. Rice was said to have grabbed at the weapon, and Roos shot him.
LaDonna Rice began screaming, and Roos told investigators he grabbed her and threw her to the floor. He said while she looked up at him, he shot her in the head.
The remains of the couple were found in the wreckage of their home several days after the murders.
The family lawsuit contends when the gun used in the murders was purchased, it should have been clear Pendergrass was buying the gun for Roos.
Scenes from Harps surveillance system in the sporting goods section of the store on U.S. Highway 62 East show the purchase as it unfolded, including a picture of Roos examining various firearms while Pendergrass stands by.
In another scene, Pendergrass can be seen filling out paperwork while Roos looks on.
Pendergrass, who lived in Gassville at the time, was indicted by a federal grand jury in mid-January 2017 for making a false statement in acquisition of a firearm. He pled guilty in May 2017 and was sentenced five months later to a year-and-four-months in a federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised probation.
Photo: Talmadge Beigh Pendergrass
In a deposition, the Harps clerk, who sold the weapon and who was a teenage high school student at the time, said he believed Roos was purchasing the gun for Pendergrass as a gift.
He said the sale appeared that way since Pendergrass was the one making out the Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) background form, swearing he would own the weapon, and Roos only appeared to be the one paying for the pistol.
Harps contends the clerk had no reason to believe the sale was anything but legal.
The estates of Donald and LaDonna Rice claim the weapon came into Roos’ ultimate possession because the clerk failed to recognize the illegal purchase.
An attorney for the grocery chain says the clerk had no indication – and no way of knowing – the pistol would be handed over to Roos, or that Roos would use it a day later to commit a double homicide.
Harps’ lawyers wrote in a motion for summary judgment, “Responsibility for this terrible tragedy should be allowed to rest where it property should – on the shoulders of Nicholas Roos.”
Persons under 18 years of age can sell weapons, but are required to have written permission from a parent or guardian and are required to keep the document with them at all times. In a deposition, the clerk admitted he did not have anything on his person in writing from a parent or guardian giving permission to make such sales.
He said he was certain, however, his parents knew he could be called on to sell weapons as part of his job at Harps. He testified he did not feel they would have a problem with him making such sales.
Just prior to the death of the family member representing LaDonna Rice’s estate, a hearing had been set for Feb. 4 before Washington County Circuit Judge Doug Martin.
It is unknown if the death will cause a delay.
The estates of the Rice couple are represented by a number of attorneys, including the Little Rock law firm of McMath and Wood, Covington and Burling, with offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, and two attorneys with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington.
Harps is represented by attorneys with the Barber Law Firm in Little Rock.
The Arkansas Supreme Court early last month turned down Roos’ attempt to obtain post conviction relief from his life-without-parole sentence.
An attorney for Roos had argued to the state’s highest court that Baxter County Circuit Judge Gordon Webb’s decision to deny a Rule 37 petition for his client should be reversed.
In the petition, Roos argued he did not receive effective assistance of council during his trial. He said his court-appointed attorneys should have more thoroughly explored his claims of mental problems – including suicide attempts – in order to develop a defense based on mental disease and defect.
In denying the petition, Judge Webb wrote he did not find sufficient merit in Roos’ arguments, including the claim he had not been well represented by his original defense team from the State Public Defender Commission, to grant the petition.
The state Supreme Court affirmed Judge Webb’s decision.
Roos is serving his sentence in the Varner Unit of the state prison system at Gould.
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