MOUNTAIN HOME -- Law enforcement officials from Baxter County and the Arkansas State Police arrested a Gassville man Thursday on accusations that he bought a gun for a man who used it a day later to kill a Midway couple, Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery said.
Talmadge Beigh Pendergrass, 28, was charged with making a false statement in the acquisition of a firearm after the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas rendered an indictment Jan. 11.
Police accuse Pendergrass of lying when he purchased a gun at a Mountain Home grocery store and said it was for himself. Instead, police say, Pendergrass gave the weapon to Nicholas Ian Roos, 25, who later pleaded guilty in the slayings of Donald Rice, 75, and LaDonna Rice, 71.
Montgomery said Pendergrass bought a Canik TP9, 9mm handgun at Harps Food Store on U.S. 62 East in Mountain Home on Nov. 6, 2015. Montgomery said Roos tried to buy the handgun at the store but was denied after a background check.
Video taken from the store showed Roos then took money out of a bag with a Crown Royal logo on it and gave it to Pendergrass, according to a news release. Pendergrass then applied to buy the gun and was approved.
"Pendergrass stated on the application form that he was the actual buyer of the firearm when in truth and fact he was acquiring the firearm on behalf of another person, which is a violation of the law," Montgomery said in a released statement.
Harps Food Store assistant manager Melissa Hodges said the store is one of about three Harps stores in the state that sells guns and sporting goods.
"We do background checks on our computer," she said. "Depending upon if they are approved, we can sell them a gun right there. If it's delayed, we tell them it could take three days or longer."
Baxter County deputies arrested Roos and two others in February 2016, and Baxter County Prosecuting Attorney David Ethredge charged each with two counts of capital murder, arson and aggravated robbery.
Deputies found the Rices' bodies in the burned rubble of their rural Baxter County home Nov. 10, 2015, after firefighters were dispatched there Nov. 7. On Nov. 8, police found Donald Rice's burned pickup in a field about 3 miles from his home.
Authorities said Roos, Mikayla Mynk, 21, of Gassville and Zach Tyler Grayham, 24, of Mountain Home broke into the Rices' home on the morning of Nov. 7, killed the couple and stole several items, including a large-screen television.
Roos pleaded guilty to capital murder on May 24 and was sentenced to life in prison. Grayham pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and Mynk entered a guilty plea to aggravated robbery and three counts of theft and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
State Desk on 01/28/2017