Man sentenced to life in prison for beating couple to death
A 41-year-old man received two life sentences on Tuesday for beating his two roommates to death in their Henderson home more than four years ago.
Roger Tindell fled Henderson after the killing and was involved in a shooting, police chase and shootout with law enforcement in Southern California. Tindell appeared to livestream the police pursuit on his Facebook profile, where he claimed to be holding a pregnant woman hostage and threatened to shoot her.
Tindell pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty for the killings of 40-year-old Robin McComb and McComb’s girlfriend, 28-year-old Mellisa Mason, according to his public defender, Ryan Bashor.
“From the moment I met Mr. Tindell, he’s been wanting to take responsibility for these crimes,” Bashor said Tuesday, before District Judge Carli Kierny sentenced Tindell to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
‘Neither of them deserved this’
Prosecutors have written in court documents that Tindell killed his roommates “in order to acquire a vehicle so that he could drive to a romantic interest in California.”
The couple were found dead in a Henderson home on Oct. 12, 2018. Both had blunt force head injuries, and McComb was found lying in a closet with his hands and feet tied with packaging tape, according to transcripts from a July 2020 grand jury hearing.
Tindell, who had been staying with the couple, was suspected of taking money, a gun and Mason’s car from the home.
Five days after the couple’s bodies were found, Tindell was suspected of shooting and injuring a man, then leading California police on a car chase that ended in gunfire near Yucca Valley, about 200 miles southwest of Las Vegas, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
The chase ended with Tindell crashing into a patrol car and exchanging gunfire with police, who shot Tindell at least once.
During a Facebook livestream of what appeared to be the chase, Tindell yelled at police to “back off” or he would shoot the pregnant woman he claimed to be holding hostage.
The woman was heard in the video telling him to drive faster, at one point saying, “Now I have to raise our son alone.”
In December 2019, Tindell was convicted of three counts of attempted murder in San Bernardino, according to court records filed by Clark County prosecutors. Tindell was extradited to Las Vegas in July 2020.
Tindell apologized to the victims’ families during Tuesday’s court hearing.
“Know that I’ve truly, truly been full of remorse,” he said.
McComb’s niece, Elicia Lobato, said during the sentencing hearing that she was relieved that the court proceedings against Tindell are finally coming to an end and that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Lobato said her uncle saw the good in other people and must have “seen the good in Roger Tindell” to allow him to stay in the home.
“My uncle will truly be missed,” she said. “He was a good person. Mellisa was a good person. Neither of them deserved this.”
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.
