Pendell being held without bond in county jail
A 44-year-old Nokomis woman has been charged with murder and first-degree arson in connection with the Aug. 5 death of a man at the Palm & Pine mobile home park in Nokomis, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has reported.
Juanita Marie Pendell, of 255 N. Tamiami Trail in Nokomis, Lot 44, was arrested on Aug. 5, a Sheriff’s Office news release said. She is being held without bond in the county jail, her jail booking record noted. Her arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 5, the booking record added.
At 1:10 a.m. on Aug. 5, the release said, Sheriff’s Office deputies, Sarasota County Fire Department (SCFD) personnel, and the Nokomis Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched to a fire at 255 N. Tamiami Trail, which is the address of the Palm & Pine manufactured home community. When firefighters arrived on the scene, the release added, they observed that the interior of a trailer was engulfed in flames.
After the firefighters entered the trailer, the release continued, they “located a person who was unconscious and not breathing. The victim was removed from the trailer,” the release added, and paramedics attempted life-saving measures. Sarasota County Fire Department personnel pronounced the white male deceased at 1:48 a.m., the release added.
As of late in the afternoon of Aug. 5, the release pointed out, the victim’s name could not be released because his next of kin had not been notified. However, The Sarasota News Leader learned a day later from Pendell’s Probable Cause Affidavit that the victim was Michael David Mills, 46.
The Sheriff’s Office news release added that the State Fire Marshall and the District 12 Medical Examiner had responded to the scene of the fire, as well. “This is an ongoing investigation,” the release said.
The Palm & Pine website says the facility is “A Premier 55+ Manufactured Home Community,” the News Leader learned.
Palm & Pine is almost directly west of the Matthews-Currie Ford dealership in Nokomis, a map shows.
Details in the Probable Cause Affidavit
Pendell’s Probable Cause Affidavit says that Nokomis volunteer firefighters found the victim, Mills, “lying unconscious on his bedroom floor, suffering from burns.”
At the time of his death, the affidavit continues, “Mills had obvious burns across his entire body and was covered in black soot.” When Sarasota County Fire Department personnel attempted to intubate him, the affidavit adds, they found that Mills’ “airway contained burns and soot. This indicated that Mills was alive while inside the burning mobile home,” the affidavit explains.
The deputy who wrote the narrative in the affidavit reported having conducted several interviews with a neighbor, Leonard Siggins, who said, “Michael and Juanita were constantly fighting and arguing. Siggins reported that their arguments grew physical …” Siggins would walk over to their home, he told the officer, where he would find “Michael beating and punching Juanita,” the affidavit adds. “Siggins stated he extricated Juanita from [altercations] and brought her to his residence … to cool off; however,” the affidavit notes, “Juanita would constantly go back to engage in further altercations with Mills at their shared residence, lot 44, where the problems would continue.”
The affidavit further notes, “Siggins claimed only he and Juanita were inside his residence during this incident.”
When the deputy attempted to interview Pendell, he found that “she appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance and was either unable or unwilling to provide a statement.”
Detectives with the Bureau of Fire, Arson, and Explosives conducted a preliminary investigation of the scene, the affidavit continues. They “determined the fire appeared to be set intentionally and an accelerant was used.”
Detectives also reviewed video surveillance from the Palm & Pine mobile home community, having found a camera on the south side of a building facing both the lot where Mills and Pendell lived and the lot where Siggins lives, the affidavit notes. Detectives observed Pendell walking back and forth among her lot, Siggins’ lot and a truck parked in her lot, it says. “Surveillance also showed Juanita igniting the red Chevrolet Silverado” bearing a Kentucky license plate, which was the truck parked in her lot, the affidavit adds.
Further, the video showed Pendell “entering her camper on lot 44” and staying inside for several moments before the fire began; it was visible through windows, the affidavit notes.
The detectives could see Pendell exit the camper, “shut the door with flickering flames visible within” and then walking to Siggins’ residence, the affidavit continues. “She and Siggins returned to lot 44 shortly thereafter,” it adds. Pendell could be seen opening the front door of her mobile home and observing the interior engulfed in flames, the affidavit says.
The preliminary autopsy report determined that the cause of Mills’ death “was smoke inhalation with thermal burns,” with indications of homicide, the affidavit notes.
Prior criminal record
A News Leader check of the records maintained by Karen Rushing, Sarasota County clerk of the Circuit Court and county comptroller, and her staff found that 13 other cases involving Pendell, dating to March 2007.
Among the charges against her have been Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon without Intent to Kill; four counts of Battery-Touch or Strike, beginning in December 2011 and continuing through June of this year; Trespassing; Domestic Violence; Larceny of $300 or more but less than $5,000; two counts of DUI; one count of having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle; and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.
In an October 2018 case, the officer who wrote the narrative in the Probable Cause Affidavit noted that Pendell was a roommate of another man, Wesley Singleton, and they were living at 107 S. Sierra St. in Nokomis.
Pendell was charged because the officer found her to be the “primary aggressor” in a fight with another woman who had ridden a bicycle up to Singleton and Pendell’s house, where that woman “began to ‘act crazy,’ ” the affidavit said.
The woman was yelling at the couple, the affidavit added. Pendell ended up in a fight with her, the affidavit continued, with each woman scratching the other and each pulling the other’s hair.
When interviewed by law enforcement personnel, the other woman maintained that she had stopped across the street from the Singleton-Pendell home because a friend of the woman lived there. Pendell, the woman said, began yelling at her before Pendell “quickly ran up to her and shoved her off of her bike and jumped on her after she fell to the ground.”
Two witnesses corroborated that woman’s account, the affidavit noted, and the deputy found marks in the yard of Singleton and Pendell’s home that were “consistent with [the other woman’s] account.”
Court records indicated that although a trial in that case was scheduled in late July 2019, the State Attorney’s Office for the 12th Judicial Circuit declined to prosecute.
The most recent battery case involved the victim of the Aug. 5 fire, court records showed. However, in the aftermath of his death, that case was removed from the court files, the News Leader discovered on Aug. 7.
Having reviewed a copy of the Probable Cause Affidavit in that case the prior day, the News Leader learned that Mills at that time was living at the same address as the scene of the fire. The affidavit said that, upon their arrival, deputies found him “sitting outside the residence with a bleeding laceration to his forehead.” Mills told the deputies that Pendell “ ‘threw something and it hit me in the head.’ ”
After he made that statement, however, the deputies found him to be “extremely uncooperative and [refusing] to answer any further questions or participate in the investigation.”
The affidavit did note that Mills told the officers that he and Pendell both were from Ohio “and had a previous dating history roughly 25 years ago.” Mills added that he recently had moved to Florida with Pendell; they had “been dating and living together for the last 3-4 months,” the affidavit said.