Prosecutor wants death penalty for Stella girl’s accused killers

May 06, 2008 09:31 pm

— By Wally Kennedy
wkennedy@joplinglobe.com
CASSVILLE, Mo. — Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for David Spears and Chris Collings, charged in the rape and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford last November.
Johnnie Cox, prosecutor of Barry County, filed notice with the court Monday that he plans to seek the death penalty for Spears, 25, of Stella, and Collings, 32, of Wheaton. Spears was Rowan’s stepfather.
The girl disappeared in November from her home in Stella. Her body was found days later in a sinkhole near Powell in McDonald County. Authorities believe she was killed in Barry County.
Cox said filing notice with the court that he will seek the death penalty for both defendants if they are convicted is “a step in the process that the state is required to do. There must be a reasonable amount of time before the trial to notify the defense that we will seek the death penalty.”
In addition, Cox filed a notice of statutory aggravating circumstances, which also is required by law when a prosecutor seeks the death penalty.
Said Cox: “To be able to seek the death penalty, you have to prove certain aggravating circumstances in the case. The law lays out several statutory requirements. You have to tell the defense which ones you intend to prove. We intend to prove three of them for each defendant.”
Both men have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, forcible rape and statutory rape.
Prosecutors say both men have confessed to the crimes, but authorities are trying to reconcile discrepancies between their accounts.
Both men were bound over to the trial division of Barry County Circuit Court after waiving their preliminary hearings. Bond amounts have not been set for either man.
Investigators believe Rowan was abducted early Nov. 3 from her home in Stella in Newton County, raped and murdered in Barry County, and her body disposed of in McDonald County.

Death row

The last person to receive the death penalty in Barry County was Cecil Clayton, who was charged in 1996 with killing a Barry County deputy sheriff. He is now on death row.