By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
The defense attorney for a Stella man charged with raping and killing 9-year-old Rowan Ford is challenging one of the factors that could allow the death penalty to be imposed if her client is convicted.
Prosecutors said last year they would seek the death penalty against both David Spears and Chris Collings, each of whom is charged with first-degree murder, forcible rape and statutory rape in connection with the death of Ford. Spears was Ford’s stepfather.
Spears’ defense attorney, public defender Cynthia Dryden, recently filed objections to one of the aggravating circumstances that Barry County Prosecutor Johnnie Cox cited in his intent to seek the death penalty.
Dryden, according to online court records, argued that the circumstance of “wantonly vile, horrible or inhuman” is unconstitutionally vague.
Cox said the motion was one of the “standard motions that are filed in every death penalty case.”
That motion likely will be taken up during an Aug. 12 hearing, Cox said.
Spears’ case is to go to trial in July 2010 in Pulaski County on a change of venue. Collings’ case is scheduled for trial in March 2010 in Phelps County.
Investigators believe Ford was abducted early Nov. 3, 2007, from her home in Stella in Newton County, raped and murdered in Barry County, and her body disposed of in McDonald County. The body was found in a sinkhole after a nearly weeklong search by authorities and volunteers.
Authorities say both Spears and Collings have confessed to the crimes.
Cox said the questions of who did what will likely not be settled until trial.
“That is essentially the way it is all going to play out,” he said.
Joplin Metro
Defense attorney takes aim at death-penalty factor in Rowan Ford case
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