CONFIRMED - Rowan Ford’s stepdad on state payroll in West Plains

The violent rape and murder in 2007 of a 9-year-old Newton County girl returned to the headlines when one of the men tried for the crime, Christopher Collings, was executed in December. The other man - Rowan Ford’s stepfather? He is working for the Howell County Public Defender's Office in West Plains. 
 
“David Spears has been employed with our West Plains Public Defender Office from April 20, 2020, to present,” confirmed Gina Hall, Human Resources Manager for Missouri State Public Defender System, in a Dec. 13 email. 
 
Spears was not actually convicted of raping or murdering nine-year-old Rowan Ford. He is not even a registered sex offender.
 
He pled to lesser charges on September 26, 2012, of endangering the welfare of a child and hindering prosecution class C and D felonies, respectively. He was released in 2015 after serving a total of eleven years in prison. 
 
According to court documents used in Collings’ appeal, Spears did, however, implicate himself in the crime. Appeals of Collings’ death sentence relied on inconsistencies in Spears’ confessions to cast reasonable doubt, referring to Spears consistently as the “co-defendant” in the rape and murder and citing the trial transcript. Initially, Spears did face murder charges and the death penalty too. 
 
“Two people confessed to this crime: Christopher Collings and David Spears. Yet their statements are irreconcilable and cannot both be true. While Christopher was adamant that Spears didn’t participate in the crime, and that he had not told Spears any details, Spears’ confession to Newton County officers provided details only someone who participated in the crime would know,” reads Collings’ 2017 appeal to Missouri Supreme Court. 
 
According to Missouri Employees Accountability Portal, in 2024, Spears earned $40,842.00. Funding for the public defender’s office is part of the state budget. The hiring decisions are made by the public defender system, not by local elected officials in Howell County. 
 
Collings was executed in Bonne Terre on December 3. 
 

CORRECTION: THE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED VERSION OF THIS STORY MISTAKENLY IDENTIFIED SPEARS' EMPLOYER AS THE HOWELL COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY'S OFFICE IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH. SPEARS IS EMPLOYED BY THE PUBLIC DEEFENDER'S OFFICE IN WEST PLAINS.

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