By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-15 23:12:02 | Updated at 2025-01-19 20:45:48
3 days ago
A Missouri man convicted for his role in the brutal murder of his nine-year-old stepdaughter landed a taxpayer-funded job in the Public Defender's Office.
David Spears pleaded guilty to playing a role in the 2007 death of his stepdaughter Rowan Ford.
The little girl was raped and strangled to death by family friend Christopher Collings, who had been living with them at the time.
Collings was given the death penalty for the atrocious crime and executed on December 3.
Spears was initially charged with murder for the nine-year-old's death but took a plea deal for felony child endangerment and hindering prosecution charges.
In 2012, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. He received credit for the time served between his arrest and conviction and was released in March 2015.
A KSN16/KODE investigation revealed that shortly after his release from prison, Spears was hired by the Missouri State Public Defender's office before he was off probation.
State records show his date of hire was June 27, 2016. However, he was placed on probation until November of 2017, meaning taxpayers were funding his salary while he was on probation for the heinous crime.
David Spears (pictured) pleaded guilty to playing a role in the death of his stepdaughter. After his release from prison, he was hired at the Missouri State Public Defender's office
Rowan Ford, 9, was raped and killed by family friend Christopher Collins, who she knew as 'Uncle Chris' in 2007
He was reportedly hired by Stephen Reynolds, the district defender in the Clayton, Missouri trial office, who is the husband of Spears' former attorney Sharon Turlington.
Collings and Spears admitted to smoking and drinking together the night Collings killed Rowan.
Collings said he picked Rowan up while she was sleeping and took her to a camper where he assaulted her.
He told police he had planned on taking her home afterwards, but she saw his face and he killed her in a panic, claiming he 'freaked out'.
Collings said he spotted a rope in his truck and used it to strangle her to death. He admitted to police that he burned the rope, the clothes he was wearing and the bloody mattress after he attacked Rowan.
After murdering the child, he confessed he put her in a sinkhole. Her body was found a few days later.
The morning after Collings committed the atrocious crimes, Rowan's mother, Colleen Munson, came home from her overnight shift and asked where her daughter went.
Spears said she was at a friend's house. But Munson called the police in the afternoon when her daughter failed to return.
Spears was reportedly hired by Stephen Reynolds, the district defender in the Clayton, Missouri trial office, who is the husband of his former attorney Sharon Turlington
The morning after Collings committed the atrocious crimes, Rowan's mother Colleen Munson came home from her overnight shift and asked where her daughter went
Christopher Collings (pictured) was executed in December for Rowan's killing
Collings, Spears and a third man were at the center of the investigation because they were the last people who saw the young girl.
Court documents and the clemency petition said that Spears told police he actually killed Rowan after Collings handed him a cord.
'I choke her with it. I realize she's gone. She's... she's really gone,' Spears said in transcripts.
Court documents said it was Spears who directed police to the sinkhole where Rowan was found. However, Collings denied that Spears was involved, according to court filings.
Outraged Missouri state lawmakers sent a letter to the Public Defenders Commission demanding Spears be fired.
'It just goes beyond outrage. There really isn't a word that describes how I felt when I found out that he was actually employed at the public's expense,' Joplin area State Representative Lane Roberts told KY3.
'To lose a child is in itself just gut-wrenching. But when you look at how he conducted himself, the crying and the carrying on about what a tortured soul he was.
'This was her stepfather. This was a man who was supposed to have protected her. Instead, he sought to help the individual who took her life avoid prosecution.'
