NEWTON COUNTY, Mo. — The man convicted of raping and killing a Newton County 9-year-old girl is asking for his sentence and conviction to be vacated.
Christopher Collings was convicted in 2012 of raping and killing 9-year-old Rowan Ford in 2007 and was sentenced to death. Collings, who is now 49 years old, is making his last attempt to have his sentence and conviction thrown out.
In April, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to set an execution date.
In June, Collings filed a writ of habeas corpus with the Missouri Supreme Court. A writ, if granted in this case, would allow Collings to present evidence that the government withheld the criminal record of its primary witness against him.
Execution date requested for convicted child murderer
In this case, Collings argues that the Wheaton police chief at the time, Clinton Clark, had several criminal convictions and because that information was withheld from the defense, it violated his right to a fair trial. Clark’s convictions are related to his military service during the Vietnam War. His service record says he was considered a deserter four times between 1967 and 1969. The prosecution says that even if Clark’s service record was made available to the defense, that would not have changed the outcome of this case.
Rowan went missing on November 3, 2007, when her mother returned to their home in Stella, Missouri, and couldn’t find her. Her body was discovered in a cave in McDonald County, six days later. Authorities say she was found naked, with only one sock on. An autopsy revealed she had died from strangulation.
Ford’s step-father, David Spears, pleaded guilty to his role in the girl’s death. Spears, Collings, and another man were drinking on the night of November 3, first at the Spears home, and then the three went to Collings’s residence in Wheaton. The three men continued drinking and smoking marijuana when they decided to go back to Spears’ residence.
In Collings’ confession to authorities, he told them he drove separately back to Spears’ house because he knew he could beat the other men back, and take Rowan before they returned. He said he carried the sleeping child to his truck, drove her back to his house where he raped the little girl. Collings told them when he was taking the girl back to his truck he panicked when she recognized him and that was when he strangled her.
Collings is 6’8″ tall. His last recorded weight according to the Department of Corrections is 238 pounds. Ford was just under four feet tall and weighed just 62 pounds at the time of her rape and murder.
Spears confessed to participating in the rape and murder of his step-daughter. According to court documents, Spears told police he too raped the girl and that he was the one who strangled her.
Ultimately, Spears pleaded guilty to child endangerment and hindering prosecution. In 2012 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Spears has already been released from prison.
There is no word on a timeline for the Missouri Supreme Court to issue its ruling on the writ of habeas corpus.
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