Missouri lawmakers demand the firing of Rowan Ford’s step-father from public defender’s office

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – New concerns that a defendant in a child murder case got too good of a plea deal.

David Spears pleaded guilty to his role in the 2007 murder of his step-daughter 9-year-old Rowan Ford. But for the past few years, Spears has been working for the state of Missouri, your tax dollars paying his salary.

“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,” said Joplin area State Representative Lane Roberts.

He says he was mortified to learn that Spears is working in the public defenders’ office in West Plains.

In 2007 Rowan Ford was strangled, raped, and her body dumped in a sinkhole in McDonald County. Her killer, Christopher Collings, was executed last month. But Spears pleaded guilty to lesser charges and spent several years in prison.

“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,” explained Roberts.

He and 15 other state representatives sent a letter to the Public Defenders Commission calling on them to fire Spears arguing his defense, incarceration, wages, and possibly retirement is paid for with tax dollars. It also says that keeping him on the payroll since 2016 after he was paroled is “vicious, outrageous, and defies reason”.

Roberts said, “They have, as I understand it, been reviewing their hiring practices. My hope is that they will amend those practices so something of this nature never occurs again.”

He wants the community to know that the fight for justice for Rowan continues.

“For those of us who have been elected to represent the public, in whatever capacity, there’s an obligation to call it out when you see it. So if nothing else comes of this hopefully people will get a level of confidence that somebody is paying attention. Those who make decisions on their behalf and spend their money are accountable for what they do.”

KY3 called the Howell County public defender for comment but was told he was out of the office.

The Public Defender Commission meets this Wednesday to discuss their employee background check policy.

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