Friday, May 11, 2012

Death penalty for Rowan Ford killer

Circuit Court Judge Mary Sheffield followed the recommendations of a Platte County jury and sentenced Chris Collings to death today for the November 2007 rape and murder of nine-year-old Rowan Ford of Stella.


Despite Collings' confessions, his attorneys tried to avoid the death penalty by arguing Collings was guilty of second-degree murder, not first-degree murder.  Their arguments were that the murder was done on the spur of the moment, not premeditated. 
After hearing arguments on motions for a new trial from defense attorneys, Circuit Judge Mary Sheffield followed the jury's recommendation and handed down a death penalty.  Collings remained unemotional during the hearing.  Unlike in the trial when he wore a beard and street clothes, he was clean shaven and in a jail uniform on Friday.
The other man charged with Rowan Ford's murder, her stepfather David Wesley Spears, is scheduled to go to trial in November in Waynesville.

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