WPBN: There are new concerns that a defendant in a case involving the murder of a child received an excessively favorable plea deal.
In 2007, David Spears entered a guilty plea for his involvement in the death of his stepdaughter Rowan Ford, who was nine years old at the time.
Spears, on the other hand, has been employed by the state of Missouri for the past few years, and the money that you pay for his wage comes from your taxes.
“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 stated.
According to him, the news that Spears is employed by the public defenders’ office in West Plains was a source of great embarrassment for him.
She was raped, strangled, and her body was buried in a sinkhole in McDonald County in the year 2007. Rowan Ford was murdered in 2007. The execution of her murderer, Christopher Collings, took place one month ago. But Spears entered a guilty plea to charges that were less serious and was sentenced to 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,” Roberts stated.
Using the argument that Spears’ defense, jail, salaries, and possibly retirement are all paid for with tax dollars, he and fifteen other state representatives wrote a letter to the Public Defenders Commission requesting that they dismiss Spears from his position.
Keeping him on the payroll since 2016, after he was released on parole, is described as “vicious, outrageous, and defies reason,” according to the legal document.
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Roberts stated that, “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.”
It is important to him that the community be aware that the struggle for justice for Rowan is still ongoing.
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“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.”
This coming Wednesday, the Public Defender Commission will get together to examine the rules of the background checks of their employees.
