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Thread: Christopher Leroy Collings - Missouri Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Jurors in Rolla are hearing from the last witness in the Chris Collings murder trial.

    Collings was convicted of first degree murder this week for raping and killing Rowan Ford.

    A development specialist testified Collings suffered from severe emotional neglect during the first six months of his life.

    During cross examination, the state tried to show the witness didn't have enough information to make that diagnosis.

    The jury is expected to get the case today so it can recommend a sentence.

    The prosecution is seeking the death penalty, the defense is asking for life in prison.

    http://www.ktts.com/news/143991286.html
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  2. #22
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    Jury recommends death penalty

    The jury in the case of State of Missouri vs. Christopher Collings has recommended the death penalty for the convicted killer.

    The jury returned to the courtroom just after 6:15 p.m. Friday after only 45 minutes of deliberations following closing arguments in day three of the penalty phase.

    On Tuesday, Collings was convicted of First Degree Murder in the kidnapping, rape and death of 9-year-old Rowan Ford of Stella in 2009.

    After prosecutors presented witnesses Wednesday in an effort to convince the jury to come back with a death penalty recommendation, Collings' defense team put on witnesses, trying to get the jury to spare his life and give him a life sentence without parole.

    Dr. Wanda Draper, a psychiatric child development specialist, took the stand Friday (see blog below). She described how Collings' volatile biological parents, foster care, adoption, and alleged molestation by his birth mother's new husband impacted Collings.

    "When someone (like Collings) is sexually abused, the more likely they are to act out on others in the same way," she said. "In my assessment, he is still stuck in that 14-15 year-old state of mind."

    The day before, Collings' defense team brought his biological father and siblings to the stand to describe the difficult home life in which Collings grew up. At one point during the testimony of his father, Dale Pickett, Collings was brought to tears.

    He described the difficult home life Collings grew up in. He admitted to having a serious drinking problem, spending time in prison for shooting a man and having a volatile relationship with Collings' mother who he eventually left.

    Pickett says he fought for custody of his young song, which the defense argued earlier prevented Collings from being adopted into the more stable and loving Collings home into which he was eventually adopted.

    Pickett also said that Collings was molested by a stepfather at one point. With the defense asking questions, Pickett said his biological son should be spared the death penalty.

    "My son made a serious mistake," he said. "Mistake is something everyone makes. A man can change. Regardless of what happens, I love my son."

    At the conclusion of his father's testimony, Collings was seen crying, holding a tissue, being comforted by the defense.

    The prosecution and defense rested their cases Tuesday morning, followed by closing arguments that began just after 3 p.m. The jury began deliberating just after 5 p.m.

    In their closing arguments, prosecutors -- including Bock -- walked jurors back through the first seven days of the case day by day.

    The defense, on the other hand, spent a lot of time asking jurors to consider Christopher Collings' state of mind in the moments before he killed Rowan Ford.

    There were two phases to this trial: this first phase to determine guilt or innocence, and then the second phase, which is the penalty phase.

    The case was moved to Rolla on a change of venue from Barry County. After the prosecution rested its case, Collings' lawyers made a motion for acquittal. The judge rejected the motion, at which point the defense rested.

    Defense lawyers decided not to call Collings to the stand to testify in his own defense.

    Ford's stepfather, David Spears, is also charged with the girl's murder. Spears' trial is scheduled for later this year.

    Previous Reports:
    Day One: Rowan Ford's Mother Takes Stand in Christopher Collings Trial
    Day Two: Law Officers Describe Rowan Ford Murder Investigation
    Day Three: Graphic Photos Take Jurors to Scene of Rowan Ford Murder
    Day Four: Jury Hears About Confession of Christopher Collings
    Day Five: Jurors See Chris Collings' Videotaped Confession
    Day Six: David Spears Called as Witness in Collings Murder Trial
    Day Seven: Forensic Pathologist Discusses Rowan Ford Autopsy in Collings Trial
    Day Eight: Jury Finds Chris Collings Guilty of 1st Degree Murder
    Day Nine: Rowan Ford's Family, Teachers Speak in Collings Penalty Phase
    Day Ten: Collings Shows Emotion as Father, Brother Take the Stand
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  3. #23
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    Stella community members react to jurors' death penalty recommendation for Chris Collings

    STELLA, Mo. - Many community members could not attend a two week murder trial held in Rolla miles away from Stella, the village where a young girl lost her life. A jury convicted Chris Collings of first degree murder then recommended he get the death penalty for the 2007 death of nine-year-old Rowan Ford. Many in Stella closely watched the case from more than 180 miles away.

    In November of 2007, Ford was taken from her bedroom and never returned alive. One week after her disappearance investigators found Ford's body at the bottom of a dark, damp cave. The discovery sent shock waves through the community. "I thought ‘oh my,’ Stella City Clerk Freda Roschevitz said. “They threw her in there like a piece of trash. It's still tough to even think back."

    Community members waited about four and half years for justice. “It's been hard. We've never, ever had anything like this happen here,” local business woman Loretta Taylor said. “It was a shock. Then it's gone on and on it's been hard on the community."

    Taylor says many in the community watched the two week murder trial and penalty phase unfold on the morning and nightly news. “We watched it every day, sometimes two to three times a day.” Taylor said. “We also read the papers.”

    Word spread quickly a jury of seven women and five men found Collings guilty of first degree murder. "Hallelujah, thank the lord," Roschevitz said. It took the jurors about 45 minutes to make the ultimate decision. They recommended Collings receive the death penalty. “It's what he deserves,” Taylor said. “He didn't give her a chance. She was helpless.”

    There are several memorials around the small community remembering the young girl. “That house up there, I know it's just a house but we lived in it, we built it,” Roschevitz said of the home Ford disappeared from. “Every time I see that house I think of that little girl. I was wishing she would be happy to live there like we were. It's a shame she couldn't know that happiness.”

    A judge set a sentencing date for May 11th. At that time, the judge can accept the jury's death penalty recommendation or sentence Collings to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors expect his attorneys to file an appeal on that date.

    The community is preparing for a second trial. Ford's step-dad, David Spears, is also charged with her rape and murder. His trial is scheduled for October.

    http://www.kspr.com/news/kspr-stella...,7812326.story

  4. #24
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    Collings sentencing today.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #25
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    Collings Sentenced to Death for Rowan Ford Murder

    A man found guilty of raping and killing young girl is sentenced to death for the crime.

    Christopher Collings is charged in the murder of 9-year old Rowan Ford of Stella, Missouri in 2007.
    He faces the death penalty or life in prison.

    Authorities found Rowan's body in a cave in McDonald County. Collings confessed to her abduction and murder. A jury from Platte County found him guilty March 20, after a week-long trial in Rolla.

    Fords stepfather, David Spears is also charged with the girl's murder. His trial is scheduled for later this year.

    Judge Mary Sheffield asks Collings to stand "at this point I will now assess your punishment at death," she said during this morning's sentencing.

    http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=644612
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    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  6. #26
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    Collings Appeals Death Penalty in Rowan Ford Murder

    A man found guilty earlier this summer with the 2007 murder of 9-year old Rowan Ford, is appealing his death penalty.

    Christopher Collings was found guilty in March by a jury in Rolla, Missouri, where the case had been moved on a change of venue. The same jury, chosen in Platte County, recommended the death penalty. A judge formally sentenced him May 11.

    Monday, July 23, attorneys for Collings filed a Notice of Appeal of the death penalty with the Missouri Supreme Court. Under Missouri law, such appeals are automatic in capital punishment cases.

    Online court records do not show a hearing date set yet for the appeal.

    Collings was accused of the 2007 kidnapping, rape and murder of Rowan Ford, (right) 9, of Stella. Ford's body was found in a cave in McDonald County two weeks after she disappeared.

    Rowan's stepfather, David Spears, is also charged in her murder. His trial is scheduled to begin October 30 with jury selection in Clay County. Testimony is set to start November 5 in Waynesville on a change of venue.

    http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=680362
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  7. #27
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    Collings Set to Appeal Death Sentence on Wednesday

    JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A man convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the rape and strangulation of nine-year-old Rowan Ford is set to appear before the Supreme Court to appeal his conviction on Wednesday, Jan. 8.

    Christopher Collings was convicted in 2012 for the murder of Rowan in 2007. Authorities found Rowan’s body in a sinkhole in McDonald County and Collings later confessed to her abduction and murder.

    During his trial, Collings filed motions to suppress his statements and evidence gained from a search of his property.

    According to court documents, the trial court overruled his attempt to admit a videotape of a conversation between Collings and the Wheaton chief of police, who was a close friend.

    The court also overruled Colllings’ objections to several photographs from the crime scene that the state submitted into evidence and closing argument.

    Upon the jury’s findings and receiving the death sentence, Collings appealed.

    According to Collings, the trial court erred in overruling his motion to suppress evidence. He also says several of his rights were violated because he did not confess voluntarily and did not understand his Miranda rights.

    Collings says the trial court abused its discretion and erred by barring his evidence and allowing the state to present its evidence at the suppression hearing because his conversation with the Wheaton chief of police would have shown he was under pressure to forgo constitutional rights.

    Among other contentions, Collings says the death sentence should be vacated and he should be sentenced to life without parole.

    According to court documents, the state contends Collings' death conviction is just because the sentence was properly imposed, the evidence supports the aggravating circumstances, and the sentence is not excessive or disproportionate.

    KOLR10’s Laurie Patton will be covering the trial Wednesday, Jan. 7. Tune in to KOLR10 News at 5 and 6 p.m. for trial footage and additional coverage.

    Background of the case:

    On the night of Nov. 2, 2007, Rowan's mother Colleen went to work, leaving the girl with her step-father, David Spears.

    Collings and another friend were already at the house drinking Smirnoff Ice and drinking in the basement. Later, the men left to buy more alcohol and drop by Collings' residence, leaving Rowan by herself. While at Collings', the three men drank, talked and smoked marijuana.

    According to court documents, Spears and his friend left Collings' residence about 30-60 minutes later.

    At about 9 a.m., Colleen came home and could not find Rowan. Spears told Colleen that Rowan was at a friend's house, but could not say which friend. Colleen wanted Spears to call the police, but he would not and kept insisting that she was at a friend's house.

    Later that day, around 5-6 p.m., Spears called the Newton County Sheriff's Department to report the girl missing.

    Patrolmen searched for Rowan and the Highway Patrol tried to locate her friends. Spears, Collings and their friend were considered suspects because they were the last to see Rowan.

    During the next five days, police and the FBI continued to search for Rowan with the help of the community and Collings.

    Collings kept in contact with a long-standing friend, Wheaton Chief of Police Clinton Clark, during the search period. Collings had known him since he was a young boy.

    On Monday, Nov. 5, Clark contacted the Newton County Sheriff's Office and the FBI to inform them that he had contact with Collings' that day. He said he believed Collings knew something about Rowan's disappearance and offered to help the investigation.

    Days later, on Nov. 9, Rowan's body was found in a 10-15 feet deep sinkhole/cave called Fox Cave. The girl was naked, except for a shirt and sock.

    Later that day, Collings contacted Clark, fearing for his safety. Collings said a grey van had been following him around town and he was finally able to shake it. Clark urged Collings to meet him in his office, and Collings obliged.

    Court documents say Collings began to speak about Rowan when somebody came in to the office. He would not speak with anyone else around. Clark suggested they drive to Muncie Bridge, a few miles out of town.

    Clark drove to the bridge with Collings, who was not under arrest at this time. Clark and Collings sat on a slope near the bridge and Collings recounted his story. It was the same story he had previously told law enforcement, up to the point when Spears and their friend left Collings residence.

    Crying, Collings confessed to raping and killing Rowan.

    Driving back to his office, Clark called the city clerk and asked the building be emptied. When Collings and Clark went back to the police chief's office, Collings recounted his statement in front of six law enforcement officers.

    Collings was handcuffed and taken to the Barry County Sheriff's Department. While there, he was read his Miranda rights and gave a videotaped statement.

    During the statement, Collings says the night of Nov. 2 he drank five six-packs of Smirnoff Ice. Collings said, after his friends left, he knew he could beat Spears home. He said he didn't know why he drove to the house and did not intend to take Rowan.

    While at the house, he searched though a few rooms and found Rowan on the floor under a blanket. In his truck, Collings said he started to think about having sex with the girl on the way home.

    At his residence, he had vaginal intercourse with Rowan for a few minutes, Collings admitted. The girl awoke and struggled after Collings penetrated her, he said.

    Collings said he intended to return Rowan to her bed and led her outside, facing away from him so that she couldn't see his face.

    While outside, however, Rowan looked back and saw Collings by the light of the moon. Collings said he knew she recognized him and he freaked out.

    He used a coil of cord he found in the bed of his pickup to strangle Rowan to death.

    Initially, Collings said, he wanted to leave the girl in a creek, but did not want her to be discovered quickly, so he left her in Fox Cave.

    Back at his residence, Collings discovered blood on his mattress and clothes. In a wood stove, he burned Rowan's pants, underpants, his clothes and the rope. He burned the mattress outside in a 55-gallon drum with some old carpet, to help it burn, he said.

    Collings denied that Spears or anyone else was involved in Rowan's death. He said he had been "bawling like a baby all afternoon" and felt guilty and remorseful.

    On December 21, 2007, Collings was charged with one count of first degree murder, one count of forcible rape, and one count of statutory rape.

    The jury found Collings guilty and recommended death. It found that the murder involved torture and was outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible and inhumane and Rowan was killed as a result of her status as a potential witness.

    http://www.ozarksfirst.com/story/col...f0C7B8wcA3_0UA

  8. #28
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    Court upholds death penalty for child rapist, murderer

    JEFFERSON CITY (AP) -- The state Supreme Court has upheld the conviction and death sentence for a southwest Missouri man who admitted raping and killing a 9-year-old girl.

    The court on Tuesday rejected numerous arguments in Christopher Collings' appeal for the November 2007 death of Rowan Ford.

    The girl was taken from her home in Stella and found a week later in a sinkhole in McDonald County. Her stepfather, David Spears, was also charged with murder and rape but pleaded guilty to reduced charges of child endangerment and hindering prosecution. Prosecutors said there was no physical evidence tying Spears to the killing.

    Collings' lawyers argued among other things that the trial court should have excluded his confession. Collings had said he "freaked out" and strangled Rowan because she looked at him while being raped.

    http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/ne...spx?id=1085435

  9. #29
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Collings' petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Missouri
    Case Nos.: (SC92720)
    Decision Date: August 19, 2014
    Rehearing Denied: October 28, 2014
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  10. #30
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    State's high court to hear second appeal of Collings' conviction in Rowan Ford murder case

    By Jeff Lehr
    The Joplin Globe

    The Missouri Supreme Court this Wednesday will again hear arguments on an appeal of the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence of Christopher Collings in the 2007 slaying of 9-year-old Rowan Ford.

    Ten years after the abduction, rape and strangulation of the Stella girl, the now-42-year-old Collings remains on death row.

    Collings was convicted and given the death penalty in a March 2012 trial moved to Rolla from Barry County on a change of venue. The state's high court affirmed that conviction and sentence three years ago on direct appeal.

    Collings then sought post-conviction relief, calling the constitutionality of the state's voluntary intoxication statute and its corresponding jury instruction into question and making new claims of ineffective assistance of counsel with respect to both his trial and his first appeal. When relief was denied at the circuit court level, he appealed a second time to the Missouri Supreme Court.

    The girl was taken from her home in the middle of the night on Nov. 3, 2007. Her body was recovered one week later at the bottom of a cave in nearby McDonald County. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled with a ligature.

    Collings and the girl's stepfather, David Spears, were drinking with a third friend, Nathan Mahurin, the night in question and had been at the girl's home early in the night before going out to get more alcohol and continue drinking at Collings' home in Wheaton. The girl's mother returned home from work the following morning to find Spears asleep and her daughter missing.

    Investigators' suspicions fell almost entirely on the stepfather as the weeklong search for the girl dragged on.

    But with the recovery of her body, both Collings and Spears made alleged confessions to the crime. Their confessions conflicted, however, and the stepfather's attorneys eventually were able to argue successfully at a series of pretrial hearings that their client had made a false confession under extreme pressure by his interrogators.

    Collings told investigators that he knew Spears and Mahurin were going to return to Stella via back roads when they left Collings' home and that he could beat them there and grab the girl. He confessed to having carried her out of her home asleep and taken her back to his trailer home, where he sexually assaulted her with the lights off in the hopes that she would not be able to recognize him in the dark. Afterward, he was ushering her out of his home ahead of him when she turned and looked at him and realized she knew who he was.

    He told investigators that he "freaked out," grabbed a piece of cord from the back of his truck and strangled her.

    But Collings insisted that Spears had nothing to do with the girl's murder and that the only act for which Spears bore any guilt was leaving the girl home alone while they went out drinking. That was part of the reason that, following the conviction of Collings, prosecutors felt compelled by the circumstances of the two cases to let Spears plead guilty to a lesser offense of child endangerment and be assessed a sentence of 11 years.

    Now, the attorney for Collings in his post-conviction relief appeal, Amy Bartholow, of Columbia, is arguing Collings' confession is the one that is false. She consequently contends that his trial attorneys were ineffective in not presenting evidence of the statements made by Spears that were in conflict with Collings' confession and letting the jury evaluate the relative credibility of the two confessions.

    The post-conviction relief appeal also takes the trial attorneys to task for not challenging DNA evidence presented by prosecutors regarding a hair found in the back of Collings' truck, which an expert witness for the state testified was consistent with the girl's DNA profile, and for not calling a cadaver dog handler to testify in the guilt phase of the trial. The handler did not testify until the penalty phase of the trial that her dogs alerted on two areas of a Chevrolet Suburban that Spears borrowed from his mother the night in question but did not alert on Collings' truck.

    On yet another tact, the appeal contends that trial counsel should have challenged the state's voluntary intoxication law and its corresponding jury instruction that prevented the defense from making the argument that Collings' level of intoxication affected his ability to have acted with a knowing and deliberate mental state. Along this same line, the appeal questions trial counsel's failure to call a psychiatrist and family members as witnesses to the defendant's childhood traumas and extent of addiction and their impact on his ability to understand the criminality of his conduct.

    In addition to challenging the constitutionality of the state's voluntary intoxication statute, Chris Collings' latest appeal challenges the vagueness of the term "torture" as an aggravating factor his jury was asked to consider in determining if he should get the death penalty.

    http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/loca...15f4395e6.html

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