Missouri public defender budget moves forward after agency fires convicted felon

by Clara Bates, Missouri Independent
February 26, 2025

The secretary whose employment at the Missouri state public defender’s office nearly derailed the agency’s entire budget has been terminated, clearing away legislative opposition during a committee hearing on Wednesday. 

State lawmakers earlier this month threatened to hold up the public defense system’s budget until an administrative assistant named David Spears was fired. 

Public defender’s office draws outrage from Missouri GOP leaders over hiring convicted felon

Spears pleaded guilty to two felonies in 2012 — the class C felony of endangering the welfare of a child and class D felony of hindering prosecution — in the 2007 case involving the murder of his stepdaughter, Rowan Ford. 

State Rep. Lane Roberts, a Republican of Joplin, led the charge against Spears and confirmed in an interview Wednesday that he had been terminated.

“I’m satisfied they’ve done what we asked,” Roberts said.

“This is about a little girl,” he added.

Mary Fox, director of Missouri’s state public defense system declined to comment. 

Spears was sentenced to 11 years and released in 2015 on parole. He worked at the public defender’s office as a clerk typist in Clayton from 2016 to 2019 and returned in 2020 to the West Plains office as an administrative assistant, where he worked until he was recently terminated.

In a contentious budget hearing earlier this month, Fox defended Spears’ employment, pointing out that Missouri for years has held a “ban the box” hiring practice in state government, in which state agencies wait until later in the hiring practice to review information about criminal histories. 

It’s designed to provide second chances to those with criminal histories and help them assimilate back into society. 

Spears’ friend, Christopher Collings, was convicted of the rape and murder of Ford, which took place in the small Southwestern Missouri town of Stella. She was 9 years old. 

Collings was executed for the crime by lethal injection in December.

Initially, prosecutors charged both Spears and Collings with rape and sexual assault of Ford, after both confessed separately. But the charges against Spears were dropped because no physical evidence supported his involvement and Collings insisted he acted alone. An expert witness at trial said Spears’ confession was coerced by police. 

In 2012, the prosecutor in the case published a statement regarding the decision to drop murder and sexual assault charges against Spears, which began: “I am completely aware that the general public is convinced that David Spears was involved.”

In the hearing earlier this month, Roberts and Fox disagreed over Spears’ involvement in the case.

As a result of lawmakers’ concerns over Spears’ employment, the state public defense commission developed a new policy surrounding background checks, so that the director and chair of the commission must be consulted when any background check returns a bad report. Additionally, Fox said at the hearing earlier this month, agency policy was changed to add conflict of interest evaluations in hiring.

The House budget hearing went on as normal Wednesday morning, after Roberts said the matter regarding Spears is considered closed. 

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.