Christopher Collings, a death row inmate convicted of kidnapping, raping, and killing a 9-year-old girl in 2007, was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday night.
In an emailed statement to UPI, the Missouri Department of Corrections verified that Collings, 49, was declared deceased at the Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri, at 6:10 p.m. CST.
Collings was executed one day after being denied clemency by Missouri’s Republican governor, Michael Parson, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Mr. Collings has received every protection afforded by the Missouri and United States Constitutions, and Mr. Collings’ conviction and sentence remain for his horrendous and callous crime,” Parson stated.
“The State of Missouri will carry out Mr. Collings’ sentence according to the Court’s order and deliver justice.”
Collings acknowledged his death in his last words.
“Right or wrong I accept this situation for what it is,” he stated. “To anyone that I have hurt in this life I am sorry. I hope that you are able to get closure and move on. Regardless which side of this situation that you are on. You are in my prayers and I hope to see you in heaven one day.”
For killing Rowan Ford in November 2007, Collings was found guilty by a jury of first-degree murder and given the death penalty.
He had admitted to killing the girl, who passed away on November 3, 2007, from strangulation.
Collings lived with Ford’s mother, Colleen Munson, and stepfather, David Spears, before to the incident, making him a family friend.
On the evening of November 2, while Munson was at work, Collings, Spears, and another guy were at Spears’ house using marijuana and drinking excessively, according to court filings.
After leaving Ford alone in the home, the three of them proceeded to Collings’ trailer and drank some more. Knowing he could beat them back, Collings hurried back to Spears’ house after she and the other man had departed. He picked up the sleeping Ford and put him in his truck.
After that, he drove back to his trailer and attacked her, waking Ford. According to court filings, Collings saw Ford’s face in the moonlight and used a cord to kill him.
Collings dumped her body in a sinkhole near Fox Hollow. After that, he went back to the trailer and set fire to his bedding, clothes, and the cord that killed Ford.
Munson told Spears that Ford had spent the night at a friend’s house when she got home from work the following morning, but when she didn’t come back, she called the police to report her daughter missing.
On November 9, Ford’s body was discovered.
Collings admitted to the offense. But according to court records and Collings’ plea for clemency, Spears also confessed to taking part in his stepdaughter’s rape, murder, and destruction.
Following Collings’ execution and 11-year jail sentence, Spears was permitted to enter a guilty plea to lesser linked counts.
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One of the reasons given by Death Penalty Action for trying to stop Collings’ execution is the sentencing difference.
He also mentioned his traumatic upbringing and “structurally abnormal brain” in his clemency petition. Collings is a father of two adult ladies and, according to the document, “suffers from functional deficits in awareness, judgment and deliberation, comportment, appropriate social inhibition and emotional regulation” as a result of this disease.
Collings was the twenty-third death row convict executed in the United States and the fourth in Missouri this year.
