Spears and Collings are accused of raping and killing Rowan Ford last November. She was the 9-year-old stepdaughter of Spears who was kidnapped from her home in Stella in Newton County. After a weeklong search, her body was found in a cave in McDonald County, south of her home and west of Collings' home in Barry County.

Barry County Prosecuting Attorney Johnnie Cox says he will seek death penalties if a jury convicts the men of first-degree murder. Cox will get help in prosecuting the case from Elizabeth Bock, an assistant attorney general. It's common for the attorney general's office to help prosecutors in rural counties with prosecutions involving death penalties.

The current public defenders for Collings and Spears, who were assigned before Cox declared his intent to seek the death penalty, asked for the case to be moved out of Barry County because of extensive publicity about Rowan's disappearance and murder. Cox concedes moving the case likely is necessary to obtain a fair trial.

Circuit Judge Robert Wiley moved the next hearing for the two men to July 22 at 1 p.m. to give the Public Defender's office to assign attorneys for them. It likely will be more than a year before the two men are tried because of typical delays in murder cases, attorneys' and the judge's schedule, and the need to find time on the schedule if a courtroom in another county far from southwest Missouri.