93.3 KWTO Keeping Watch Over the Ozarks
A man from Springfield who was convicted for the rape and killing of a teenage girl over a decade ago is now back in Greene County, attempting to have his death penalty sentence overturned.
Craig Wood was booked into the Greene County Jail on Friday, March 22, after spending several years at the Potosi Correctional Center.
Investigators say he kidnapped, raped, and murdered 10-year-old Hailey Owens on February 18, 2014.
He was sentenced to death by Greene County Judge Thomas Mountjoy in 2018 after the jury was unable to come to a unanimous decision about whether to give him the death penalty, or a life sentence.
Wood attempted to appeal the death penalty sentence, but it was upheld by The Supreme Court of Missouri in July of 2019.
He is now back in Greene County for a three-day evidentiary hearing at the Greene County Circuit Court in yet another attempted to have the sentence overturned and the death penalty thrown out.
The hearing begins today and will conclude on Wednesday, March 27.