Prosecutor withholding videos of girls calling Craig Wood 'pretty cool' and 'super nice'
Attorneys for Craig Wood, the man accused of abducting and killing a 10-year-old Springfield girl, are seeking copies of evidence they say could help Wood's case.
The evidence in question is video interviews police conducted in 2014 with four girls who had attended Pleasant View Middle School, where Wood was a para-professional and coach.
Wood is charged with murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy and armed criminal action related to the death of Hailey Owens.
The motion filed Thursday says those interviews are "exculpatory," meaning they are favorable to the defendant.
The motion says Wood's attorneys only learned of the interviews earlier this month.
According to the defense filing, a dectective "decided to conduct forensic child interviews of four teenage girls who he suspected may have been sexually approached, harassed or offended by (Wood) during their years at the Pleasant View Middle School... where Mr. Wood worked as a substitute teacher, disciplinary monitor and football coach for a number of years."
The motion says those girls were interviewed based on the discovery of items in a purple folder in Wood's home. Police say that folder included "images of child pornography," "handwritten erotic stories detailing the rape of female minor children," "student records" from the middle school and "school photos" of two girls whose first names match "the names of the children in the stories."
Prosecutors previously said "Hailey" was also one of the names in the stories.
While Wood's attorneys do not have copies of the interviews, they have viewed them at the Greene County Prosecutors Office.
The motion, filed by attorney Patrick Berrigan, says the girls in the interviews reported no issues with Wood.
"Each explicitly denied any physical contact by 'Coach Wood,' any inappropriate discussion or comments, or any looks, actions or 'vibes' from the accused that made their friends uncomfortable.
"Instead they variously described Craig as a quiet, reserved, somewhat awkward guy who generally kept to himself and was beloved as a football coach."
The motion continues to say two of the girls described Wood as "pretty cool" and "super nice."
Berrigan's motion says he emailed Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson to get copies of the interviews, but Patterson said he didn't believe he was legally required to turn them over.
In a response to Berrigan's office, Patterson said he didn't intend to call the girls as witnesses or use the interviews as evidence.
"Finally, I do not believe that their interviews provide any information which tends to negate the guilt of the defendant as to the offense charged, mitigate the degree of the offense charged or reduce the punishment," Patterson wrote.
In the motion, Berrigan says he believes prosecutors will try to "smear" Wood by connecting him to the contents of the purple folder "in an effort to paint Craig Wood as having a prurient interest in young women." Berrigan says the interviews with the girls "refute that contention."
"In essence, the videotaped interviews discredit the prosecution's theory that Craig Wood was the author of these 'pornographic stories' because the girls in the stories were students he knew at Pleasant View Middle School."
Owens, a Westport Elementary fourth-grader, was abducted near her home on Feb. 18.
Her body was found, hours later, wrapped in garbage bags in Wood's basement.
A jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 26 in Greene County. A jury from Platte County will be brought in to hear the case. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if Wood is found guilty.
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