A judge on Thursday dismissed a murder charge against Aaron Spencer, an Arkansas man who won the Republican nomination for a county sheriff seat this year and was soon scheduled to stand trial for the shooting of a man accused of sexually assaulting Mr. Spencer’s daughter.
In his order, Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. said he was dismissing the second-degree murder charge because law enforcement officials had lost dashboard camera footage that might have shown the fatal encounter. In doing so, they violated Mr. Spencer’s due process rights, he said.
“The Court finds that conduct by law enforcement was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted,” the judge wrote.
According to court documents, Mr. Spencer admitted that he had shot Michael Fosler, who was charged with sexually assaulting Mr. Spencer’s daughter, who was 13 at the time.
On Oct. 8, 2024, about a month after the sexual assault charges had been filed, Mr. Spencer woke up to find his teenage daughter missing from her bedroom. He left his home to search for her and found her in the passenger seat of a car with Mr. Fosler, 67, who was out on bond on the assault charges. Mr. Spencer’s daughter tried to leave the car, Mr. Spencer told the authorities, but Mr. Fosler restrained her and stopped her from getting out. Mr. Spencer then opened fire on Mr. Fosler, court records state.
Mr. Spencer had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and said he had been acting to protect his daughter from a predator. State prosecutors, meanwhile, said the killing had been planned and that Mr. Spencer could have called the police when he found Mr. Fosler.
Last year, Mr. Spencer began his campaign for county sheriff, citing his family’s experience with a “failed justice system” as his motivation. “Through my own fight for justice, I’ve seen firsthand the failures in law enforcement,” he said in a video announcing his candidacy. “I refuse to stand by while others face these same failures.”
In March, Mr. Spencer won the Republican primary for Lonoke County sheriff over an incumbent whose office had arrested Mr. Spencer. Lonoke, a county with about 75,000 people, is east of Little Rock and overwhelmingly conservative, so Mr. Spencer is expected to win the general election in November. But the possibility of being found guilty at a trial later this year, and therefore ineligible to serve as sheriff, had hung over him before the dismissal.
In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Spencer thanked his family and community for their support and said he was focused on his family and “getting back to a normal life.”
“I’m grateful this chapter is closed,” he said. “There’s still work to do in Lonoke County, and I’m more committed to it than ever.”
The Lonoke County prosecuting attorney, Chuck Graham, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Mr. Spencer’s lawyer, Erin Cassinelli, said in a statement that she was grateful for the court’s decision.
“No member of this family should ever again be forced to walk into a courtroom and relive this horror,” she said. “This father should have never been charged for protecting his child.”
Ms. Cassinelli had filed a motion to have the case dismissed, arguing that the dashboard camera footage might have had evidence that would have cleared Mr. Spencer of wrongdoing. According to court records, a detective with the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office removed the camera from the vehicle when responding to the scene, but he did not properly log the camera into evidence. And when the camera was sent to the attorney general’s office, the memory card was missing, court records state.
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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