LONOKE COUNTY, Ark. — A heartbroken Arkansas dad who gunned down the 67-year-old creep accused of raping his 13-year-old daughter just got the ultimate Father's Day gift early: his murder rap tossed out of court.
Aaron Spencer, the gun-toting Republican nominee for Lonoke County sheriff, is a free man after a judge slammed law enforcement for botching the case so badly it smelled like a cover-up.
Special Circuit Court Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. dismissed the second-degree murder charge with prejudice Thursday, meaning it's dead and buried forever, after cops "lost" crucial dashcam footage from Spencer's vehicle that could have cleared him.
"This establishes a pattern of policy and procedural violations and gives the appearance of a cover-up," the judge ripped in his order. "The court finds that conduct by law enforcement was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted."
The October 2024 nightmare started when Spencer woke up to find his teenage daughter missing from her bed in the middle of the night. He jumped in his truck, searched the neighborhood, and spotted her in a car with Michael Fosler, the twisted 67-year-old already facing dozens of child sex crime charges, including rape, grooming, and child porn, tied directly to the girl.
Fosler, who was out on bond despite a no-contact order, took off. Spencer gave chase, forced the perv's truck off the road, and opened fire when things got ugly. Fosler was pronounced dead at the scene. Spencer called 911 himself and admitted to the shooting, saying he did what any father would to protect his kid.
Spencer's wife had previously said their daughter was "targeted, groomed and ultimately raped by the boyfriend of a family friend."Prosecutors wanted Spencer locked up. But with the key video evidence vanished while in the sheriff's office custody, the SD card mysteriously gone by the time it mattered, the case collapsed.
The bombshell ruling comes as Spencer, a U.S. Army veteran, cruises toward the November general election in the deep-red county after crushing the incumbent sheriff in the primary, the same sheriff's office now under fire for the evidence fiasco.
Supporters are hailing Spencer as a hero who did what the system failed to do.
