A judge tossed a murder charge against an Arkansas sheriff nominee who was about to go on trial for killing his 14-year-old daughter’s rapist.
The case against Aaron Spencer was dismissed by a judge on Thursday afternoon after law enforcement lost a dash camera memory card that may have captured the fatal October 2024 shooting of 67-year-old Michael Fosler.
“The court finds that conduct by law enforcement was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted,” wrote Special Circuit Court Judge Ralph Wilson Jr.
The development comes just a few weeks before Spencer was slated to go to trial on a second-degree murder charge for allegedly gunning down Fosler on Oct. 8, 2024 after catching him driving off with his daughter — whom the sicko had already been charged with grooming and abusing.
Spencer woke up around 1 a.m. to find his then-13-year-old daughter had vanished. He soon found her in the passenger seat of the car Fosler was driving.
He then forced the truck off the road and allegedly shot the accused sexual abuser, according to court documents.
Prosecutors argued that Spencer planned the murder and could have called the cops during the car chase instead of taking matters into his own hands.
He pleaded not guilty to the crime, maintaining he acted accordingly to protect his child from a predator.
Spencer’s attorneys have not denied that he shot and killed Fosler — and the protective dad said the incident spurred him to run for sheriff in Lonoke County, Arkansas.
“I’m the father who acted to protect his daughter when the system failed,” Spencer said in the video statement to launch his campaign.
He won the Republican primary for Lonoke County sheriff in March and is expected to win the general election in the overwhelmingly conservative area east of Little Rock, the New York Times reported.
“No member of this family should ever again be forced to walk into a courtroom and relive this horror,” Spencer’s attorney, Erin Cassinelli, said in a statement to the Associated Press.
“This father should have never been charged for protecting his child.”
With Post wires
