The ruling came weeks before Aaron Spencer, who will be on the November ballot, had been set to face a jury on a second-degree murder charge. He won a March primary over the local three-term sheriff whose office had arrested Spencer in Lonoke County, which has roughly 76,000 residents and is heavily Republican.
Spencer’s attorneys do not deny that he shot and killed Michael Fosler in 2024, saying he did so to protect his child. Special Circuit Court Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. granted a motion by Spencer's attorney to dismiss the charge over a dash camera memory card that may have captured the shooting and was lost by law enforcement.
“The court finds that conduct by law enforcement was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted,” Wilson wrote.
At the time of the shooting, Fosler, 67, was out on bond after being charged with dozens of sexual offenses against Spencer’s then-13-year-old daughter.
Court documents show on the night of the shooting, Spencer had woken up to find his daughter missing, and later found the girl in the passenger seat of a vehicle Fosler was driving. Spencer forced Fosler’s truck off the road and, after an altercation, called 911 to report he had shot the man.
