June 5, 2026
Judge Drops Murder Charges For AR Sheriff Nominee Who Admitted Killing Daughter’s Accused Rapist
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RSS Feed What a remarkable turn of events, just weeks before an explosive trial was set to begin in Arkansas. A judge has dismissed second degree murder charges against the leading candidate for Lonoke County Sheriff., 37-year-old Aaron Spencer. Spencer was in pursuit of 67-year-old Michael Fosler, who kidnapped his 13-year-old daughter while out on parole for allegedly sexually assaulting her months earlier. Spencer admits to running him off the road, shooting and killing Fosler and rescuing his daughter in the process. Wait until you hear WHY the judge dismissed the case and why that is now adding to the likelihood this self confessed killer may become Lonoke’s next sheriff.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks. It is Friday, June fifth, and a GOP nominee for sheriff in Arkansas has been running while at the same time being charged with murder. Well, yesterday those charges just got dropped. And wait and till you hear why with that. Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ A story here, Rope. We have been following the story you have been fascinated by in my home state. But yeah, guy's running for sheriff and the whole time he's been running, he's had a murder charge following him around.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a wild story that I have never seen before.
00:00:36
Speaker 3: Yes, you have a man who is the Republican nominee for sheriff in a county there in Arkansas who is running and is favored despite the fact that he has been charged or was charged i should say, with the murder of.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: A man who kidnapped his thirteen year.
00:00:56
Speaker 3: Old daughter while out on parole for allegedly sexually assaulting his thirteen year old daughter.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: Okay, you gave those headlines. That's why you could maybe quickly kind of understand why in Arkansas a murder charge needs some context that you just gave. Ropes. So it's not like they just didn't give a damn that he killed somebody. He was charged with killing somebody. Those were specific circumstances that some actually applauded.
00:01:23
Speaker 2: Yet he admitted killing this man. There is no.
00:01:26
Speaker 3: Dispute that Aaron Spencer killed Michael Fossler. He said he shot him, and he said he shot him to protect his daughter. And that is something that it appears nearly every or at least quite a few Arkansas parents can understand.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: And again, this was back in twenty twenty four, is when this happened. We'll get into the incident a little more. But Robes, it was supposed to his trial was supposed to start in just a matter of weeks, in some three weeks. He is going to be on the ballot in November. He has already defeated the incumbent. Robes defeated at the incumbent the sheriff, who's the one who arrested him for murder.
00:02:03
Speaker 3: That is such a little ironic twist there. Yes, the man who arrested him, who was the current sheriff at the time, he now defeated in the primary to become said sheriff.
00:02:15
Speaker 2: But yes, that man arrested him for murder.
00:02:18
Speaker 1: Wild story. This is a wild story. So the whole time Aaron Spencer's been campaigning and he's got the GOP nomination, Robes, he had this murder charge sitting there. But this week now, this week, yes, we are recording this here on Friday, June fifth, Well, yesterday a judge tossed and dismissed the entire case against him, So he's no longer facing murder charges. We'll let you know with his comments were in his reaction to it. But Robes, it's worth going back and trying to get a handle on before we explain exactly why the judge dismissed it. The point of this, all Robes was, this was a major part Ropes. If he was not charged with murder, he might not have done this well in the campaign. That's crazy, That.
00:03:00
Speaker 3: Sounds no because people like you said applauded his choice.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: What happened?
00:03:06
Speaker 3: I think, Look, anyone can imagine what it would be like to learn about a grown man who sexually assaulted your thirteen year old daughter.
00:03:17
Speaker 2: So this man was sixty seven years old.
00:03:20
Speaker 3: He is accused of sexually assaulting Spencer's thirteen year old daughter between June and July of twenty twenty four. So in September he was charged with dozens of sexual offenses against Spencer's daughter.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: Folks, we're talking about forty plus counts here. This is it's horrifical. Forty plus counts. Sixty seven year old man, thirteen year old girl.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: Ew gross, disgusting and obviously criminal. How a man like that gets out on bond, I don't know, but he's out on bond. So Spencer wakes up one night I believe this was in October. Yes, so a few months later, one month later, actually after his arrest.
00:04:05
Speaker 2: He sees his daughter is missing.
00:04:09
Speaker 3: He ends up finding his daughter in the passenger seat of Fossler's vehicle.
00:04:17
Speaker 2: So he drove him off the highway.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: And then once Fossler got out of his car, Spencer took his loaded gun and shot him and killed him.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: And called police, called the matter. So he wasn't running. It wasn't that type of situation. I did this. I'm telling you, I did this. This is what happened, saves his daughter. Now, a lot of people and robes a lot of people, no matter where you are right now hearing this, might hear that and go, oh my goodness as a dad right and can relate, and even a mother hearing that though, oh my goodness, I.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Thank god for the dad.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: Thank God.
00:04:52
Speaker 3: If my husband did that and saved my daughter, I would say thank you.
00:04:56
Speaker 1: So if no matter where you are hearing that and that's your reaction, I can tell you in Arkansas, in gun Totin Arkansas, in that state, in that particular county robes, they might have wanted to give him a damn medal. They might not go beyond just okay, we'll look past it. He shouldn't be charged. He was almost hailed as a hero in some circles, right.
00:05:19
Speaker 3: And to that point, he ran on this think about that. He ran on his murder charges. He ran on a broken justice system. He ran on the fact that a man like the man he killed, Michael Fossler, shouldn't have been out in the first place. And that resonated with folks in that county and it obviously got him to where he is right now in the election, which again is officially in November, but he is ahead in the polls.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, as wild as that sounds, ropes, your platform is your murder charge, As crazy as that sounds, and it has been working for him. So this has been going over for quite some time. As you can imagine, for him, he was quite relieved. He did put out a statement afterwards saying, you want to think his family, want to think his wife wanted to thank God. But he also think the people. He said, I won't forget this. The support we've received has carried our family, neighbors here, people from every part of the state, Folks I've never met, from around the world, reached out pray for us, refused to stay quiet. When I couldn't speak for myself, you spoke for me. I'll never be able to thank you the way you deserve, but I'll spend the rest of my life trying to live up to it.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: Robes, I mean, this is going to be an even bigger boost to his campaign for sheriff. The fact that he now is not facing murder charges. People are celebrating. But why he's not facing murder charges may not be the reason you think.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: But Robes, it does. To your point, this could help him now. It almost goes in line with his campaign.
00:06:44
Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
00:06:46
Speaker 1: Spools don't know what they're doing, and the justice system is not working here for you.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: So the police officer who had dash cam video that they believe might even show the shooting itself.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: Correct, I was about to ask you.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: I didn't get a good handle on why there was dash cam video in the dead suspects vehicle.
00:07:08
Speaker 3: I don't don't know either, but there was apparently dash cam video and they just said possibly of the shooting itself.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Well, there is that little storage card, right, it got lost.
00:07:24
Speaker 3: They don't know where it is, they don't know where it was supposed to be. It's missing, and the defense went to town with that.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was your basis for you, you police. We know you had something in your possession that could have been exculpatory evidence, and you lost it and you lost it. Are you kidding me? We have video that could clear you and we just lost it. If that doesn't even sound right, that sounds nuts.
00:07:55
Speaker 3: There was no way to explain it that made any sense. And yes, if they have evidence, it might prove that he acted literally in defense of his daughter, yes, which would absolutely make him easy. You are allowed to protect your child if there is imminent danger and a life is at risk, you are allowed to use lethal.
00:08:17
Speaker 1: Force, especially in Arkansas robes. Are you kidding me here?
00:08:21
Speaker 3: This?
00:08:21
Speaker 1: Yes? And how many of us. Again, we don't see it, we don't know what happening, not making some judgment, but we can obviously put ourselves in that position. Are you kidding me? Some sixty seven sabinas thirteen? His daughter was thirteen.
00:08:34
Speaker 3: A sixty seven year old man who's already been accused of raping your daughter now is taken her and he's she's in his car and you need to go get your daughter.
00:08:46
Speaker 2: He runs him off the road and.
00:08:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, he shoots him, Yeah, and gets his daughter and puts her safely in his vehicle.
00:08:55
Speaker 1: I literally could have saved her life already, saving her from the guy who's are already charged with abusing her.
00:09:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, what was he going to do with her? He had nothing to lose at that point. He was facing, as you mentioned, dozens of counts that were going to put him behind bars, most certainly for the rest of his life. The bigger question is, again, why was a potentially or at least someone who was accused of a horrific violent crime against a minor.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: How was he even out of jail?
00:09:23
Speaker 1: And we talked about, uh, you got vond but why now the case is being thrown out as being dismissed completely. And we've explained a little bit about this memory card, but I put this excerpt in here from Spencer's attorneys. This was I thought this was a good explainer, at least the way they laid it out.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: Yes, they said.
00:09:42
Speaker 3: The evidence at the center of the ruling was a dash camera and its internal memory card recovered from Fossler's truck. The court found that a Lono County Sheriff's Office detective removed the camera without documenting it, viewed its memory card, and then fail filled to preserve it, and stored it in a personal office rather than logging it into evidence. That memory card was never recovered. The court found these actions violated the Sheriff's office's own written evidence policies and amounted to bad faith. Applying the Arkansas Supreme Court's most recent decision on lost or destroyed evidence, the court found the state violated the due process clause under both governing tests. It found the loss of the evidence impaired Spencer's ability to present the justification defense he had noticed and his right to a fair trial, and it concluded the conduct was egregious enough to warrant dismissal.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: This doesn't make any sense what happened. It was almost sometimes in the writing of the judge, almost a suggestion that something unto wards, like something you're not just the Bardy Fife situation here, and you did a bad job, like there might have been some mal intent in what they were doing, Like this is such it is such a perplexing screw up. Possibly have the crime on video and you.
00:11:04
Speaker 3: Oops it well, and you would imagine, look, and we don't know why Fossler had a dash cam video recording, but maybe he was just that guy. He was recording everything around him, you know.
00:11:15
Speaker 1: The other thing I thought about, and a lot of people do it. Maybe he was an uber driver. Maybe maybe he didn't because they that's but it can't come up with a reason.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: But obviously, if you have video evidence of what happened and how it happened, and it existed, and everyone's acknowledging that it existed, and you somehow lost it, if it was if it bolsted the state's case, if it bolstered the evidence against Spencer, most people would argue, do you really think they would have lost it? And that is you can't prove it either way. If it was deliberate, if it was just sloppy. But either way, how can you move forward with chargeips?
00:11:52
Speaker 1: And again, Robes, that is the talk or the suggestion that wait a second, are you really after this guy? Did you set this guy up? You lost the thing that could prove him innocent.
00:12:06
Speaker 3: And under the direction of the sheriff that he just beat, so there was actually political motivation potentially behind it as well.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: That's tall Robes. And you hear about stuff happening in small towns and little communities and county sheriffs and all this stuff. And this could have honestly, this could have been an innocent mistake, but Robe something that critical. It's just in somebody's office. And what was it? They said he since he took the memory card out, the battery on the still device lapsed in some way. It went out, which means the device went back to factory settings, which then also couldn't help them recover the video that they needed from the device.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: It was either idiotic or convenient.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: How do you bungle this thing this badly?
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Well, and when that happens, then your case gets thrown out of court. And that's exactly what happened yesterday.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: And you know what, folks, a lot of people are a plating that, as we just mentioned, but stay here more on the national debate and the question for you would you have voted for him, whether you were in his community, as a voter in the campaign or a juror in his trial. Stay here.
00:13:27
Speaker 3: Welcome back to everyone to this episode of Amy and TG that really has a lot of people imagining what would I do? What would I do if a sixty seven year old man who had already been accused of raping my thirteen year old daughter snatched her in the middle of the night and was taking off with.
00:13:46
Speaker 2: Her in his vehicle.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: I truly believe most parents, most dads would say, I do exactly what Aaron Spencer did.
00:13:56
Speaker 1: Instinctive flea. I'm going to stop and think of this for a moment. And they're the sheriff or the prosecutor was trying to suggest that this dad had you had plenty of time while you were in pursuit to call nine to one one and get authorities involved. Agreed, My I can see my thirteen year old in the possession of the guy accused of sexual offenses against her robes and will drive a parent and a dad looking at his will drive him insane.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: And I will say, this is the same police department, the same justice system that allowed that man to be freed.
00:14:38
Speaker 2: After the charges. So do you trust the justice system? Do you trust the police?
00:14:44
Speaker 3: Do you trust that they're going to do what you're willing to do to protect your daughter?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: Huh? Good point. That's a good point, Rob. So I don't know how. This is not how we handle things. We can't be vigilantes, obviously, but he didn't do that. He wasn't just at home sleep one night and decided to get up. You know, I'm gonna go hunt this guy down.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: That's such a good point.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: That's different.
00:15:07
Speaker 3: He acted in the middle of a crime taking place against his own daughter, where her life was threatened. And when I consider those circumstances, I can already tell you as a mom and that's my husband, and even as a community member, I'm applauding him. And as a juror sitting on his trial as he's charged with second degree murder.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: Good luck getting up.
00:15:28
Speaker 2: I'm probably gonna vote not guilty.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Good luck getting a jury in Arkansas and Lonoke County in Central Arkansas, twelve people to agree that he did the wrong thing that was gonna be a high Look, there are other details. Maybe there's something, Maybe he was reckless, maybe he didn't have to in the moment. How Who knows what the confrontation was, but ropes he hasn't backed down and hasn't shied away from a moment of this charge. Yep, killed him? Sure did? What? What so e its? It's hard to be flippant. We talked about something like this. Somebody died, but this sounds like imminent danger and not a lot of details need to be What is it? The doctrine the home is the home doctrine that some stand your ground. Stand your ground is one thing that some states in the South have as well. When you can do that even out in public, you don't have to flee. But there's a doctrine who I can't remember it right at the top of my head, but it's the idea that if somebody is at your home uninvited, you can shoot and kill them and not have to ask questions, Like you give that permission, you are free to do so. Well. This is one of those things.
00:16:38
Speaker 3: In the middle in the commission of a crime, when your daughter's life is hanging in the balance. To me, anyone in that position, who had a weapon, who knew how to operate it, would use that weapon to protect their daughter, period, end of story.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: Name show me a parent who wouldn't do that.
00:16:54
Speaker 1: I was just about to take the sexual abuse allegations out of it. Anybody that just took your daughter, you don't know what the intentions might be. Your reactions the same.
00:17:04
Speaker 3: I'd grab whatever weapon I had in my car, even if it was a ballpoint pen.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: And will just go to whoever that was. You would attack a period.
00:17:13
Speaker 3: I would, And I think every juror sitting in that courtroom would have felt the exact same way. So I actually find it interesting that they went after him. I understand that because I actually think what you were saying. If this was somebody who woke to the night and decided to go take him out behind, you know, outside, because he was upset at the allegations, that's different. He was stopping someone in the middle of the commission of a crime. To me, when your daughter's life is at stake, you do what it takes to stop the crime.
00:17:46
Speaker 1: So yes, I'm glad they're dead, and I hope they burn in hell. That was a line delivered by Samuel L. Jackson in it was a time to kill and he was being defended over he killed a guy I was sexually assaulted his daughter, But it was a race component involved. I don't know what that scene that I did just came and obviously it's a story. Yes it's fictionalized, but robes the whole point. It made people think in that moment. I remember Matthew McConaughey giving closing arguments to this jury and say, yeah, imagine all this happened to this girl. Now imagine she's white and everybody whoa Now I can put myself in that position. So this is a guy who the entire yes it's overwhelmingly white in Lonok County, Arkansas. Robes You're not going to get a jury to sit in there and imagine their child that looks like his, and I'm going to send him to prison for protecting the child, just like I would have no exactly.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: In fact, you even think about earlier this week where we had the serial killer the father of one of the women who was murdered by a serial killer in Oregon, and his statement coming out of court was I'm just glad that police got their hands on him before I did that was basically what he said, because he's like, I'm a god fearing man and I don't want to kill anybody, but implying that he absolutely would have. And this is after the fact, not trying to save his daughter's life, but just for revenge for his daughter's life. Anyone understands that feeling. If you're a parent, you get it.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: And Robes they would have gotten it. But this is it's just weird. It's happened like this. A lot of people look and say the right thing has taken place. Some might have different opinions, but right now those opinions are not coming to the forefront. I wanted to update you here and well, this is one roads to watch how this November, how this campaign goes.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: I have a.
00:19:35
Speaker 3: Feeling Aaron Spencer is going to be the next sheriff of Lono County, Arkansas. I think it's a pretty safe bet at this point. But we always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone, I maybe roboch alongside TJ.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks. It is Friday, June fifth, and a GOP nominee for sheriff in Arkansas has been running while at the same time being charged with murder. Well, yesterday those charges just got dropped. And wait and till you hear why with that. Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ A story here, Rope. We have been following the story you have been fascinated by in my home state. But yeah, guy's running for sheriff and the whole time he's been running, he's had a murder charge following him around.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a wild story that I have never seen before.
00:00:36
Speaker 3: Yes, you have a man who is the Republican nominee for sheriff in a county there in Arkansas who is running and is favored despite the fact that he has been charged or was charged i should say, with the murder of.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: A man who kidnapped his thirteen year.
00:00:56
Speaker 3: Old daughter while out on parole for allegedly sexually assaulting his thirteen year old daughter.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: Okay, you gave those headlines. That's why you could maybe quickly kind of understand why in Arkansas a murder charge needs some context that you just gave. Ropes. So it's not like they just didn't give a damn that he killed somebody. He was charged with killing somebody. Those were specific circumstances that some actually applauded.
00:01:23
Speaker 2: Yet he admitted killing this man. There is no.
00:01:26
Speaker 3: Dispute that Aaron Spencer killed Michael Fossler. He said he shot him, and he said he shot him to protect his daughter. And that is something that it appears nearly every or at least quite a few Arkansas parents can understand.
00:01:43
Speaker 1: And again, this was back in twenty twenty four, is when this happened. We'll get into the incident a little more. But Robes, it was supposed to his trial was supposed to start in just a matter of weeks, in some three weeks. He is going to be on the ballot in November. He has already defeated the incumbent. Robes defeated at the incumbent the sheriff, who's the one who arrested him for murder.
00:02:03
Speaker 3: That is such a little ironic twist there. Yes, the man who arrested him, who was the current sheriff at the time, he now defeated in the primary to become said sheriff.
00:02:15
Speaker 2: But yes, that man arrested him for murder.
00:02:18
Speaker 1: Wild story. This is a wild story. So the whole time Aaron Spencer's been campaigning and he's got the GOP nomination, Robes, he had this murder charge sitting there. But this week now, this week, yes, we are recording this here on Friday, June fifth, Well, yesterday a judge tossed and dismissed the entire case against him, So he's no longer facing murder charges. We'll let you know with his comments were in his reaction to it. But Robes, it's worth going back and trying to get a handle on before we explain exactly why the judge dismissed it. The point of this, all Robes was, this was a major part Ropes. If he was not charged with murder, he might not have done this well in the campaign. That's crazy, That.
00:03:00
Speaker 3: Sounds no because people like you said applauded his choice.
00:03:05
Speaker 2: What happened?
00:03:06
Speaker 3: I think, Look, anyone can imagine what it would be like to learn about a grown man who sexually assaulted your thirteen year old daughter.
00:03:17
Speaker 2: So this man was sixty seven years old.
00:03:20
Speaker 3: He is accused of sexually assaulting Spencer's thirteen year old daughter between June and July of twenty twenty four. So in September he was charged with dozens of sexual offenses against Spencer's daughter.
00:03:37
Speaker 1: Folks, we're talking about forty plus counts here. This is it's horrifical. Forty plus counts. Sixty seven year old man, thirteen year old girl.
00:03:45
Speaker 3: Ew gross, disgusting and obviously criminal. How a man like that gets out on bond, I don't know, but he's out on bond. So Spencer wakes up one night I believe this was in October. Yes, so a few months later, one month later, actually after his arrest.
00:04:05
Speaker 2: He sees his daughter is missing.
00:04:09
Speaker 3: He ends up finding his daughter in the passenger seat of Fossler's vehicle.
00:04:17
Speaker 2: So he drove him off the highway.
00:04:19
Speaker 3: And then once Fossler got out of his car, Spencer took his loaded gun and shot him and killed him.
00:04:27
Speaker 1: And called police, called the matter. So he wasn't running. It wasn't that type of situation. I did this. I'm telling you, I did this. This is what happened, saves his daughter. Now, a lot of people and robes a lot of people, no matter where you are right now hearing this, might hear that and go, oh my goodness as a dad right and can relate, and even a mother hearing that though, oh my goodness, I.
00:04:49
Speaker 2: Thank god for the dad.
00:04:51
Speaker 1: Thank God.
00:04:52
Speaker 3: If my husband did that and saved my daughter, I would say thank you.
00:04:56
Speaker 1: So if no matter where you are hearing that and that's your reaction, I can tell you in Arkansas, in gun Totin Arkansas, in that state, in that particular county robes, they might have wanted to give him a damn medal. They might not go beyond just okay, we'll look past it. He shouldn't be charged. He was almost hailed as a hero in some circles, right.
00:05:19
Speaker 3: And to that point, he ran on this think about that. He ran on his murder charges. He ran on a broken justice system. He ran on the fact that a man like the man he killed, Michael Fossler, shouldn't have been out in the first place. And that resonated with folks in that county and it obviously got him to where he is right now in the election, which again is officially in November, but he is ahead in the polls.
00:05:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, as wild as that sounds, ropes, your platform is your murder charge, As crazy as that sounds, and it has been working for him. So this has been going over for quite some time. As you can imagine, for him, he was quite relieved. He did put out a statement afterwards saying, you want to think his family, want to think his wife wanted to thank God. But he also think the people. He said, I won't forget this. The support we've received has carried our family, neighbors here, people from every part of the state, Folks I've never met, from around the world, reached out pray for us, refused to stay quiet. When I couldn't speak for myself, you spoke for me. I'll never be able to thank you the way you deserve, but I'll spend the rest of my life trying to live up to it.
00:06:23
Speaker 3: Robes, I mean, this is going to be an even bigger boost to his campaign for sheriff. The fact that he now is not facing murder charges. People are celebrating. But why he's not facing murder charges may not be the reason you think.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: But Robes, it does. To your point, this could help him now. It almost goes in line with his campaign.
00:06:44
Speaker 2: It absolutely does.
00:06:46
Speaker 1: Spools don't know what they're doing, and the justice system is not working here for you.
00:06:50
Speaker 3: So the police officer who had dash cam video that they believe might even show the shooting itself.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: Correct, I was about to ask you.
00:07:01
Speaker 1: I didn't get a good handle on why there was dash cam video in the dead suspects vehicle.
00:07:08
Speaker 3: I don't don't know either, but there was apparently dash cam video and they just said possibly of the shooting itself.
00:07:18
Speaker 2: Well, there is that little storage card, right, it got lost.
00:07:24
Speaker 3: They don't know where it is, they don't know where it was supposed to be. It's missing, and the defense went to town with that.
00:07:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was your basis for you, you police. We know you had something in your possession that could have been exculpatory evidence, and you lost it and you lost it. Are you kidding me? We have video that could clear you and we just lost it. If that doesn't even sound right, that sounds nuts.
00:07:55
Speaker 3: There was no way to explain it that made any sense. And yes, if they have evidence, it might prove that he acted literally in defense of his daughter, yes, which would absolutely make him easy. You are allowed to protect your child if there is imminent danger and a life is at risk, you are allowed to use lethal.
00:08:17
Speaker 1: Force, especially in Arkansas robes. Are you kidding me here?
00:08:21
Speaker 3: This?
00:08:21
Speaker 1: Yes? And how many of us. Again, we don't see it, we don't know what happening, not making some judgment, but we can obviously put ourselves in that position. Are you kidding me? Some sixty seven sabinas thirteen? His daughter was thirteen.
00:08:34
Speaker 3: A sixty seven year old man who's already been accused of raping your daughter now is taken her and he's she's in his car and you need to go get your daughter.
00:08:46
Speaker 2: He runs him off the road and.
00:08:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, he shoots him, Yeah, and gets his daughter and puts her safely in his vehicle.
00:08:55
Speaker 1: I literally could have saved her life already, saving her from the guy who's are already charged with abusing her.
00:09:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, what was he going to do with her? He had nothing to lose at that point. He was facing, as you mentioned, dozens of counts that were going to put him behind bars, most certainly for the rest of his life. The bigger question is, again, why was a potentially or at least someone who was accused of a horrific violent crime against a minor.
00:09:20
Speaker 2: How was he even out of jail?
00:09:23
Speaker 1: And we talked about, uh, you got vond but why now the case is being thrown out as being dismissed completely. And we've explained a little bit about this memory card, but I put this excerpt in here from Spencer's attorneys. This was I thought this was a good explainer, at least the way they laid it out.
00:09:41
Speaker 2: Yes, they said.
00:09:42
Speaker 3: The evidence at the center of the ruling was a dash camera and its internal memory card recovered from Fossler's truck. The court found that a Lono County Sheriff's Office detective removed the camera without documenting it, viewed its memory card, and then fail filled to preserve it, and stored it in a personal office rather than logging it into evidence. That memory card was never recovered. The court found these actions violated the Sheriff's office's own written evidence policies and amounted to bad faith. Applying the Arkansas Supreme Court's most recent decision on lost or destroyed evidence, the court found the state violated the due process clause under both governing tests. It found the loss of the evidence impaired Spencer's ability to present the justification defense he had noticed and his right to a fair trial, and it concluded the conduct was egregious enough to warrant dismissal.
00:10:40
Speaker 1: This doesn't make any sense what happened. It was almost sometimes in the writing of the judge, almost a suggestion that something unto wards, like something you're not just the Bardy Fife situation here, and you did a bad job, like there might have been some mal intent in what they were doing, Like this is such it is such a perplexing screw up. Possibly have the crime on video and you.
00:11:04
Speaker 3: Oops it well, and you would imagine, look, and we don't know why Fossler had a dash cam video recording, but maybe he was just that guy. He was recording everything around him, you know.
00:11:15
Speaker 1: The other thing I thought about, and a lot of people do it. Maybe he was an uber driver. Maybe maybe he didn't because they that's but it can't come up with a reason.
00:11:22
Speaker 3: But obviously, if you have video evidence of what happened and how it happened, and it existed, and everyone's acknowledging that it existed, and you somehow lost it, if it was if it bolsted the state's case, if it bolstered the evidence against Spencer, most people would argue, do you really think they would have lost it? And that is you can't prove it either way. If it was deliberate, if it was just sloppy. But either way, how can you move forward with chargeips?
00:11:52
Speaker 1: And again, Robes, that is the talk or the suggestion that wait a second, are you really after this guy? Did you set this guy up? You lost the thing that could prove him innocent.
00:12:06
Speaker 3: And under the direction of the sheriff that he just beat, so there was actually political motivation potentially behind it as well.
00:12:13
Speaker 1: That's tall Robes. And you hear about stuff happening in small towns and little communities and county sheriffs and all this stuff. And this could have honestly, this could have been an innocent mistake, but Robe something that critical. It's just in somebody's office. And what was it? They said he since he took the memory card out, the battery on the still device lapsed in some way. It went out, which means the device went back to factory settings, which then also couldn't help them recover the video that they needed from the device.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: It was either idiotic or convenient.
00:12:49
Speaker 1: How do you bungle this thing this badly?
00:12:51
Speaker 3: Well, and when that happens, then your case gets thrown out of court. And that's exactly what happened yesterday.
00:12:57
Speaker 1: And you know what, folks, a lot of people are a plating that, as we just mentioned, but stay here more on the national debate and the question for you would you have voted for him, whether you were in his community, as a voter in the campaign or a juror in his trial. Stay here.
00:13:27
Speaker 3: Welcome back to everyone to this episode of Amy and TG that really has a lot of people imagining what would I do? What would I do if a sixty seven year old man who had already been accused of raping my thirteen year old daughter snatched her in the middle of the night and was taking off with.
00:13:46
Speaker 2: Her in his vehicle.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: I truly believe most parents, most dads would say, I do exactly what Aaron Spencer did.
00:13:56
Speaker 1: Instinctive flea. I'm going to stop and think of this for a moment. And they're the sheriff or the prosecutor was trying to suggest that this dad had you had plenty of time while you were in pursuit to call nine to one one and get authorities involved. Agreed, My I can see my thirteen year old in the possession of the guy accused of sexual offenses against her robes and will drive a parent and a dad looking at his will drive him insane.
00:14:30
Speaker 3: And I will say, this is the same police department, the same justice system that allowed that man to be freed.
00:14:38
Speaker 2: After the charges. So do you trust the justice system? Do you trust the police?
00:14:44
Speaker 3: Do you trust that they're going to do what you're willing to do to protect your daughter?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: Huh? Good point. That's a good point, Rob. So I don't know how. This is not how we handle things. We can't be vigilantes, obviously, but he didn't do that. He wasn't just at home sleep one night and decided to get up. You know, I'm gonna go hunt this guy down.
00:15:05
Speaker 2: That's such a good point.
00:15:06
Speaker 1: That's different.
00:15:07
Speaker 3: He acted in the middle of a crime taking place against his own daughter, where her life was threatened. And when I consider those circumstances, I can already tell you as a mom and that's my husband, and even as a community member, I'm applauding him. And as a juror sitting on his trial as he's charged with second degree murder.
00:15:27
Speaker 1: Good luck getting up.
00:15:28
Speaker 2: I'm probably gonna vote not guilty.
00:15:30
Speaker 1: Good luck getting a jury in Arkansas and Lonoke County in Central Arkansas, twelve people to agree that he did the wrong thing that was gonna be a high Look, there are other details. Maybe there's something, Maybe he was reckless, maybe he didn't have to in the moment. How Who knows what the confrontation was, but ropes he hasn't backed down and hasn't shied away from a moment of this charge. Yep, killed him? Sure did? What? What so e its? It's hard to be flippant. We talked about something like this. Somebody died, but this sounds like imminent danger and not a lot of details need to be What is it? The doctrine the home is the home doctrine that some stand your ground. Stand your ground is one thing that some states in the South have as well. When you can do that even out in public, you don't have to flee. But there's a doctrine who I can't remember it right at the top of my head, but it's the idea that if somebody is at your home uninvited, you can shoot and kill them and not have to ask questions, Like you give that permission, you are free to do so. Well. This is one of those things.
00:16:38
Speaker 3: In the middle in the commission of a crime, when your daughter's life is hanging in the balance. To me, anyone in that position, who had a weapon, who knew how to operate it, would use that weapon to protect their daughter, period, end of story.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: Name show me a parent who wouldn't do that.
00:16:54
Speaker 1: I was just about to take the sexual abuse allegations out of it. Anybody that just took your daughter, you don't know what the intentions might be. Your reactions the same.
00:17:04
Speaker 3: I'd grab whatever weapon I had in my car, even if it was a ballpoint pen.
00:17:09
Speaker 1: And will just go to whoever that was. You would attack a period.
00:17:13
Speaker 3: I would, And I think every juror sitting in that courtroom would have felt the exact same way. So I actually find it interesting that they went after him. I understand that because I actually think what you were saying. If this was somebody who woke to the night and decided to go take him out behind, you know, outside, because he was upset at the allegations, that's different. He was stopping someone in the middle of the commission of a crime. To me, when your daughter's life is at stake, you do what it takes to stop the crime.
00:17:46
Speaker 1: So yes, I'm glad they're dead, and I hope they burn in hell. That was a line delivered by Samuel L. Jackson in it was a time to kill and he was being defended over he killed a guy I was sexually assaulted his daughter, But it was a race component involved. I don't know what that scene that I did just came and obviously it's a story. Yes it's fictionalized, but robes the whole point. It made people think in that moment. I remember Matthew McConaughey giving closing arguments to this jury and say, yeah, imagine all this happened to this girl. Now imagine she's white and everybody whoa Now I can put myself in that position. So this is a guy who the entire yes it's overwhelmingly white in Lonok County, Arkansas. Robes You're not going to get a jury to sit in there and imagine their child that looks like his, and I'm going to send him to prison for protecting the child, just like I would have no exactly.
00:18:44
Speaker 3: In fact, you even think about earlier this week where we had the serial killer the father of one of the women who was murdered by a serial killer in Oregon, and his statement coming out of court was I'm just glad that police got their hands on him before I did that was basically what he said, because he's like, I'm a god fearing man and I don't want to kill anybody, but implying that he absolutely would have. And this is after the fact, not trying to save his daughter's life, but just for revenge for his daughter's life. Anyone understands that feeling. If you're a parent, you get it.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: And Robes they would have gotten it. But this is it's just weird. It's happened like this. A lot of people look and say the right thing has taken place. Some might have different opinions, but right now those opinions are not coming to the forefront. I wanted to update you here and well, this is one roads to watch how this November, how this campaign goes.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: I have a.
00:19:35
Speaker 3: Feeling Aaron Spencer is going to be the next sheriff of Lono County, Arkansas. I think it's a pretty safe bet at this point. But we always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone, I maybe roboch alongside TJ.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.