Aaron Spencer found his 14-year-old daughter with Michael Fosler, 67, the man she had reported for sexual abuse. Spencer shot and killed him. It was 2024, in Lonoke County, Arkansas, and since then he had been facing a second-degree murder charge that could cost him decades in prison.
While awaiting trial, Spencer did something few homicide defendants manage: he won the Republican primary to become sheriff of that same county, defeating incumbent sheriff John Staley, whose office had arrested him.
On June 4, 2026, weeks before going to trial, Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. dismissed the charge. The reason was not that his innocence had been proven, but rather an error by the police themselves: they lost or damaged the memory card from Fosler’s truck camera, evidence that could have been crucial. The judge described the police conduct as “so serious” that it left no other option.
His attorney, Erin Cassinelli, said the family should not have to relive that horror in a courtroom. In November, Spencer will be on the ballot to officially become sheriff of Lonoke County.
