A judge has dismissed the murder case against Aaron Spencer, ending the criminal charge that followed an October 2024 shooting and clearing a major legal obstacle as he campaigns for Lonoke County sheriff.
Judge Ralph Wilson ruled that the loss of dash-camera evidence from Spencer's truck had so damaged the defense that a fair trial was no longer possible. The case had been set for a jury trial on June 22, and the dismissal came while Spencer was still facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of 67-year-old Michael Fosler.
The ruling centers on a piece of evidence that may never be fully explained. A dash camera inside Spencer's truck could have recorded the altercation that led to the shooting, but the defense said the camera's SD card went missing with no clear documentation showing when it disappeared, where it went, who last handled it or what efforts were made to find it. The defense also said prosecutors and lawyers for Spencer were not told for months that the camera existed or that the memory card had vanished.
Wilson wrote that the loss or destruction of the internal SD memory card had adversely impaired Spencer's ability to defend himself and that his right to a fair trial had been harmed. In the order, the judge said law enforcement conduct was so egregious that dismissal was warranted. That is a rare outcome in a murder case, and it means the court concluded the state could not fairly move ahead on the charge as it stood.
The shooting itself had drawn statewide and national attention. Prosecutors said Spencer confronted Fosler after finding him with his teenage daughter and that the encounter ended in a fatal shooting after an altercation. Court records and prior reporting show Fosler had been facing multiple sexual offense charges involving Spencer's then-13-year-old daughter and was out on bond at the time. Spencer pleaded not guilty and has said he acted to protect his child, with his attorneys arguing that the shooting was justified under Arkansas law as self-defense and defense of others.
What makes the dismissal more consequential is the political timing. Spencer won the Republican nomination for Lonoke County sheriff while the murder charge was still pending, and the case had already been delayed several times over pretrial disputes, evidence fights and appellate scrutiny. The dismissal removes the charge from the race for now, but officials have not released full details of the ruling or said whether any conditions were attached. That leaves one unresolved question at the center of the case: whether the state will try to revive any part of it, or whether Spencer now heads into the general election with the criminal case effectively over.
