A judge has dismissed a murder charge against an Arkansas man who won the GOP nomination for sheriff while awaiting trial for the shooting death of his teenage daughter’s alleged abuser.

Special Circuit Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. dismissed the case against Aaron Spencer on Thursday afternoon — a few weeks before his trial on the second-degree murder charge was expected to begin — because a dash camera memory card that may have captured the shooting was lost by law enforcement.

In March, Spencer won the GOP nomination over a three-term incumbent sheriff whose office had arrested him on the murder charge in Lonoke County, which has roughly 76,000 residents and is heavily Republican.

“The court finds that conduct by law enforcement was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted,” Wilson wrote.

Spencer’s attorneys did not deny that he shot and killed Michael Fosler, 67, in 2024. At the time, Fosler was out on bail 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 awoke to find his daughter gone, 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.

Prosecutors argued that Spencer planned the killing and that he could have called police while pursuing Fosler. But Spencer pleaded not guilty, maintaining that he acted to protect his child from a predator.

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