Cabot, Arkansas
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Aaron Spencer stepped out of the library’s glass doorways carrying a blue-and-white voting sticker on his grey checkered shirt. About a dozen supporters greeted him in the car parking zone, the place he clasped fingers, patted shoulders and leaned in for selfies.
It was the primary day of early voting final month for the Republican primaries in this conservative stronghold of central Arkansas. Spencer had simply voted for himself in the Lonoke County race for sheriff.
“It was so surreal seeing my name on the ballot,” he stated as he mingled with voters underneath a uninteresting, overcast sky.
On a close by curb, his marketing campaign indicators – “AARON SPENCER LONOKE COUNTY SHERIFF” – stood in black-and-white letters alongside these for candidates in different races.
The 37-year-old, nonetheless, is in contrast to different candidates. He’s accused of murder.
Spencer is awaiting trial in the October 2024 deadly taking pictures of a 67-year-old man who was out on bail after being charged with sexually abusing Spencer’s then-13-year-old daughter. Spencer stated he found her lacking from her room after midnight, jumped into his truck and scoured the close by roads till he noticed her with the person and shot him after a confrontation. He has admitted to killing him however has pleaded not responsible.
And in an sudden twist, Spencer announced last fall that he’s working for sheriff towards the incumbent whose deputies arrested him that evening. Spencer, an Army veteran with no regulation enforcement expertise, is difficult longtime Republican incumbent John Staley, who’s been in workplace for over 13 years.
“People started to reach out with their own experiences of how the system failed them,” Spencer instructed NCS in explaining why he selected to run. “I was struggling with sitting (it) out and not doing something.”
For greater than 16 months, Spencer has navigated public scrutiny. The case has divided voters; many help his efforts to assist change a authorized system they imagine failed his household, whereas others fear concerning the influence of taking justice into one’s personal fingers.
His prosecution has sparked outrage on social media and prompted a number of petitions calling for the fees towards him to be dropped, together with one signed by more than 380,000 people. It’s additionally prompted conversations throughout Arkansas and past about a guardian’s authorized limits in defending their little one.
The winner of Tuesday’s Republican main has a sturdy probability of turning into the subsequent sheriff in a county the place Donald Trump acquired almost 76% of the vote in 2024. If Spencer wins the first, it would arrange an uncommon state of affairs: the county prosecuting a man who could be poised to turn out to be its prime regulation enforcement officer in November.
Cabot’s almost 30,000 residents make up about a third of the inhabitants in Lonoke County. Roughly half an hour east of Little Rock, the small metropolis attracts hundreds of individuals for its annual strawberry pageant. Modest, single-family properties with American flags are a frequent fixture. So are mom-and-pop outlets combined with the occasional franchises.
Outside Cabot, marketing campaign indicators are few and far between. Instead of sidewalks and storefronts, it’s largely farmland, open pasture and scattered properties – with a few cities in between. On rural roads that fade to pitch black at evening, vans seem to outnumber automobiles.
Walk into a diner or a bar right here, and a lot of individuals have an opinion on Spencer’s case. Most of the individuals NCS talked to stated they imagine he did what many dad and mom would do to guard their little one.
For some, his case feels private. Crystal Reed attended highschool in the county and stated she was sexually abused when she was about the identical age as Spencer’s daughter. She believes that as a political outsider, Spencer will carry a contemporary perspective that prioritizes youngsters’s security.
“I was sexually assaulted multiple times … there was no one to protect me,” Reed, 47, instructed NCS, including that she forged a poll for Spencer the day early voting started on February 17. “Luckily he was able to save his daughter.”
She paused, fingers trembling, combating again tears.
“I’m not political at all. This is my third time voting ever,” she stated. “But this is the only one that has really mattered to me.”
Another resident, Shelby Cooney, stated she wouldn’t vote to convict Spencer if she had been on a jury.
“I don’t think anybody with a normal mind would (convict) him for saving his child,” she stated. Cooney stated she was sexually abused when she was younger and later manipulated into pondering it had solely been a dream.
“I just wish I would have had a strong man like him in my corner,” she added.
But others in city really feel like Spencer went too far.
“Being a parent myself, I can understand how (he) felt when his daughter was going through what she was going through,” stated Cabot resident Lia Bell.
“But … he’s charged with murder. As a law enforcement officer, I don’t want somebody that’s gonna be trigger happy … I want somebody that’s gonna take the emotion out of it and follow the law in every circumstance.”
Another resident, Annber Evans, stated she believes some persons are so centered on Spencer’s “heroism” that they don’t contemplate how his case would have an effect on his relationship with the county prosecuting lawyer’s workplace if he had been elected.
“Am I saying I disagree with what he did for his child? Nope,” she stated. “I’m only saying him becoming sheriff would not make it a better Lonoke County. It will make every case a power struggle.”
Before they had been thrust into the highlight, the Spencers had been simply one other younger household in Lonoke County, the place Spencer’s spouse, Heather, grew up. Together for 20 years, they moved from central Florida in 2018 with their two youngsters to assist care for her dying father.
Their farm, simply off a most important freeway, is full of chickens and turkeys roaming freely underneath the watch of Nova, a white Great Pyrenees, and a number of different canines. Spencer, a contractor and a farmer, additionally breeds turkeys with a gobbler named JerryBoy.
At one time, the household had greater than 100 turkeys, however Aaron Spencer stated he bought most of them as a result of he wanted cash for attorneys’ charges and couldn’t take care of all of the birds whereas he ready for trial.
“I wanted to be known as ‘this dude breeds the biggest, coolest turkeys,’” Spencer stated.
For now, he’s largely identified for what occurred on that fall evening in 2024.
Aaron Spencer stated he woke in the center of the evening to his daughter’s canine barking and discovered her lacking with a stuffed animal tucked underneath the covers in her place, in keeping with his arrest affidavit.
At the time, the couple had been on edge. Three months earlier, their daughter had revealed she’d been sexually abused by Michael Fosler, whom she met on the dwelling of a household pal, they stated.
Fosler, greater than 50 years her senior, groomed the teenage woman through textual content messages, Heather Spencer stated on Facebook.
Fosler was arrested and confronted 43 prison counts, together with web stalking of a little one, sexual assault, sexual indecency with a little one and possession of little one pornography. All the fees had been associated to Spencer’s daughter, Staley instructed NCS.
He pleaded not responsible and was launched on a $50,000 bond with orders to haven’t any contact with the teenager. His lawyer on the time didn’t reply to NCS’s requests for remark.
Not lengthy after his spouse referred to as 911, Spencer noticed Fosler’s truck on a close by freeway together with his daughter inside, in keeping with the affidavit. He instructed authorities he gave chase and rammed into the automobile on the subsequent intersection. His daughter tried to exit the passenger facet, however Fosler grabbed her, Spencer stated, in keeping with the affidavit.
Spencer ordered him to get out of the automobile, however Fosler “lunged towards him” with one thing in his hand and shouted, “F**k you,” in keeping with the affidavit. Spencer fired at Fosler till his weapon was empty, then jumped on him and pistol-whipped him, the affidavit stated. He then referred to as 911.
Fosler’s relations have by no means spoken publicly concerning the case, and a native official stated they deserve compassion.
“He (Fosler) had a family that had no clue what he was doing and that hurts them as well,” Staley, the present sheriff, instructed NCS final month. “It’s a horrible situation.”
NCS’s efforts to achieve Fosler’s relations for remark have been unsuccessful.
Spencer is charged with second-degree murder, which in Arkansas carries a most sentence of 30 years in jail. He additionally faces a potential further penalty for utilizing a firearm, which might improve his sentence if discovered responsible.
The county prosecuting lawyer’s workplace didn’t reply to NCS’s repeated requests for remark.
Spencer’s lawyer has stated the couple feared their daughter was in grave hazard when she left their home with Fosler that evening. She was the one witness to the sexual assault costs towards Fosler, whose trial was set to start three months later.
“At that time, she was the only thing standing between him and life in prison,” stated Erin Cassinelli, the protection lawyer.
After the taking pictures, the Spencers retreated to their farm to protect their daughter from scrutiny. There, as half of her remedy, she rides an Arabian rescue horse in a sprawling pasture behind their dwelling. Her dad and mom say it’s helped her a lot.
“There’s something about their (horses’) personality,” Aaron Spencer stated. “They just know how you’re feeling.”
The couple stated their now 15-year-old daughter is slowly rebuilding her sense of security. “She is learning to trust herself again,” Heather Spencer stated.
And two weeks in the past, she went to her first highschool dance.
“When your child has walked through significant trauma, it’s hard to picture a day when life will ever feel ‘normal’ again,” Heather Spencer later posted on Facebook. “Milestones that used to feel simple suddenly carry so much more weight. They take longer to reach, and they come with a different kind of anxiety, the kind born from a nervous system that has learned the world isn’t always safe.”
“We were just grateful she got to be a regular teenager for a night,” she added.
Some days, nonetheless, are higher than others.
“Things can be a little bit of a roller coaster at times,” Aaron Spencer added. “I think that’s anybody who’s dealt with trauma. She’s doing pretty good though, all things considered.”
Spencer’s marketing campaign has centered on the problems surrounding his case, together with defending youngsters from sexual predators. Spencer has condemned the quantity of Fosler’s bail, arguing it was too low for somebody accused of a number of counts of little one abuse.
Before final week, he largely campaigned by means of movies posted to Facebook and different social media. But since early voting started, he’s gone out to fulfill instantly with residents.
If elected, he stated, his purpose is to assist change a system that he believes failed his household.
Some critics have stated Spencer’s bid for sheriff is an try to affect his authorized end result. Others have complained that it sensationalizes the native election. A 3rd Republican candidate for sheriff, David Bufford, is additionally on the poll.
“It’s hard to just think there’s all this chaos going on at the federal level, and now to have it here at home too, this craziness,” stated Ethan Hall, who lives in the close by city of Ward.
“To think you can just take the law into your own hands like that and think you can run for sheriff, it’s just weird to me. There’s enough weirdness going on at the national level,” he stated. “I don’t want any here at home too.”
Spencer acknowledges that his run for workplace caught a lot of individuals off-guard however maintains he’s not attempting to sport the authorized system.
“This was not a calculated step,” he stated. “I have seen firsthand the failures in law enforcement.”
“We already have stress trying to help our daughter and our family heal while we’re still going through this,” he added. “And to throw a campaign on top of it, now you’re going to be part of the public spotlight. You’re going to have to meet with people … be accountable to people. It’s a lot to learn. But … I’m excited to be able to do something for my community, for my family.”
Spencer, who served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and deployed to Iraq as a paratrooper in the late 2000s, stated the sheriff’s job is to be a chief. “It is to manage facilities and equipment. It’s to lead people. I’ve done that in the military. I have done that in the private sector,” he stated.
But Staley, the incumbent sheriff, has questioned Spencer’s lack of regulation enforcement expertise.
“You can’t learn this job on the fly. It’s not on-the-job training,” he instructed NCS final month. “I’ve worked hard for 25 years … being a sheriff isn’t just about blue lights and going out and putting handcuffs on people. It’s about working the case files, having a team, leading that team, running the jail.”
Asked what he thinks about some individuals calling Spencer a hero for defending his daughter, Staley stated, “I don’t know that hero would be the word I use … I think that he did some things that he has to answer for.”
In the times after the 2024 taking pictures, Staley stated that the choice to cost Spencer rested with prosecutors and that he was not advocating for any particular cost.
But, he added final month, “If one of our deputies had got behind that vehicle, hit the vehicle, got out and just started shooting at somebody, with the evidence that we have they would be in the same position.”
Almost a yr and a half after the deadly taking pictures, the Spencers are nonetheless awaiting a new trial date.
His trial, initially scheduled for late January in Lonoke County, was postponed earlier this yr after the Arkansas Supreme Court recused the unique choose. A retired choose has since been appointed to take over the case, however the subsequent steps stay unclear.
If Spencer wins the election however is discovered responsible, the county’s Republicans would wish to choose a new nominee, Staley stated.
Meanwhile, the household awaits Tuesday’s main election outcomes that may assist form what comes subsequent. After that, there’s a March 18 listening to to pick out a new trial date.
Spencer stated he thinks about each potential authorized end result.
“I’m as prepared as anyone can be. I just take it day by day,” he stated. “I did what any good father would do — just save and protect their child. That’s going to definitely show in our strong legal defense.”