A ‘devilishly cunning’ vigilante posed online as a child to entrap a pedophile and then shot him in a drive-by shooting.
James Lewis Spencer, 24, admitted to killing 37-year-old Sean Connery Showers after the convicted sex offender’s son was found May 29 in Houston.
He was arrested without incident on Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder. He appeared in Harris County District Court on Thursday.
“Frankly, this is a planned execution,” said chief prosecutor Rehman Merchant.
“I think he targeted an individual, organized a meeting, knew where he would be, then fired a gun multiple times and then just went home as if nothing had happened.”
Vigilante James Lewis Spencer, 24, posted online as a child to trap a pedophile, then shot him in a drive-by shooting
Surveillance footage showed a car driving to Douches around 3:50 a.m. and stopping next to him before he was shot several times with an automatic weapon.
Police were unable to identify the car or driver at the time, but found Douches’ phone under his body with messages indicating he was planning to meet someone at a nearby park.
Merchant said Spencer began sending messages to Douches on Kik, a social media app popular with teens, posing as a child and agreeing to have sex with him.
‘The communication was sexual in nature. “The officers believe they met at this park to engage in sexual activity,” he said.
“There is some communication taking place over the phone or between the two regarding interactions with (Showers) or previous interactions with children or minors.”
He was arrested without incident on Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder. He appeared in Harris County District Court on Thursday
Showers was sent to federal prison for 30 months in 2009 for possession of child pornography, and again in 2019 for two years for failing to register as a sex offender.
Spencer was eventually identified through phone records, and his phone was tracked to and from the murder scene that night.
Detectives spoke with Spencer’s girlfriend, who told them he was frustrated that police weren’t doing more to keep pedophiles locked up.
Spencer told her “he wanted to rob and harm men like that because they would do bad things to little children and other people and he knew how to track them down through a phone app,” according to his bail documents.
‘A month later, the suspect made the same comment: ‘If the police didn’t do anything, he might have to kill them himself.’
Spencer has yet to enter a plea, but police say he has “admitted his role in the incident.”
Sean Connery Showers, 37, was sent to federal prison for 30 months in 2009 for possession of child pornography, and sentenced again for two years in 2019 for failing to register as a sex offender
Merchant said police were trying to access Spencer’s phone to determine if it was connected to other murders or attacks on sex offenders.
‘Based on the conversation he had with the girlfriend, he had made those kinds of comments in the plural ‘pedophiles’. At the moment we are still investigating that,” he said.
“Look, regardless of the sympathy of the victim, we are a nation of laws. No one gets to be judge, jury and executioner depending on how he or she feels.”
Andy Kahan, director of victim services for Houston Crime Stoppers, called Spencer “devilishly cunning” and said the case was something only seen in the movies.
Spencer was granted $250,000 bail ahead of his next court appearance on Monday, but had yet to post bail because he was still behind bars.
After prosecutors pointed out that he was already out on bail for drug abuse, he was ordered to 24-hour house arrest with GPS monitoring and no access to firearms, ammunition or weapons.