Law&Crime Sidebar - Man Posed as Minor, Lured Sex Offender to Park to Kill Him: Authorities

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Houston Police arrested James Lewis Spencer III, 24, charging him with first-degree murder in the death of Sean Connery Flowers, 37. Flowers was a convicted sex offender whose body was found in a ditch in May 2023. Investigators say Spencer posed as a minor online and arranged to meet up with Flowers, but shot him multiple times instead. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses this case of apparent vigilantism with renowned predator catcher and founder of TruBlu Chris Hansen.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: We have a special deal for our audience: Get your first visit for only five dollars at https://www.apostrophe.com/pod/SIDEBAR when you use our code: SIDEBAR. That’s a savings of fifteen dollars! This code is only available to our listeners.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller

that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. It never ends well when someone tries to take the law into their own hands, and that is allegedly what happened in Texas. A man is accused of loring out and murdering a child pornography convict in cold blood. Who better to break this story down with than renowned predator catcher Chris Hansen. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Vigilante justice? It's not something just from comic books. No, it seems maybe life, unfortunately, is imitating art. We go to Houston, Texas, where 37-year-old Sean Connery showers, no relation to James Bond actor, was found shot to death back on May 29, He found dead in a ditch. Police said that Showers was walking along the roadway when, quote, a vehicle of unknown make and model approached him. Someone inside the vehicle then shot him.

Now, here's an important point. Very important point. Showers had actually served time in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Reporting indicates he spent 30 months behind bars. Then he apparently also failed to register as a sex offender, which got him two years also in jail in 2019. And that is what leads me into the potential motive into his killer. You see, police have now just arrested 24-year-old James Lewis Spencer III and charged him with Shower's murder. According to court documents, a, quote, third party told authorities that Spencer, quote,

believed the police were not doing enough to keep pedophiles incarcerated and the defendant wanted to rob and harm those type of men. They would do bad things to little children and other people. These filings go on to say, quote, a month later, defendant made some comment that if the cops were not going to do anything, maybe he should kill them himself. It seems that is what he may have done because cell phone communications between showers and Spencer, they were apparently communicating over an app, indicates that there was a discussion about showers history with minors

and that the defendant allegedly lured showers into a meetup with him by pretending to be a child only to then shoot him to death. Now, the documents indicate that Spencer's cell phone tracked him to and from the murder location. It's a case of someone literally taking the law into their own hands crazy to think about. And Spencer now faces up to life in prison if convicted. Let me bring in somebody who I will tell you, the first person that came to my mind when I heard this story, somebody who knows something about catching predators, not killing them. Renowned journalist Chris Hansen, host of Take Down on True Blue and the podcast,

Predators I've caught with Chris Hansen. Chris, good to see you. My gosh, what's your reaction to this? Yeah. Boy, in this case, this is one of those, Jesse, where I'd like to see. see all the police files on it because what we don't know here, excuse me, is whether or not there was some pre-existing relationship or knowledge between the defendant and the suspect in this case. Was there an incident? Did the shooter, the alleged shooter, know a victim?

Or was this just straight-up vigilanteism? And it appears right now that it was straight-up vigilanteism that this guy who's been charged with this crime became aware of this guy. who apparently was active at one point with child pornography and maybe talking to children online. And in fact, went undercover, so to speak, to set up a meeting and then he killed this guy. Now, this is different, Jesse, than some of the other vigilante groups who exposed these guys. And while I questioned some of those vigilantes' hectics and have been critical of them because the cases are often not prosecuted, this is a whole different situation. This is a guy who, you know, is accused, at least, of setting a guy up to, by his own previous statements, rob or to kill them. And that takes this to a whole different level. And clearly, this is extreme. It's wrong. And that's why he's being prosecuted. No matter, you know, how unlikable the victim was or what the victim had done in his past, we are a society of laws. And we need to stick with those laws when we prosecute these predators. But this takes it.

to a whole other objectionable level. And when I saw this, you know, we immediately started talking about it here at True Blue and just kind of shook our heads like, what, you know, what was this guy thinking? How in any way is this appropriate, no matter what this guy did for a living. Yeah, and you've echoed exactly what the prosecutor in this case has said, Rahman Merchant, quote, regardless of the likeability of the victim were a nation of laws. So no one gets to be judge, jury, and execution, or depending on how they feel. Have you ever seen anything like this before?

Have you ever seen anybody taking matters into their own hands regarding, you know, convicted child predators or people who are convicted of sex crimes like this? Anybody who's like, ah, I'm going to, I'm going to beat them up. I'm going to kill them. Have you ever seen anything like this? We've seen historically, Jesse, cases where children have been killed or assaulted and parents may have tried to get a gun in the courtroom. And there have been cases historically where parents have, you know, sought to kill or have killed in retribution. And I understand the emotion. I mean, I've covered these cases for 40-some years as a journalist and some horrific cases targeting children.

And I understand that the emotion and the feeling to get retribution, to seek some sort of justice, even though it would be considered vengeance. But again, for somebody to act out like this, just to set them up to kill him, this is the first time I've seen something like exactly like this case. Yeah, and it was so methodical, right? I mean, the prosecutor said that they were, he was using a social media app, pretending to be a child. Seems like he was able to convince him to meet up because I think the shooting happened at 3.50 in the morning, early hours of the morning. So, so that idea of using that. I don't know how long he had been chatting, whether he was supposed to somebody who has to move or anything. And the problem with these cases, with all vigilante cases, even the ones who aren't this extreme, which are not this extreme, is that, you know, we don't know what methods were used to lure this guy, you know.

And obviously here, you know, the real case is the alleged murder. But, yeah, I've never seen any quite like that. Well, apparently these communications, according to the prosecutor, they were very sexual in nature. They were talking about the victims past. The idea was that they were going to meet up at this park to engage in some sort of sexual activity. So whatever he was communicating or allegedly communicating, the showers, again, it seems like to move on out. I mean, clearly what the victim in this case was communicating is illegal and violates laws just to have that conversation with somebody who, you know, you think is under age. The question is, how are those statements obtained and who made what representation first?

And, you know, you don't know those details, you know, and I'm just talking about for the prosecution of the actual exploitation of a child here, and not even considering the big case, what he's being charged with. which is the killing here. All right, we're going to get back to this story, but I want to take a minute to really thank our sponsor of this episode of Sidebar, Apostrophy. Again, one of our great partners that helps make this show possible. I always enjoy talking about apostrophe because one of the most important things you can do for yourself

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just to go back to the alleged motive which was documented through these kinds of communications that he had with the third party the idea of having this frustration of the criminal justice system how it treats people who are convicted of possession of child pornography or failing to register as a sex offender or any kind of sex related crimes um is that that something you've seen, like people are frustrated? Oh, I understand the frustration. I understand the frustration and it's shared by law enforcement. It's shared by me in some of these cases. I mean, we've seen some very serious cases within the last year in Ohio. As a matter of fact, we had a case where I showed up to have sex with a child. The DA's office took some time to consider prosecution,

and while that guy was out pending the investigation or the consideration by the prosecutor's office. He's caught two weeks after he's in our sting. He's caught in a hotel room with a 14-year-old girl and charged with sexual exploitation of that child. And the reason he was caught was because the mother noticed the girl was missing and pinged the phone and came up at a hotel. And police arrived and found him with this girl. And then you have to ask the question, well, if the case was handled quicker by the DA's office in the first place, could we have avoided the sexual assault of the child for which he was finally arrested and prosecuted and pleaded guilty and put in prison. So there's always frustration. And I think sometimes in these stings, if there isn't a

previous criminal history, if you're in law enforcement or if you're an advocate in this field, you can be frustrated by the lack of severe punishment. And especially when you see somebody reoffend, it's very frustrating. But again, that doesn't mean you get to go lure. somebody out at 3 o'clock morning in a back highway in Texas and kill them execution sound. And I actually wanted your opinion on this because this is interesting. The evidence against them is really bad. I mentioned the cell phone evidence basically links them to the crime, puts them in the location.

There's surveillance video of the area. They were able to see what car was being driven at 350 in the morning. They see it being stopped within four seconds. You see these shots going off, the car speeding off. This is all according to a search warrant. You have the communications. A part of me wonders whether the defendant, and at the time of this recording, we don't have more information, but a part of me wonders if he's actually just going to plead guilty.

The reason I say that is obviously the case is really bad against him, and I don't think he wants to take it to trial, but more importantly, if he feels so justified, right, and he feels like I did the right thing, I wonder if he'll admit it and say, I have no remorse. I would have do it again. What do you think about that? Well, I think that's a possibility. I think maybe, you know, there's a chance that this guy's got some sort of, martyr syndrome and is willing to go down in history and take it on the chin. We're doing what

he thought was right and taking out, you know, somebody who is potentially going to essentially solve the child again, somebody who had been in the system, somebody who had been convicted of child pornography and somebody who he thought was not punished severely enough. And that's, that's quite possible here, given the evidence and given the lack of, you know, care or cover-up taken in the commission of this felony. What a case. Yeah, it's really, I mean, it's, in some ways it seems so straightforward, Jesse, but another is, again, you know, I'd like to get the story behind the story.

Yeah. And I'm sure it'll all come out and I'll do some digging around and keep you posted on what I find out too. And we're looking at it for True Blue as well. So, yeah, there's one on this for sure. But I'll do some digging around because there's more here to the story, I think. Well, if you want to watch legitimate take towns of predators and the way it's supposed to go, You can check out Chris Hanson on Takedown on True Blue.

Also, the podcast, Predators I've fought with Chris Hanson. Chris Hanson, so good seeing you. Thanks so much for taking the time, sir. Thanks for having me. All right, everybody, that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.