A Texas man posed as a minor and sent a convicted child sex offender to his death because he felt law enforcement wasn’t doing enough to keep pedophiles behind bars.
James Spencer III, 24, was in contact with Sean Connery Showers, 37, on the messaging app Kick and pretended to be underage when they planned to meet up. Some of the messages were “sexual in nature,” he said. According to ABC13.
Showers showed up to the 900 block of Northwood Street in Houston on May 29, 2023, when a car pulled up next to him and the driver fired multiple “automatic-like” shots. He sped up and drove away.
In 2009, Showers pleaded guilty to federal child pornography possession charges, was required to register as a sex offender, and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Ten years later, he was sentenced to an additional two years in prison for failing to register as a sex offender, according to records obtained by the outlet.
Another driver found Showers’ body in a ditch in a residential area.
Investigators linked Spencer to Showers’ death after a cell phone found under the man’s body contained a message indicating he was planning to meet someone at nearby Monty Beach Park.
“(Mr. Spencer and Mr. Showers) communicated using social media apps,” said Lehman Merchant, chief prosecutor for the 179th District Court.
“The communication was sexual in nature. Officers believe they had gathered at the park to engage in sexual activity.”
Some of the messages from Spencer appear to have been used to force Showers to admit to his past.
“There was some communication on the phone and between the two of them about (Showers’) dealings and past interactions with children and minors,” Merchant said.
Spencer allegedly became a vigilante after claiming law enforcement wasn’t doing enough to stop other predators.
“(A) third country (Spencer) believes that police forces are not doing enough to keep pedophiles incarcerated, and (Spencer) that such men are “He told them he wanted to do bad things, rob them and cause harm. He knew how to track them through an app on his phone,” his bail order obtained by KTRK said. . “A month later, the defendant made the same comment: “If the police don’t do anything, maybe he should kill the police himself.”
Police also linked Spencer to the murder using phone records that tracked the man to the murder scene, which he later admitted to having been there “several times.”
“Based on conversations with his girlfriend, he made comments like ‘pedophile’ in the plural,” Merchant said. “This is still under investigation at this time.”
Spencer was arrested Wednesday by the Gulf Coast Violent Offender Task Force.
He is currently being held in the Harris County Jail on a $25,000 bond on a charge of first-degree felony murder, according to jail records.
According to KTRK, the District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to hold him without bail because he is being held on bond for a controlled substance possession charge in Brazoria County.
“This was devilishly cunning,” Andy Kahan, director of victim services for Houston Crime Stoppers, told Click2Houston. “When you see this, you think, ‘This is something you see in a movie.'”
“This guy had to do a lot of deep background and prepare for this. This wasn’t an off-the-cuff deal,” Kayhan said.
