Texas Vigilante Shot Houston Sex Offender to Death After Posing as Minor, Police Say

James Lewis Spencer III is a Texas man who is accused by Harris County authorities of acting as a vigilante and murdering a sex offender because he was concerned that child sex offenders were not being incarcerated.

According to a press release from Houston police, the victim, Sean Connery Showers was discovered lying in a ditch, deceased from “multiple gunshot wounds.”

The murder occurred in May 2023, but Spencer was arrested and accused of the crime on January 31, according to court documents obtained by KTUL-TV.

“This was diabolically cunning,” Victim Services Director of Houston Crime Stoppers Andy Kahan said to Click2Houston. “When I look at this, I’m going ‘this is the stuff you see in movies.’”

Kahan told Fox26, “The first thing that came to my mind was Death Wish Charles Bronson or the Vigilante Killer Bernard Goetz.”

“Look, regardless of the likability of the victim, we’re a nation of laws,” prosecutor Rehman Merchant said to ABC13. “No one gets to be judge, jury, and executioner depending on how they feel.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Houston Police Say Sean Connery Showers Was Walking ‘Along the Roadway’ When He Was Shot by James Lewis Spencer III

Houston PoliceJames Lewis Spencer III

The press release from Houston police says officers “responded to a report of an unresponsive male lying in a ditch at the above address. Houston Fire Department paramedics arrived and pronounced the victim, later identified as Mr. Showers, deceased. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.”

According to the release, “An initial investigation determined Showers was walking along the roadway when a vehicle of unknown make and model approached him. Someone inside the vehicle then shot Showers. At that time, there was no known suspect description. urther investigation identified Spencer as the suspect in this case.”

According to KTUL, police accused James Lewis Spencer III in a bond report that provided some details of the investigation.

The victim had “multiple gunshots to body-torso,” the bail order says. It adds that there is a video of a motor vehicle slowing down and approaching the victim before a “string of rapid gunshots” ring out and the motor vehicle speeds off.

A “third party states the Defendant told them he believed the police were not doing enough to keep pedophiles incarcerated and the Defendant wanted to rob and harm those type of men because they would do bad things to little children and other people and he knew how to track them by an app on the phone,” the report says.

“This guy had to have done a lot of deep background, had to prepare for this. This was not some random spur of the moment deal,” Kahan said to Click2Houston.

“Nobody should be taking the law into their own hands. He completed his sentence, yes he didn’t register, but this is taking it way too far,” Kahan said to the television station.

“To be frank, this is a planned execution,” Merchant said to ABC13. “I think he targeted an individual, he set up a meet, knew where he was going to be, and then discharged a weapon multiple times and then just went back home like nothing happened.”

The Bond Report Says That James Spencer & the Victim Discussed a ‘Meet Up’

MugshotSean Connery Showers

A month later, the “defendant made same comment that ‘if the cops were not going to do anything maybe he should kill them himself,” the bond report says.

Cell phone records show that Spencer and the victim discussed “a meet up” and the victim’s “prior sexual history with minors,” it says.

It says, “Appears defendant claimed to be a minor and agreed to meet up with C/W for sex.”

The report says that Spencer’s cell phone was tracked to the murder location and he “admitted to owning the phone number that communicated with C/W, admitted to being at murder location a few times.”

According to Click2Houston, a judge found probable cause for Spencer’s court case to advance. He is 22 years old.

According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Showers, then 23 of Houston, “admitted to possessing child pornography on his computer.”

“The government’s evidence against Showers had this case gone to trial would have proved that on July 9, July 19 and Aug. 1, 2007, numerous images of child pornography from IP addresses connected with Showers at his residence on Gustine Lane in Houston were downloaded to law enforcement in three different jurisdictions,” the release says.

“FBI’s Cyber Squad Innocent Images Unit in Houston, advised of the downloads, thereafter initiated an investigation and secured and executed a search warrant for the residence on Aug. 31, 2007.”

According to that release, “The computer from which the downloads were made was located in Showers’ room. During an interview with agents, Showers told agents he used the computer in his room and controlled any others who used it and when they used it. He acknowledged the images of child pornography on the computer in the form of pictures and videos and explained how he had obtained them online and his attraction to the images.”

The release continues:

A forensic analysis conducted on the computer revealed 94 images containing child pornography and 116 videos containing child pornography. In a sampling, there were images involving prepubescent children under 12 years old, images involving oral sex and images involving penetration, images with adults present and videos involving bondage. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) was sent a copy of the images and found images of identified victims.

Showers was indicted on June 9, 2009, and charged with one count of possessing child pornography as a result of the investigation. The FBI Cyber Squad Innocent Images Unit is dedicated to investigating online exploitation of children and child pornography.

READ NEXT: Pennsylvania Man, Justin Mohn, Accused of Beheading Father.