Elmer Spencer Jr., 53: Was Convicted Of Child Murder
Bill Schenley
FROM: The Frederick (Maryland) News-Post
By Kate Leckie, Staff Writer
Elmer Spencer Jr., a mentally retarded sex offender
sent to prison for life in the November 2000 murder
of a 9-year-old Frederick boy, has died in prison of
natural causes.
Spencer, 53, died Wednesday in Cumberland.
Lt. Clark Pennington, spokesman for the Frederick
Police Department, said victim advocates with the
police agency will contact the family of Christopher
Ausherman today.
The Nov. 19, 2000, murder of Christopher in
a baseball field dugout brought about changes to
Maryland sentencing laws.
In November 2000, Spencer was released on parole
from the state's prison system, where he had been
serving a sentence for assault and escape.
His lengthy rap sheet included sex offenses against
boys and women.
Less than a week after his release in 2000, Spencer
killed Christopher. He lured the boy to a McCurdy
Field dugout after buying him Pokemon cards.
Scott L. Rolle, who prosecuted Spencer while
serving as Frederick County state's attorney, this
morning said the Ausherman murder case sticks out
in his mind more than any other of his career.
"I will never forget being in the dugout at McCurdy
Field, looking at Christopher Ausherman," Rolle said.
"Even today, that image is unfortunately ingrained in my
head because it was such a difficult thing to see. It was
as bad as it gets."
Rolle had wanted to seek the death penalty in the case,
but the law prohibited it because of Spencer's
diminished mental capacity.
---
Parents of Murdered Boy Seek $70 Million From State
FROM: The Washington Post (September 19th 2003) ~
By David Snyder
The parents of Christopher Ausherman, the
9-year-old Frederick boy whose grisly murder
brought about changes in Maryland sentencing laws,
has sued the state, alleging that state agencies failed
to adequately imprison and treat the boy's killer.
Elmer Spencer Jr., 47 , had been released from prison
five days before Christopher's death on
Nov. 20, 2000, after serving 31/2 years of a 10-year
sentence for sexually assaulting a Frederick woman in
1997.
Mary Voit, Christopher's mother, and his father,
Christopher Ausherman Sr., filed a lawsuit Sept. 10
alleging that the state was negligent because state
agencies let Spencer out of prison early for accruing
good behavior points.
The lawsuit also alleges that the state should have
forced Spencer, a convicted sex offender, to undergo
regular treatment.
"Spencer's brutal battery of sexual abuse and murder
of Christopher were reasonably foreseeable acts," the
lawsuit alleges, and goes on to say state officials "had
the duty to prevent such acts."
The lawsuit seeks $70 million in damages.
Spencer had been diagnosed several times with severe
mental illnesses, including a 1982 diagnosis of
pedophilia and paranoid schizophrenia, according to
court documents filed in Carroll County Circuit Court.
Starting in 1974, Spencer was charged several times
with sex crimes. In 1982 he was convicted of raping
and attempting to kill an 11-year-old Carroll County boy.
A spokesman for the Maryland Attorney General's
Office, which handles such claims against the state,
said that as of early this week her office had not been
served with papers.
"We have not received the lawsuit and do not have
any comment," Jamie St. Onge said.
Spencer was convicted of first-degree murder and
first-degree sexual assault in Christopher's killing in
February 2002. He later was sentenced to life in prison
without parole.
In an interview in the Frederick apartment where she
raised Christopher and now raises his two brothers,
Mikey, 4, and Jessie, 12, Mary Voit said the lawsuit
is an attempt to remedy some of the economic and
emotional suffering she underwent after the boy's
death.
"[Spencer] should have never been let out" of prison,
Voit said. "I feel the state is at fault."
Voit, 39, said her financial situation and her health
have improved some since her son's death. She was
suffering from insomnia for many months after the
murder, she said. She works about 26 hours a week
as a cashier at a McDonald's in Frederick.
She is trying to move Christopher's body to Frederick
from Pennsylvania, where the boy's father lives and
wanted to have him buried.
Voit's lawyer, Paul Victor Jorgenson, said in
a telephone interview that precedent suggests that
Voit and Christopher Ausherman Sr. may not be
awarded the entire $70 million.
But, he said, the amount the lawsuit seeks "is actually
well within the range of what's being awarded in these
situations."
The boy's birthday was Sept. 18