Nude Florida Keys man, 82, opens fire during dispute with wife, deputies say

Arthur Spencer (MCSO)

MONROE COUNTY, Fla. – An 82-year-old Florida Keys man is facing a felony charge after authorities said he fired three gunshots during a domestic dispute — all while in the buff.

According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, the incident happened at around 9 p.m. Tuesday at suspect Arthur Leigh Spencer’s home in the Bay Point community in the Saddlebunch Keys.

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The MCSO arrest report states that Spencer’s wife told deputies that he had called her to come home and watch a movie; she had been at her friend’s house for two hours to watch the sunset.

Deputies said when the 75-year-old got home, the bedroom door was locked, so she got a hammer to open it.

The report states that’s when Spencer shot three rounds into the adjoining master bathroom and told his wife to “leave and never come back.”

She then opened the door and saw Spencer “nude on the bed” and holding a .38 revolver, deputies wrote. They wrote that the woman was in fear for her life during the incident.

Deputies said they responded afterward and commanded Spencer to exit the home.

After he did, he told them that “he thinks his wife is cheating on him and became upset when (she) wouldn’t come home,” the report states.

“He retrieved the Smith & Wesson .38 revolver from its normal place in the living room and brought it into the bedroom with him,” MCSO Deputy Matthew Hernandez wrote. “Arthur stated that he was half asleep and started to hear banging at the door. So he sat at the end of the bed and fired (three) rounds into the joining master bedroom bathroom and told (his wife) to leave.”

The octogenarian then “went into the guest bedroom and just sat there,” deputies said.

Deputies, after getting consent to search the home, found “a brown leather firearm holster on the kitchen table, multiple beer cans in the master bedroom, three bullet holes in the master bathroom door and located the .38 Smith & Wesson revolver in the guest bedroom.”

They arrested Spencer on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and firing a weapon in public or at a residence.

As of late Wednesday morning, he was being held without bond in MCSO’s Key West jail facility, with an arraignment hearing scheduled for May 3.


About the Author

Chris Gothner joined the Local 10 News team in 2022 as a Digital Journalist.

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