ARDMORE, Okla. -- One of the identical twin brothers accused of a brutal attack was in an Ardmore courtroom Tuesday morning.
Colby Chase McGinnis, 18, is facing assault and battery charges after a July incident in which another young man was spanked more than 250 times with a studded leather belt. Authorities say the attack was an attempt at vigilante justice.
The incident happened July 23 at a home in the 900 block of west main in Ardmore. Investigators believe alleged ringleader 29-year-old Ronnie Morris was angry at the victim for allegedly forging hot checks in Morris' name. They say the trio of men confronted the victim, taking the law into their own hands, becoming judge and jury, and then giving the victim a choice of punishment ranging from dismemberment, to graphic mutilation, to hundreds of brutal lashes across the backside.
Police say Colby and Jeremiah McGinnis, both 18 years old, and Morris, took turns administering lashes to the unidentified victim.
"Out of 19 years in law enforcement , I haven't seen anyone spanked this severely like the victim was. He had severe bruising on his buttock areas," Capt. Kevin Woods of the Ardmore Police Department said in July.
McGinnis appeared for a preliminary conference. The three other suspects in the case, 18-year-old Jeremiah McGinnis, 22-year-old Ronnie Morris, and 29-year-old Rolanda Braxton, are set to go before a judge on Wednesday.