Three Marines beat Jody within an inch of his life…and no one is surprised

Author’s note: For the uninitiated, Jody is the fictional guy who is back home putting the moves on our significant others while we’re deployed.

Last month, three infantry Marines (Sergio Medina, Rodrigo Sanchez, and Leonardo Ortiz) took a plea deal and were sentenced for robbery. The incident ended their military careers and landed them in state prison. Their sentences vary from three years for the co-conspirators to six years for Medina, the husband and organizer of the incident.

The incident started when Medina either did some snooping on his wife’s phone and found out about the other man, or she confessed. That hasn’t been made clear, although she did note to police that he knew her Snapchat password. While he was deployed, she had been cheating. According to her, she had tried to break it off, but he persisted. According to the other man, she had said she was separated and filing for divorce.

On leave following deployment, Medina called two fellow Marines who lived nearby. The three of them lured Norman Early (i.e. Jody) to the house, posing as Medina’s wife, Diana Reyes, on Snapchat. She waited in the back of the house and listened to the pummeling that followed.

When Early entered the house, the three Marines donned hockey masks and gave him the beating of his life, hog-tied him with zip ties, choked him with a belt, and shoved a sock in his mouth and sealed it with duct tape. They held him for 20-30 minutes, striking, kicking, and interrogating him about his relationship with Reyes.

Early sustained multiple abrasions, had both eyes swollen, suffered an orbital fracture, and had to be placed on dialysis for kidney failure.

Upon releasing him, the Marines took his wallet and phone, telling him that they knew where he lived and not to go to the police. He then drove for several blocks before pushing the EMS button on his OnStar unit.

The next morning, Early was in the hospital, giving his statement to police. He recalled that the men in hockey masks referred to the leader as “Sergio.” Police officers caught Medina in a car shortly after, and he gave up the location of Sanchez and Ortiz.

The plea deal took torture charges, which usually carry a life sentence, off the table. Early, who was slated to sign an Army contract the next Monday, was unable due to his injuries. He still plans on joining the Army, though. He was quoted as saying his attackers were “animals” who didn’t deserve to be Marines.

To Jody

What the hell do you know about deserving to be a Marine? Do you think that maybe living and training with someone every day might build some loyalty? How about operating with the idea of being your best so you don’t let your buddy down and vice versa? Do you think that relationships based upon the concept of keeping each other alive might also lead to the idea that when someone hurts your teammate, you want nothing but to hurt them? They did what they did and lost their place in the Marine Corps for the way they did it. But make no mistake, that decision-making process was put in motion because they are Marines.

Oh and real good idea, joining the Army after you’ve become famous for being a Jody.

After-action review

Pre-planning is your enemy when it comes to legalities. If it looks like you planned by gathering supplies—zip ties, duct tape, hockey masks—you’re going to jail. And if you are planning on somehow keeping you identity secret (you probably won’t), maybe don’t stage the thing in your own house, and don’t refer to each other by name. But that’s beside the point. Luring your wife’s lover into an ambush is likely going to end badly when he inevitably tells someone. Do you seriously think you’re going to scare someone into not telling the cops? A better option for the inevitable confrontation is to go ‘talk’ to the guy at his work if you really want to ruin his day. Bring a friend to pull you off, or pull him off after ‘talking’ goes south, which is highly probable.

All that said, am I surprised? Not at all. I’m a little surprised that the robbery aspect happened, but the rest of it sounds about on par for the train of thought of a junior Marine with a combat arms MOS.

The background that rarely gets mentioned is that deployments are unfortunately the end of marriages with some regularity. It’s not uncommon to see several Dear John letters that include the words “met someone else” end marriages in a single platoon.

So the ultimate after-action is not to get married in your first term in service, and probably put her/him through a deployment before you do.

**Disclaimer, SOFREP does not advocate assault or other criminal action**

Featured image courtesy of usmclife.com