NEW CASTLE, Ind. – A teen from Muncie and twin teen brothers from Henry County face charges in connection with a retaliatory attack that left a fourth teen injured.
John Reid Doty, 17, is charged with attempted murder and attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury. Twin brothers Andrew and Justin Swinehart, both 17, each face a count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
While FOX59 doesn’t typically name juvenile suspects, all three are being charged as adults.
The charges stem from a July 2022 incident in New Castle. Investigators said the trio conspired to arrange a marijuana deal with a 17-year-old. They never intended to pay for the pot, police said, because the whole thing was a setup.
Earlier, Doty had made a deal to buy a gun from the other teen. However, the teen took Doty’s money without providing him with the firearm.
According to court documents, Doty then talked to the Swineharts, who helped him concoct a scheme in which they’d use Snapchat to lure the other teen to a New Castle park under the guise of a drug deal. They planned to take marijuana and cash to recoup Doty’s stolen money.
The teen showed up at Osborne Park with a friend; Justin Swinehart got into the back seat of the teen’s vehicle and said, “I ain’t gonna lie, this is a stickup. Honk your horn.” Swinehart then said he was kidding and that honking the horn would signal “his girl” to bring the money for the exchange, according to the probable cause affidavit.
The teen honked and said people came running out of the bushes and a port-a-potty; Andrew Swinehart had what appeared to be an AR-style rifle (police later discovered the rifle was an airsoft gun).
Doty came up to the window and “just started stabbing him,” the teen told police. While being stabbed, he jumped on his seat and kicked Doty. He then floored the accelerator and drove off; Justin Swinehart got out of the vehicle.
The teen remembered “putting the directions to the hospital [into his phone] and then thinking that he can’t [make it], that it was over, and he was dying,” according to court documents. As he drove off, he remembered hearing gunshots and said they were fired by his friend, another juvenile who’d accompanied him for the exchange.
The teen drove to a gas station to get help. Police found him lying on the floor bleeding heavily. He suffered cuts or stab wounds on the left side of his body to his hand, wrist, thigh, forearm and chest, according to court documents, including a laceration to the ulnar artery and another to a flexor tendon.
An employee dialed 911 while a customer applied pressure to the teen’s wounds until police and medics arrived. The teen’s juvenile friend hid the gun underneath a dumpster near the gas station, according to court documents.
Andrew Swinehart was shot in the abdomen during the incident. He was taken to an area hospital before being airlifted to an Indianapolis facility after suffering from internal injuries, including a collapsed lung and a bladder injury. He was discharged after surgery.
Both injured teens eventually recovered from their wounds.
Doty and the Swineharts are due in court in May for pretrial conferences with trials scheduled for June, according to court records.
