ArkansasOnline.com reports Joshua Rewis, 20, Cody Jones, 25, and Travis Strickland, 25, pleaded innocent in an Arkansas district court.
Arkansas authorities arrested the men last month in connection with a video of a deer being beaten with a textbook. That video was posted on social media and went viral. That's when the two-state investigation began.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources contacted the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on Jan. 28. The investigation revealed that the video was made in Arkansas and showed Joshua Rewis, striking a deer with a heavy textbook in the back of a vehicle.
Rewis told officers that the deer was struck on U.S. Highway 165 near Stuttgart. Rewis said that he, Cody Jones, 25, and Travis Strickland, 25, were traveling in a car driven by Johnna Sigler, 19, of Stuttgart, when the deer was hit.
After striking the deer, the group pulled over and the three men loaded the live deer into the vehicle. Rewis told officers that he planned to tag the deer and clean it. Rewis never contacted the AGFC about the deer so that it could be put down. The group also did not contact the Arkansas County Sheriff’s Office to report the accident.
WARNING - VIDEO IS DISTRESSING:
As the group was driving down the road, the deer became active in the vehicle. That is when Rewis began striking the deer with the book. After the deer began crying out, the group pulled over and the men dragged the deer to a ditch along the highway and left it.
This is the biggest bunch of BS I've read in a long time. They are lying. They did not THINK the deer was dead. They either hit it or found it - very much alive - and threw it in the back of their vehicle so they could torture it to death.
Rewis was charged with cruelty to animals and wasting wildlife. Jones and Strickland were charged with criminal aiding and abetting. Sigler was issued a warning citation for aiding and abetting.
(WTSP - Feb 19, 2016)
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