Man Who Fatally Punched Bicyclist Over Racial Slurs In Seaside Heights Sentenced

TOMS RIVER, NJ — A Seaside Heights man who admitted fatally punching a man during a confrontation in 2023 has been sentenced to three years in prison in the man's death, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said.

Anthony P. Collins, 41, is required to serve almost 31 months of the sentence before he is eligible for parole under the terms of the No Early Release Act.

Collins was sentenced Thursday by Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan, who accepted Collins' guilty plea on June 10 to manslaughter in the death of Robert May, 70, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said.

During his plea, Collins told Ryan that he had walked out of Babe's Corner Store at 131 Sumner Ave. and was approached by May, who was on a bicycle, and May called him a racial slur, Terrance Turnbach, Collins' defense attorney, said at the time of the plea.

Collins told Ryan he punched May in the face in response, knocking May to the ground where he hit his head on the curb.

May, who also lived in Seaside Heights, was found on the ground next to his bicycle, bleeding from a cut on his head in the area of Central and Sumner avenues about 4 p.m. on Sept. 18, 2023, authorities have said.

He was treated at the scene and refused further medical assistance, and went home. About 5 p.m. that day, Seaside Heights police were called with a report that May had been acting erratically since the fall, and he was taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River for treatment. From Community he was transferred to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, but died of his injuries on Oct. 1, 2023.

A warrant was issued for Collins' arrest on Oct. 4, 2023, and he turned himself in to authorities on Oct. 15. He has been in the Ocean County Jail since then.

Turnbach said the confrontation was the accumulation of months of harassment and racial slurs directed at Collins' children, and said May had deliberately ridden his bicycle into Collins' wife before calling Collins the n-word, the Asbury Park Press reported.

"Mr. Collins has accepted responsibility for his conduct on September 18, 2023," Turnbach said in a statement at the time of Collins' plea. "He is eager to complete his period of incarceration and return to his children, his fiancé and his work."

“Certain proof problems in this case resulted in the State entering into a plea agreement calling for a sentence that is below the normal sentencing range for manslaughter," Billhimer said. "The victim’s family was cognizant of those issues, and supported this resolution. I commend them for their understanding and forgiving nature."