3 Get Prison For Bristol Shooting Death

BRISTOL, PA — Three men are headed to state prison for the 2016 shooting death of a nursing student in Bristol Borough.

Rodney Beaty, 29, was sentenced Wednesday to 4-8 years in prison and a three-year term of probation. Last week, Dwayne J. Lynch, 31, and Jaquan Nyzier Wilkerson, 20, were sentenced to 4 1/2-9 years behind bars — the maximum penalty for the crimes for which they were convicted.

The men were charged in the death of Robert Colter III, 20. Colter, a student at Bucks County Community College, died of a gunshot wound to the head while standing outside his home on Bath Street.

Lynch and Wilkerson had both fired several shots in the direction of the building, then got away in a vehicle driven by Beaty.

"What gave those guys the right to play God?" said Colter's father, Robert Colter, Jr., during the sentencing hearing for his son's killers. "He had plans. He was a nursing student. He was in school. He had two beautiful girls he didn’t even get to raise."

In May, a jury found Lynch and Wiklerson guilty of involuntary manslaughter and three counts each of recklessly endangering another person in the Feb. 16, 2016 shooting. Beaty pleaded guilty in the case, as well as in unrelated theft and DUI cases.

Colter's death remained under investigation by Bristol Borough Police and Bucks County detectives for more than two years before his killers were charged. The trial for Lynch and Wilkerson lasted more than two weeks.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon commended Bucks County Detective David Hanks and Bristol Borough Detective William Davis.

"The investigation faced multiple hurdles and would not have been possible without their unyielding determination," Gannon said. "For over three years they worked to achieve justice for Robert Colter, III."

Prior to his co-defendants' trial, Beaty had entered a guilty plea to third-degree murder in the case. But he was allowed to change his plea to be consistent with the jury's verdict regarding the other two.

Prosecutors say he received a lighter sentence than the other two because he was the "least culpable" in the case, but that his other crimes added time to that sentence.

Wilkerson will serve his sentence for Colter's killing along with a seven-year prison sentence he is already serving for an unrelated robbery. Lynch received credit for time served since February, when he was released from federal custody in another unrelated case.