Three men have been sentenced to state prison for a 2016 shooting that left a Bristol Borough nursing student dead.

Dwayne J. Lynch, 31, and Jaquan Nyzier Wilkerson, 20, were sentenced last week to four and a half to nine years behind bars, the maximum penalty for the offenses of which they were convicted earlier this year.

A jury in May found the pair guilty of involuntary manslaughter and three counts each of recklessly endangering another person stemming from the Feb. 16, 2016, killing of 20-year-old Robert Colter III.

The case’s third defendant, Rodney Beaty, 29, who pleaded guilty previously in the Colter case as well as unrelated theft and DUI cases, was sentenced Wednesday to serve four to eight years in prison as well as a consecutive three-year term of probation.

Colter, a father and Bucks County Community College student, died of a gunshot wound to the head while standing outside his Bath Street home as Lynch and Wilkerson each fired several shots in the direction of the residence. Lynch and Wilkerson then fled in a vehicle driven by Beaty.

“What gave those guys the right to play God?” Robert Colter Jr. asked during the sentencing hearings 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.”

The slaying remained under investigation by Bristol Borough Police and Bucks County Detectives for more than two years before Colter’s killers were finally charged. Lynch and Wilkerson’s jury trial before Judge Rea B. Boylan lasted more than two weeks.

“Bucks County Detective David Hanks and Bristol Borough Detective William Davis must be commended for their hard work in this case,” said Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon. “The investigation faced multiple hurdles and would not have been possible without their unyielding determination. For over three years they worked to achieve justice for Robert Colter, III.”

Prior to his codefendants’ trial, Beaty entered a guilty plea to third-degree murder in the case, but was allowed to change his plea to be consistent with the jury’s verdict. Gannon in court said, given the jury’s verdict, the outcome was “in the interest of justice and fundamental fairness.”

As the least culpable in Colter’s death, Beaty received a lighter penalty than his codefendants in that case, but his involvement in other violent crimes contributed to his still-lengthy sentence.

Wilkerson will begin serving his sentence for Colter’s killing consecutive to 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 on another unrelated case.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Thomas C. Gannon and Deputy District Attorney David A. Keightly.

Contact: James O’Malley, 215.348.6298, jtomalley@buckscounty.org