New Jersey Man Enters Plea Deal After Fatally Punching Racist Man
A New Jersey father has entered a plea deal after fatally punching a man who called his kids the N-word. Lavallette-Seaside Shorebeat reports that the Black man, Anthony Collins, struck Robert May, 70, in September 2023 in Seaside Heights, NJ. Collins pled guilty to manslaughter in connection to the attack in June and will now spend three years in jail. Under terms of the No Early Release Act, the man will need to serve about 31 months of his sentence before he’s eligible for parole.
Defense attorney Terrence Turnback detailed the events that led up to the attack, which began with May hurling slurs at Collins and his children repeatedly for months. Collins and his wife encountered the older man around that time, with May running into the woman and “assaulting” her with his bike. The man then called Collins the N-word, which prompted Collins to punch him in the face, knocking him out unconscious.
“[He was] dealing with an individual he was well aware of from the standpoint that he had called his children ‘ni**er kid’ over eleven to twelve occasions,” Turnback said about his client, Collins. “Their alleged victim was looking for my client, assaulted his wife, and called him a name that’s reprehensible.”
Atlanta Black Star reports that law enforcement arrived on the scene to find the elderly man lying on the ground with blood spewing from his mouth. While he was treated at the scene, May refused any further assistance and was released. However, he began acting “erratic” in the aftermath of the attack, and the Tri-Boro First Aid Squad transported him to the Community Medical Center. Robert May would eventually succumb to his injuries, dying on Oct. 1, 2023.
“A post-mortem examination conducted on that date by the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of Mr. May’s death to be blunt force injury resulting from the assault which occurred in Seaside Heights on September 18, 2023, and the manner of his death to be homicide,” a press release from Ocean County police read. “A continuing investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crime Unit and Seaside Heights Police Department determined that Collins was, in fact, the individual who assaulted Mr. May on September 18, ultimately resulting in his death.”
A warrant was then issued for Anthony Collins’ arrest on Oct. 4, 2023, with the man surrendering himself to authorities on the 15th of that same month.
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