Credit: Bristol Township police
A Bristol Township man was cleared by a jury earlier this month on charges relating to a fight that led to fatal injuries.
William John Stockton Jr., 49, was found not guilty by a jury in Doylestown of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment. He was found guilty of simple assault, according to court records.
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Stockton will be sentenced on January 8 before Bucks County Judge Theodore Fritsch at the Justice Center.
Stockton was charged in the April altercation on Wynnewood Avenue in Bristol Township’s Croydon section. Officers were called for a man who was unresponsive and bleeding. The man – Bernard Fowler, 57, of Croydon – regained consciousness and said Stockton “punched his lights out,” according to a police affidavit.
Stockton reportedly told an officer he was defending himself after Fowler attacked him.
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Fowler refused medical treatment and later began to lose consciousness while with his girlfriend in Bensalem following the fight, police said.
Fowler’s condition worsened, he underwent medical procedures and brain surgery, but he died after life support was removed six days following the fight, police said.
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An obituary notes Fowler was a award-winning commercial trucker who enjoyed the mountains of central Pennsylvania. He was one of nine children and was raised locally.
According to court records, voicemail messages between Stockton and his wife were excluded from the trial because they were protected by spousal privilege.
Stockton was released on his own recognizance and ordered to wear a GPS monitor, consume no alcohol or controlled substances, reside at his wife’s Croydon residence and make no contact with witnesses. Stockton already spent months in the Bucks County Correctional Facility awaiting trial.
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