Credit: Bucks County District Attorney’s Office
Two men received decades-long state prison sentences Friday for the 2016 fatal shooting of a man on his birthday.
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Senior Judge Thomas C. Branca handed down sentences at the Bucks County Justice Center after victim impact statements from Herbert Lyals’ loved ones, including his mother.
George Javon Clark, 34, of Philadelphia, who was convicted in July of third-degree murder and other charges following a weeklong jury trial, was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison.
His accomplice, John Marquis Wilson, 45, pleaded guilty Friday to third-degree murder, robbery, criminal use of a communication facility, and conspiracy. Branca sentenced Wilson to 16 to 32 years in state prison.
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Deputy District Attorneys Thomas Gannon and Chad Kovack prosecuted the case.
Gannon told jurors that Clark and Wilson had gone to the 5600 block of Truman Street in July 2016 to rob Lyals after hearing he had money.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
During the commission of the robbery, Clark shot and killed Lyals, according to authorities.
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Clark was identified as the shooter.
Gannon described Lyals as a caring and peaceful man whose life was violently taken.
“He was a ‘velvet teddy bear,’” Gannon said.
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“The night that they took my son, they took a part of me with them,” Lyals’ mother told the court.
Lyals, who had just turned 38, was a devoted father of three.
Bristol Township police responded to a 9-1-1 call and found Lyals deceased on the sidewalk outside a family member’s home at 12:46 a.m. Wednesday, July 27, 2016.
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Witnesses testified to hearing gunshots and finding Lyals shot, with his cellphone nearby.
Lyals had just stepped out of his birthday party when the attack happened.
The victim sustained gunshot wounds to his face and chest, and two 9-millimeter casings were recovered near his body.
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During the investigation, according to authorities, there were multiple calls between Lyals and Wilson, as well as numerous calls and text messages exchanged between Wilson and Clark both before and after the murder.
The investigation, which spanned years, involved detectives from the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Bristol Township Police Department. It ended in 2024 with an indictment from a Bucks County Investigating Grand Jury.
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