A Bensalem man who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a rival suitor for a young woman’s affections was sentenced this morning to serve 15 to 30 years in state prison.

Bucks County Common Pleas Court Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. agreed to impose the sentence, which was recommended to him as a result of negotiations between prosecutors and defense counsel for Jeffrey T. Gould.

Gould, 34, had pleaded guilty on May 18 to third-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime in the shooting death of Edward G. Dubinsky on the front porch of the victim’s home in Jamison late on July 13, 2016.

At the time of the plea, attorneys had agreed to recommend a sentence of 12 ½ to 17 ½ years at the minimum end, and a maximum of up to 40 years.

As a result of further negotiations, District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub and defense attorney S. Philip Steinberg this morning recommended that Bateman impose a 15- to 30-year state prison sentence, followed by 15 years of consecutive probation.

“Justice can’t bring Ed Dubinsky back from the dead. This was a very difficult case for everyone involved,” Weintraub said afterward. “There’s no great outcomes, but I know we reached a fair and just outcome.”

Dubinsky, 33, died of a single gunshot to the back crown of his head. He was found lying face-up in a pool of blood on the porch of his home on Virginia Lane in the Deer Run development of Jamison, Warwick Township.

The woman who fueled Gould’s rivalry with Dubinsky, Zannatul Asha Naim, told investigators she had been sitting on Dubinsky’s lap when Gould walked up the driveway with a gun and shot the victim at 11:30 p.m.

Dubinsky and Naim had been involved in a long-term relationship until about three months before the murder, when Naim began living with Gould in Bensalem. In time, however, she reconnected with Dubinsky and began moving her belongings out of Gould’s apartment.

In the weeks leading up to the murder, Dubinsky and Gould had been taunting and insulting one another via emails and phone calls.

“What you did was unforgivable,” Bateman told Gould this morning. “You took a life. You took the life of a young man who did not deserve that.”

Gould said he was “deeply sorry for how my actions have affected not only one, but two families. … I just want to say that I want to spend the rest of my life trying to better myself and to give back what I can.”

Bateman praised the attorneys for reaching a fair resolution to what he called “a difficult case” for all.

“Both sides are encouraging the trial judge to do the right thing here,” he told Gould. “Your mother wrote that she doesn’t know if she’ll ever see her son again as a free man,” while Dubinsky’s father “wrote that this took everything from him; he’ll never see his son again.”

Ultimately, Bateman said, “nothing that ever happens to this defendant will be satisfactory to the victim’s family.”

As a condition of his sentence, Gould was ordered to have no contact with Naim or with Dubinsky’s family, and to pay $23,554.50 in restitution, partly for Dubinsky’s funeral expenses.

The case was investigated by the Warwick Township Police Department and the Bucks County Detectives, and was prosecuted by Weintraub and Assistant District Attorney Megan A. Hunsicker.

Contact: Matthew D. Weintraub, 215.348.6345, mdweintraub@buckscounty.org

Approved for release by Gregg D. Shore, First Assistant District Attorney.