WASHINGTON — The GPS records of the phone stolen from a 2009 Knoch High School graduate lead police to two of the three men suspected in that man’s death.

The three men are charged with criminal homicide, robbery, conspiracy and other crimes in the Oct. 4 death of Timothy McNerney, 21, who starred in football at Knoch before attending Washington & Jefferson College.

He played football at the college.

McNerney died of a head injury when he was either struck or fell and hit his head during the incident about 2:30 a.m., when he and a teammate were robbed while walking back to campus from a bar, authorities said.

Washington County District Attorney Eugene Vittone late Tuesday announced the arrests of 24-year-old Eric Wells of McDonald, and 23-year-olds Troy Simmons of East Pittsburgh and Adam Hankins, of Washington, Pa., the city where Washington & Jefferson is located.

The suspects weren’t students at Washington & Jefferson, and it wasn’t clear how authorities linked them to McNerney’s death until criminal complaints became public Wednesday.

According to the complaints, GPS records from McNerney’s phone show it was carried near Hankin’s home and Wells’ home. State police confronted the men with that information Tuesday, and both confessed and also implicated Simmons, police said.

Wells allegedly acknowledged hitting McNerney, who fell to the ground unconscious, and said he got rid of the iPhone and burned the clothes he and Hankins wore, police said. Hankins told police that Wells tried to use McNerney’s credit card at a nearby convenience store.

The men also are charged with attacking McNerney’s teammate, Zachary Deccico, who suffered a broken nose and bruises but was able to escape the mugging and run for help.

McNerney was found unconscious as the scene and died a short time later at a hospital.

McNerney’s father, Robert, said Wednesday. “It’s the most cowardly thing in the world to confront someone late at night, and have so little respect for humanity in relation to taking something as trivial as an iPod to cause someone’s death.

“I hope they spend a lot of time in prison reflecting on that.”