Serb Court Sentences Ex-Player In Brooklyn Man's Beating
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- A Serbian court has sentenced a former Binghamton University basketball player to two years and three months in jail for beating a fellow American student into a coma.
Miladin Kovacevic reached a plea bargain with the prosecution in September. The sentencing on Friday followed the court's approval of the deal.
This means the 23-year-old Kovacevic could start serving his sentence within weeks. He had already spent three months in detention in the United States and Serbia, which means he has some two years left to serve.
Kovacevic was charged in the U.S. last May with beating Bryan Steinhauer of Brooklyn, during a barroom brawl in 2008, but jumped bail and fled to Serbia.
Kovacevic's case had strained U.S.-Serbia relations after Belgrade refused to hand him over.
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