One of the men charged in the May 2008 assault of then-Binghamton University senior Bryan Steinhauer pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony assault.

Bosnian native and Johnson City resident Sanel Softic was one of three men accused in the beating which took place early Sunday, May 4, in the Rathskeller Pub on 92 State St. The three were said to have repeatedly kicked Steinhauer, leaving him in critical condition and then a drug-induced coma that lasted months due to swelling of the brain.

The plea comes more than a year after co-defendant and ex-BU men’s basketball player Miladin “Minja” Kovacevic fled in June 2008 to his native Serbia after a diplomat paid his $100,000 bail. He now faces assault charges in Serbia with evidence provided by Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen.

There is no extradition agreement between Serbia and the United States, though Kovacevic still faces assault charges in America.

According to Mollen, the Serbian government gave the Steinhauer family more than $900,000 this past March in recognition that government officials helped Kovacevic flee the U.S and to help pay for medical expenses.

Though speech impaired, Steinhauer made a partial recovery and held a press conference at Mount Sinai Medical Center last April.

Softic will be sentenced in January to two years in a New York state prison.

Edin Dzubur, also a native Bosnian living in Johnson City, is the third defendant still facing criminal charges.

— Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.