According to a report from the Press & Sun-Bulletin, Edin Dzubur, the second of three men charged in the May 2008 beating of former Binghamton University student Bryan Steinhauer, pleaded guilty to felony assault Friday.
Dzubur, 23, is a resident of Johnson City, though he was originally born in Bosnia. He, along with Sanel Softic and Miladin “Minja” Kovacevic, was accused of an attack on Steinhauer which occurred in the Rathskeller Pub on 92 State St. on May 4, 2008. Witnesses said that suspects repeatedly kicked Steinhauer, leaving him in critical condition. Medics put him into a drug-induced coma that lasted months due to swelling of his brain.
Last month, Softic also pleaded guilty to the assault and will be sentenced in January to two years in a New York state prison.
Dzubur faces the same sentence as Softic in January.
It is also more than a year since the ex-BU men’s basketball player, Kovacevic, fled to his native Serbia in June 2008. A Serbian diplomat helped him pay his $100,000 bail and leave the country. Kovacevic is now facing assault charges in Serbia with evidence provided by Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen.
Serbia and the United States do not have extradition treaties with one another, although if Kovacevic returns to America he could be arrested on assault charges.
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.
Kovacevic had been recruited to BU by former Bearcats coach Al Walker for the 2006-07 season and was dismissed after one year by coach Kevin Broadus. According to the reports, Kovacevic continued to play basketball after returning to Serbia.
According to the report, until they are both sentenced, both men will be monitored electronically at home.
Steinhauer made a partial recovery, and though speech-impaired, held a press conference at Mount Sinai Medical Center last April.
The Steinhauer family filed a law suit at the end of March 2008 against two Binghamton bars, the Rathskeller and Dillingers Celtic Pub & Eatery, for damages.
They claim that the bars served alcohol to Steinhauer’s underage attackers.