ROCHESTER — A Detroit man has been sentenced to nine months in jail for assaulting a former Minnesota college football player.

Twenty-five-year-old Ricardo Thornton also will have to split paying more than $115,000 in restitution with another defendant.

Thornton entered an Alford plea in April. An Alford plea allows defendants to maintain innocence while acknowledging the evidence is enough for conviction.

Thoronton is the second man sentenced in the 2008 assault that left former Rochester Community and Technical College football player Joe Geike legally blind. The other defendant, Howard Risher of Houston, was sentenced in 2010 to six months in jail.

According to the complaint, Risher punched Geike, causing Geike to hit his head in a Rochester parking lot. Thornton then allegedly kicked Geike in the head.