Ellington

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A former University of Mississippi student has been sentenced to a year's probation plus 50 hours community service for placing a noose on the statue of the school's first black student.

Multiple news outlets report 21-year-old Austin Reed Edenfield, of Kennesaw, Georgia, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Mike Mills, who also ordered Edenfield to get substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Edenfield pleaded guilty in March to one count of using a threat of force to intimidate African-American students and employees by putting a noose on the James Meredith statue.

Another former student, Graeme Phillip Harris, of Alpharetta, Georgia, pleaded guilty to the same charge in June 2015 and was sentenced to six months in prison.