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Paintball Shooting Blinds Columbus Cyclist In One Eye

A Columbus man accused of firing a paintball gun at a 72-year-old bicyclist and leaving him blind in one eye has been sentenced to four years in prison for that case and an attempted drug-possession case.

The Franklin County prosecutor says 22-year-old Thomas Woodruff, of Columbus, was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to a felonious assault charge for the paintball shooting.

Woodruff's attorney says his client didn't intend to hit anyone in firing the paintball gun, and he didn't know that he had.

The bicyclist was found on the ground next to his bicycle, bleeding from one eye, after the paintball shooting in May 2015. He reported that a backseat passenger in a passing vehicle had fired at him during an early evening bike ride.

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