WHITE PLAINS (AP) - A former New York correction officer has been sentenced to six years in jail for the beating death of an inmate.

Former Westchester County jail guard Paul Cote was sentenced Monday.

The 43-year-old was convicted in a federal court in White Plains in 2006 of violating Zoran Teodorovic's civil rights. The victim was a mentally ill homeless man who was jailed on a trespassing charge.

The beating happened in October 2000. Teodorovic slipped into a coma and died the next year.

A judge later threw out the jury conviction, saying some inmates' testimony wasn't credible. A federal appeals court overturned that ruling in a decision written by Hon. Sonia Sotomayor, who has been nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.