LAWRENCE, Kan. — A jury on Thursday found former Kansas forward Silvio de Sousa not guilty of aggravated battery for hitting a man in the face during a New Year’s Day bar fight.

De Sousa hugged his lawyer and praised God following the jury’s decision, The Kansas City Star reported.

“I just want to thank everybody that stayed with me along the way,” de Sousa told the newspaper.

Prosecutors alleged that de Sousa blinded 32-year-old Shawnee native Grant Davis in one eye during the Jan. 1, 2020 bar fight in Lawrence.

De Sousa says he hit Davis with an open palm but didn’t touch his eye.

Prosecutors charged de Sousa in October 2020, several weeks after Lawrence police sent an affidavit and police reports to the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

The charges came a little more than a week after de Sousa announced that he was opting out of the 2021 season.

De Sousa joined the Jayhawks midway through the 2017-18 season and helped them to reach the Final Four. But he was forced to sit out the next season amid eligibility questions after his name surfaced in the FBI probe into college basketball corruption, then served a 12-game suspension last year for his role in a brawl against Kansas State.