Eighteen-year-old Luis Manuel Roman pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault in an agreement with prosecutors in which other charges were dropped.
Roman apologized to the victim for the November 2010 assault only blocks away from Allentown's William Allen High School that authorities called a gang fight.
Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach said the violence of the crime warranted incarceration, and she also hoped to send a message to the community that the city would not be "run by gangs or teenagers running around out of control."
Defense attorney Earl Supplee sought leniency for his client, alleging that the victim had started the fight.
