Manchester man sentenced to 18 years for his role in attack

A 20-year-old Manchester man was sentenced yesterday to an 18-year prison term, the stiffest sentence handed down in the nearly fatal beating of Hereford Middle School teacher Jason Barnett.

Jimmy Zentz, who pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in December, was sentenced by Baltimore County Circuit Judge Barbara Kerr Howe. Howe also agreed to recommend that Zentz, who has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, serve his time at Patuxent Institution, a state facility for prisoners with mental health problems.

Barnett, an agricultural sciences teacher at Hereford Middle School, was walking with two friends, Jeffrey David Gilbert and Gilbert's girlfriend, Tami Torrey, near Barnett's apartment in Cockeysville when Zentz and three others began chasing them June 18.

Someone in Zentz's group asked Barnett whether he or his friends had cigarettes, according to testimony in the Jan. 4 trial of a co-defendant. Barnett said they didn't and asked Zentz's group whether they had any "chew," or chewing tobacco, according to testimony. Barnett was knocked to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked even after he lost consciousness.