In the 10 months since teenagers set upon Zachary Sowers and pummeled him into a coma, he lingered in oblivion. While his swollen face gradually resumed its natural form, he fought off infections and seemed to react, almost imperceptibly, to sounds in his hospital room.
But Sowers never recovered consciousness. He died Tuesday night at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center "after a long and treacherous battle" against his injuries, a Web site set up in his name announced yesterday. He was 28.
His wife, Anna, to whom he had been married just nine months at the time of the attack, said in a brief interview that she was grateful that "we had so many supporters to help us get through all of this."
FOR THE RECORD - An article in Thursday's Maryland section misreported the sentences for three teenagers in the beating and robbery of Zachary Sowers 10 months ago in Baltimore. Arthur Jeter, 18, Wilburt Martin, 19, and Eric L. Price, 17, were sentenced to 30 years in prison each, with all but eight years suspended. The article also reported incorrectly that Jeter and Martin had watched the attack from a car. Prosecutors said the teens could not have seen the attack from where they were seated.
The Sun regrets the errors.
He will be buried on Saturday in Circleville, Ohio, where he was born and spent part of his childhood.
The apparently random attack on Sowers occurred on a June night as he walked home in Canton. His wallet, cell phone and watch were stolen. One of the teenagers was seen stomping on Sowers' head, and was later sentenced to 40 years in prison.
News of the Sowers case stirred an uproar over rampant criminality on Baltimore's streets, particularly in neighborhoods such as Canton that city officials had sought to paint as safe for up-and-coming professional couples like Sowers and his wife. None was more vocal than Anna Sowers herself, who called her husband's main attacker, 16-year-old Trayvon Ramos, "an evil person, completely soulless."
After hearing of Sowers' death, Mayor Sheila Dixon issued a statement saying she was saddened, and offered prayers for his family and friends.
"His loss is a tragedy for the entire city of Baltimore," Dixon said. "We must continue to work hard to ensure the safety of every citizen."
The attack resonated because he was an innocent victim in a city where most killings appear to revolve around drugs. Sowers and his wife were, in many ways, the faces of the new Baltimore, willing to live in neighborhoods that had struggled with blight but showed promise.
Young and with bright careers ahead of them - he worked in finance for the Johns Hopkins University, she in marketing for Johns Hopkins Hospital - they had rented a rowhouse in Canton and, in late 2003, bought a house just east of Patterson Park. The couple enjoyed hanging out at trendy bars and restaurants in the area, where some once-modest houses fetch $400,000 or more.
