Thomas F. Davis was a 32-year-old addict from White Marsh with a handful of drug convictions.

Paul William Eubank was a 59-year-old family man from Rosedale who had organized Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for years.

Their worlds collided Feb. 10, when Davis, high on a cocktail of cocaine, opiates and marijuana, drove his 1974 Dodge Dart off Kenwood Avenue, over a street sign, across a yard, through a porch and into Eubank.

The older man had been taking a sandbag out of his Kenwood Avenue home, the home in which he and his wife had raised their two daughters and now played with their grandchildren, and he could not get out of the way of Davis' out-of-control car.

It pinned him against his daughter's blue pickup, which he had borrowed and had left in the driveway. Davis passed out at the wheel, slumped over and not breathing until medics gave him Narcan, a drug used to counter the effects of opium.

Eubank died on his way to Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

"I was in total disbelief," said Alice Eubank, Paul Eubank's wife of almost 40 years.

"Numbness, shock, confusion and denial had taken over. I was to learn, later down the road, that these were the kindest of the emotions I was to experience."

Yesterday, the two men's worlds came back to face each other in Baltimore County Circuit Court, in the courtroom of Judge Lawrence R. Daniels.

It was supposed to be the start of Davis' manslaughter trial. But at the last minute, Davis and prosecutors reached a plea bargain.

So, with Eubank's weeping family and Davis' tearful parents looking on, Daniels sentenced Davis to seven years in prison, followed by five years of probation. The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 10 years.

"He had three prior drug possession convictions, a [charge of] driving with drugs," said Assistant State's Attorney Garret Glennon. "He's had his chances."

Davis' parents had kicked him out of their house when he was a teen-ager because of his drug use, they said in court. They let him come back and live with them as he awaited trial.

Still, Davis was arrested on another drug offense months after the accident.

But this month, he completed an intensive outpatient treatment program, whose counselors supported him.

Davis' mother brought in her son's certificate for finishing that program. It read, "Tom Davis is awarded recognition, validation and respect! May you find peace and serenity."

He was far from that yesterday.

Eubank's family sobbed as Alice Eubank spoke of her husband, the man she said encouraged countless people to sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous.

"It is like my soul has been ripped from my body," she said.