BEATEN TO DEATH

Artist thrashed into coma taken off life support

An artist beaten into a coma by a stranger over a staredown at a Brooklyn bodega has died, relatives said Wednesday.

Marc Faust, 66, had been in a coma with little hope of recovery since he was attacked outside the Food Corp. Deli on Rogers and Clarkson Aves. in ProspectLefferts Gardens on July 2.

“The decision was made to pull Marc off the respirator and let him go,” Faust’s ex-wife and business partner Lee Renner told the Daily News.

Faust (photo) died at Kings County Hospital Tuesday night, relatives said.

A run of bad luck, which included his 2013 divorce and temporarily homelessness, brought the artist to Brooklyn. On July 2, he bought a scratch-off lottery ticket at the Food Corp. Deli hoping for a better future, but things took a dark turn when he stepped out of the store.

Police say 24year-old Jason

(Kai Kai) Jacob jumped him after a brief stare down. After knocking the older man to the floor, cops say Jacob jumped on Faust and pummeled him mercilessly, breaking his nose and leaving him with severe head trauma.

The assault came after Faust was waiting behind Jacob to buy the lottery ticket inside the bodega. Jacob became angry when Faust asked him to hurry up with his order, sparking the attack, sources say.

Jacob, who cops say lives in a homeless shelter, was arrested a short time later and is facing attempted murder charges. He was ordered held without bail and remains on Rikers Island, awaiting his next court appearance in August. Criminal charges are expected to be upgraded to murder against him in the coming weeks, police said.

Faust suffered “substantial brain leak and is unlikely to recover any significant brain function,” prosecutors said during Jacob’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

Renner and Faust were partners in a New Jersey business for 22 years until their divorce, doing restoration work that included carpentry and installation of glass. Faust’s website describes his current work as “modern abstract geometric art” and majored in art at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

The two have a son together who has taken Faust’s death very hard.

“He’s upset but hanging in there,” Renner said her son.

At the time he allegedly attacked Faust, Jacob was free on bail over a similar attack just a block away. In that case, he is accused of smashing a 56-year-old man in the face with a dresser drawer.