The monster special needs student who pummeled his teacher after she took his Nintendo Switch has been sentenced to five years in a Florida state prison.
Brendan Depa, who was 17 at the time of the beating, tackled teacher’s aide Joan Naydich, 59, in February 2023 and unleashed dozens of punches to her body and head, leaving her seriously bruised and unconscious.
Depa, who is 6’6′ and 270 pounds, has become a legal adult since the brutal attack he perpetrated at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida, a moderately sized town near Daytona Beach.
He pleaded no contest to the aggravated battery charges against him October and was originally due to be sentenced in May 2024, but the judge delayed the hearing so he could hear from more witnesses.
Arguably the most crucial testimony came from Naydich herself, who told the court: ‘Brendan Depa’s actions that day has caused me to lose a job that I had for almost 19 years, lose my financial security, lose my health insurance.’
Brendan Depa, who pleaded no contest to charges related to assaulting a teacher’s aide, is photographed in court Tuesday during his sentencing hearing
Joan Naydich, 59, the victim of Depa’s brutal attack testified against him on May 1, 2024. She has always advocated for him to be locked up for the maximum amount of time, which would have been 30 years
Naydich, a mother of two, has previously called for her teenaged attacker to be locked up for the maximum sentence of 30 years.
But the decision from Judge Terence Perkins to give Depa 25 years less than that could have do with the exculpatory testimony that came from his mother and arguments from his defense team.
Leann Depa, his adoptive mother, said she had warned the school about her son’s laundry list of triggers.
According to her, ‘electronics’ was his biggest trigger.
‘I had told the school that being hungry was a trigger, that noise was a trigger, that being told no was a trigger, that being corrected in front of other people was a trigger, and electronics was a huge trigger,’ she said on the stand.
Lawyers representing him filed a separate lawsuit against the school district for negligence, wherein they described Depa as ‘a ticking time bomb.’
Surveillance video shows the 6’6′, 270-pound teen knocking Naydich to the ground in his special needs classroom before kneeling down and punching her in the head and back
The senseless attack happened after Depa caught wind that Naydich had tried to take his Nintendo Switch away
On the day of the attack, Naydich requested another teacher take away Depa’s gaming console, a Nintendo Switch.
When Depa found out, he allegedly called her a b**ch and a w**re and spat at her as she left the classroom.
That’s when a school surveillance camera captured him following her out and ramming into her, sending her tumbling to the ground.
Naydich was completely limp after she was knocked to the floor, but a rage-filled Depa didn’t quit, punching her in the head and back 15 times.
Her injuries included five broken ribs, a concussion and a loss of hearing. Pictures released after the beatdown show gashes on the aide’s cheek, bruising around the eyes, one blood shot eye, a dent in her nose and a tear at the back of her ear.
Naydich said the worst injuries are internal and that the attack deeply affected her cognitive functions.
‘Unfortunately, a lot of my injuries that are not visible I’m going to have for the rest of my life,’ she said.
Naydich’s injuries were serious, including five broken ribs, a concussion and a loss of hearing
She has said her life will never be the same after the attack. She’s also filed a permanent injunction against Depa preventing him from ever coming within 500 feet of her home or place of work
More than a year later, she still suffers from hearing loss, slowed speech and delayed cognitive functioning
Depa’s attorneys tried to turn it around on her, claiming that Naydich failed to address the autistic boy’s unique needs and wasn’t properly trained to handle him.
Kurt Teifke, one of Depa’s lawyers, reportedly referred back to prior testimony that suggested the assault was a manifestation of his disability
‘It’s not his fault,’ Teifke said.
Judge Perkins didn’t buy it, citing the brutality captured in the video and adding that Depa’s attack on Naydich was not an isolated incident.
‘It captures the senseless, extreme violence in a very troubling way,’ Perkins said, commenting on the video.
In his sentencing, Perkins also cited testimony from a state witness, a psychologist, who said Depa knew what he did was wrong.
The Rhode Island native, pictured with her two children, moved to Palm Coast and worked in the Flagler County School District starting in 2003
Leann Depa, Brendan Depa’s adoptive mother, was seen in court Tuesday reacting with tears to her son’s five year sentence
This was how Depa himself reacted
Depa’s mother pleaded with the judge to let her son serve house arrest.
‘I knew Brendan and I knew his triggers and I knew his needs and his strengths and I beg you to let him come home with me,’ she said.
After her son was sent to prison, she told reporters he is being punished for being black, for being large and for being disabled.
Perkins instead ordered that the Florida Department of Corrections conduct a full mental health evaluation of Depa and develop a treatment plan for his disabilities, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
Once he finishes out his five year sentence, Depa will be subject to 15 years of supervised probation.
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