The burly teenager who knocked a Florida teaching assistant unconscious for taking his toy has apologised after being sentenced to five years in prison.
Brendan Depa, then 17, left Joan Naydich, 59, with a concussion, hearing loss and five broken ribs in a prolonged attack at Palm Coast’s Matanzas High School in February of last year.
Judge Terence Perkins said he had not heard a word of remorse from the 270-pound teenager when he jailed him last week. But Depa’s current guardian has produced an apology that he says the autistic student wrote while in detention.
“I deeply regret having allowed my emotions to get the better of me and letting things happen the way they did,” she writes.
‘In a choice between letting this incident destroy me, define me, or strengthen me, I have chosen to let it strengthen me.’
Video captured the moment Brendan Depa lunged at teaching assistant Joan Naydich, 59, at Matanzas High School before delivering a flurry of brutal blows.
Depa, who pleaded no contest to the assault, was criticised by a judge for showing no remorse.
The 1.98-metre-tall pupil became enraged when Naydich asked a teacher to confiscate the Nintendo Switch Depa had been playing with.
He called her a bitch and a slut when he heard about her request, spitting on her before following her out of the classroom and launching his brutal attack.
Surveillance footage captured Naydich lying completely limp on the ground after Depa knocked her unconscious, but the enraged student punched her in the head and back another 15 times before stopping.
Naydich, a mother of two, had asked for her teenage attacker to be jailed and sentenced to the maximum penalty of 30 years.
“Brendan Depa’s actions that day caused me to lose a job I had held for almost 19 years, lose my financial security and lose my health insurance,” she told the court.
In his note, Depa wrote: “I am very sorry for having injured Miss Joan so seriously and I am glad to see that the injuries I inflicted on her did not leave any permanent scars or bruises.”
But Naydich said it is unlikely he will ever fully recover from the beating.
“Every day is a challenge,” she said. “Since then I’ve lived every day with its repercussions, with its blows, whether it’s hearing loss, vision loss or headaches.”
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 imprisoned for the maximum possible time, which would have been 30 years.
She has said her life will never be the same after the attack. She has also filed a permanent injunction against Depa to prevent him from coming within 500 feet of her home or workplace.
Depa’s current guardian, Gene Lopes, shared a letter from the teen with NewsNation
But Judge Terence Perkins’ decision to give Depa 25 years less could have to do with the exculpatory testimony of her mother and the arguments of her defense team.
Leann Depa, his adoptive mother, said she had warned the school about her son’s long list of triggers. She said “electronic devices” were his main trigger.
“I 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 that electronics was a big trigger,” she said on the stand.
Depa’s lawyers filed a separate lawsuit against the school district for negligence, describing it as “a ticking time bomb.”
Brendan Depa’s adoptive mother, Leann Depa, was seen in court reacting with tears to her son’s five-year sentence.
The letter that tutor Gene Lopes shared with NewsNation’s Ashleigh BanfieldHe states that “what I did should not define who I am.”
“I made a mistake, one I will never allow to happen again, and I am sorry,” it read.
“During my incarceration, I have learned to cope with situations that will ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again. I have grown and matured in ways that would otherwise be impossible, which makes me unhappy about having been incarcerated, but still grateful.”
Images released after the beating show cuts on the assistant’s cheek, bruising around her eyes, a bloodshot eye, a dent in her nose and a tear behind her ear.
Naydich said the worst of his injuries were internal and that the attack had deeply affected his cognitive functions.
“Unfortunately, many of my injuries that are not visible I will have for the rest of my life,” he said.
Depa himself threw his head back and exhaled as the sentence was handed down.
Depa’s lawyers tried to spin the situation, arguing that Naydich failed to address the autistic boy’s unique needs and was not adequately trained to handle him.
Kurt Teifke, one of Depa’s attorneys, reportedly referred to previous testimony suggesting the assault was a manifestation of her disability.
“It’s not their fault,” Teifke said.
Judge Perkins did not believe it, citing the brutality captured on video and adding that Depa’s attack on Naydich was not an isolated incident.
“It captures extreme and senseless violence in a very disturbing 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.
Depa’s mother asked the judge to allow her son to serve house arrest.
“I knew Brendan and I knew his triggers, 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 described the verdict as a “death sentence” and told reporters he was being punished for being black, big and disabled.
“He’s scared,” she told NewsNation. “It’s horrible to have your child call you and cry and say, ‘I don’t want to die.'”
Once he serves his five-year sentence, Depa will be subject to 15 years of supervised probation.
