The burly special needs student who punched his teacher after she took away 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, accosted teaching assistant Joan Naydich, 59, in February 2023 and punched her dozens of times to the body and head, leaving her severely bruised and unconscious.
Depa, who is 6’4″ and weighs 270 pounds, has become a legal adult since the brutal attack he carried out at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida, a moderate-sized city near Daytona Beach.
He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault charges against him in October and was originally scheduled to be sentenced in May 2024, but the judge delayed the hearing so more witnesses could be heard.
Arguably the most crucial testimony came from Naydich herself, who told the court: “Brendan Depa’s actions that day caused me to lose a job I had for almost 19 years, lose my financial security and lose my health insurance.”
Brendan Depa, who pleaded guilty 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 imprisoned for the maximum possible time, which would have been 30 years.
Naydich, a mother of two, had previously called for her teenage attacker to be jailed and sentenced to the maximum term of 30 years.
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.
According to her, “electronics” was her biggest 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.
Attorneys representing him filed a separate lawsuit against the school district for negligence, describing Depa as “a ticking time bomb.”
Surveillance video shows the 6-foot-6, 270-pound teen throwing Naydich to the floor in her special needs classroom before kneeling and punching her in the head and back.
The senseless attack occurred after Depa learned that Naydich had tried to take away her Nintendo Switch.
On the day of the attack, Naydich asked another teacher to take away Depa’s gaming console, a Nintendo Switch.
When Depa found out, he allegedly called her a b***h and spit on her as she walked out of the classroom.
That’s when a school surveillance camera captured him following her and attacking her, causing her to fall to the ground.
Naydich went completely limp after being thrown to the ground, but Depa, filled with rage, did not give up and hit her on the head and back 15 times.
Her injuries included five broken ribs, a concussion and hearing loss. Photos released after the beating show cuts on the assistant’s cheek, bruising around her eyes, a bloody 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.
Naydich’s injuries were severe, including five broken ribs, a concussion and hearing loss.
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.
More than a year later, he still suffers from hearing loss, slow speech and delayed cognitive functioning.
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.
The Rhode Island native, pictured with her two children, moved to Palm Coast and worked for the Flagler County School District beginning in 2003.
Leann Depa, Brendan Depa’s adoptive mother, was seen in court on Tuesday reacting with tears to her son’s five-year sentence.
This is how Depa himself reacted
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 told reporters that he is being punished for being black, for being big and for being disabled.
Instead, Perkins ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to conduct a full evaluation of Depa’s mental health and develop a treatment plan for his disabilities, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
Once he serves his five-year sentence, Depa will be subject to 15 years of supervised probation.
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