The burly teenager who knocked out a Florida teaching assistant for taking his toys has apologized after being sentenced to five years in prison.
Brendan Depa, then 17, left Joan Naydich, 59, behind in a prolonged attack at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast last February that left him with a concussion, hearing loss and five broken ribs.
Judge Terence Perkins said he had heard no signs of remorse from the 270-pound teenager when he locked him up last week. But Depa’s current tutor has drafted an apology that he says the autistic student wrote while in detention.
“I regret letting my emotions get the better of me and allowing things to happen the way they did,” he writes.
“In the choice between letting this incident destroy, define, or strengthen my personality, I chose to let it grow stronger.”
Video captured the moment Brendan Depa pounced on 59-year-old Matanzas High School teaching assistant Joan Naydich, delivering a series of powerful blows
Depa, who did not defend himself against the attack, was criticised by a judge for showing no remorse
The 1.98-meter-tall student became furious when Naydich asked a teacher to confiscate the Nintendo Switch that Depa had been playing with.
When he heard of her request, he called her a bitch and a whore, spat at her, followed her out of the classroom and began his brutal attack.
CCTV footage shows Naydich lying limp on the ground after Depa knocks her unconscious. The enraged student then hits her 15 more times on the head and back before letting go.
Naydich, a mother of two, had called for her teenage attacker to be jailed for the maximum term of 30 years.
“Brendan Depa’s actions that day caused me to lose a job I had held for almost 19 years, my financial security and my health insurance,” she told the court.
In his note, Depa wrote: ‘I am deeply sorry that I injured Miss Joan so badly. I am glad that the injuries I inflicted on her have not left any permanent scars or bruises.’
But Naydich said it’s unlikely she will ever fully recover from the abuse.
“Every day is a challenge,” she said. “I’ve lived with the aftermath of it, the onslaught of it, every day since then, whether it’s hearing loss, vision loss, headaches.”
Joan Naydich, 59, the victim of Depa’s brutal attack, testified against him on May 1, 2024. She has always argued that he should be imprisoned for a maximum of 30 years.
She has said her life will never be the same after the attack. She has also filed a permanent injunction against Depa, banning him from ever coming within 500 feet of her home or workplace.
Depa’s current tutor Gene Lopes shared a letter from the teen with NewsNation
But Judge Terence Perkins’ decision to give Depa 25 years less may have something to do with his mother’s exonerating testimony and the arguments of his defense team.
Leann Depa, his adoptive mother, said she alerted the school to her son’s laundry list of triggers, with electronics being his biggest trigger, she said.
“I had told the school that hunger was a trigger, that noise was a trigger, that ‘no’ was a trigger, that being corrected in front of other people was a trigger and that electronics were a huge trigger,” she said on the witness stand.
Attorneys for Depa have filed a separate lawsuit against the school district for negligence, describing Depa as a “ticking time bomb.”
Leann Depa, Brendan Depa’s adoptive mother, was seen in court tearfully reacting to her son’s five-year prison sentence
The letter that tutor Gene Lopes shared with NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfieldclaims that ‘what I’ve done shouldn’t define who I am’.
“I made a mistake, a mistake I will never let happen again, and I am sorry,” it reads.
‘During my incarceration, I learned coping skills to ensure that something like this never happens again. ‘I’ve grown and matured in ways that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, which makes me not happy about being incarcerated, but grateful nonetheless.’
Photos released after the assault show cuts on the assistant’s cheek, bruising around her eyes, a bloodshot eye, a dent in her nose and a tear in the back of her ear.
Naydich said the worst injuries were internal and the attack had severely affected her cognitive functions.
“Unfortunately, I will have many of my invisible injuries for the rest of my life,” she said.
Depa himself threw his head back and exhaled as the verdict was pronounced
Depa’s lawyers tried to turn it against her, claiming that Naydich had failed to anticipate the autistic boy’s unique needs and was not properly trained to deal with him.
Kurt Teifke, one of Depa’s lawyers, referred to earlier testimony showing that the attack was an expression of his disability.
“It’s not his fault,” Teifke said.
Judge Perkins did not believe this, pointing to the brutality seen on the video, adding that Depa’s attack on Naydich was not an isolated incident.
“It captures the senseless, extreme violence in a very disturbing way,” Perkins said in a statement responding to the video.
In his sentencing, Perkins also cited testimony from a state witness, a psychologist, who said Depa knew what he was doing was wrong.
Depa’s mother begged the judge to give her son house arrest.
“I knew Brendan and I knew his triggers, I knew his needs and his strengths and I am begging you to let him come home with me,” she said.
After her son was sent to prison, she described the sentence as a “death sentence,” telling reporters that he was being punished because he was black, tall and disabled.
“He’s scared,” she told NewsNation. “When your child calls you and cries and says, ‘I don’t want to die’ — that’s horrible.”
Once he has served his five-year sentence, Depa will be subject to 15 years of supervised release.