6’6″ monster schoolboy learns his fate for beating up tiny female school aide for taking his Nintendo Switch
The monstrous special needs student who beat up his teacher after she took his Nintendo Switch has been sentenced to five years in a Florida prison.
Brendan Depa, who was 17 at the time of the assault, beat 59-year-old teaching assistant Joan Naydich in February 2023, hitting her dozens of times to the body and head, leaving her severely bruised and unconscious.
Depa, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 270 pounds, has been a legal adult since the brutal attack he committed at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida, a mid-sized city near Daytona Beach.
He pleaded no contest to the aggravated assault charge in October and was originally scheduled to be sentenced in May 2024, but the judge postponed the hearing so he could hear more witnesses.
Perhaps the most important testimony came from Naydich himself, who told the court, “Because of Brendan Depa’s actions that day, I lost my job of almost 19 years, I lost my financial security, and I lost my health insurance.”
Brendan Depa, who has pleaded no contest to charges relating to the assault of a teaching assistant, is pictured in court during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday
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.
Naydich, a mother of two, has previously called for the maximum prison sentence of 30 years for her teenage attacker.
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 long list of triggers.
According to her, ‘electronics’ was his biggest trigger.
“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 representing him filed a separate lawsuit against the school district for negligence, describing Depa as “a ticking time bomb.”
Surveillance footage shows the 6-foot-4, 275-pound teen knocking Naydich to the floor in his classroom for special needs children, then kneeling down and hitting her in the head and back.
The senseless attack took place after Depa learned that Naydich had tried to take his Nintendo Switch
On the day of the attack, Naydich asked another teacher to take away Depa’s game console, a Nintendo Switch.
When Depa found out, he allegedly called her ab**ch and aw**re and spat at her as she left the classroom.
Then a school surveillance camera captured him following her outside and bumping into her, causing her to fall to the ground.
Naydich was completely limp after being thrown to the ground, but an enraged Depa did not give up and punched her 15 times in the head and back.
Her injuries included five broken ribs, a concussion and hearing loss. Photos released after the assault show cuts to the assistant’s cheek, bruising around her eyes, a bloodshot eye, a dent in her nose and a laceration to 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.
Naydich’s injuries were serious, 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, banning him from ever coming within 500 feet of her home or workplace.
More than a year later, she still suffers from hearing loss, delayed speech and delayed cognitive functions
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, reportedly referred to earlier testimony suggesting the attack was a manifestation 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.
The Rhode Island native, pictured with her two children, moved to Palm Coast and worked in the Flagler County School District beginning in 2003
Leann Depa, the adoptive mother of Brendan Depa, was seen in court on Tuesday as she tearfully reacted to her son’s five-year sentence
This is how Depa itself responded
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 told reporters that he is being punished because he is black, big and disabled.
Perkins instead ordered the Florida Department of Corrections to conduct a full mental health assessment of Depa and develop a treatment plan for his disabilities, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
After serving his five-year sentence, Depa will be subject to 15 years of supervised release.