A Florida teachers’ aide who was badly beaten by a 17-year-old student nearly a year ago wants her assailant to spend decades in prison for his crime.
Brendan Depa, an autistic 270-pound, 6-foot-6-inch man now 18 who was tried as an adult, confessed to beating Joan Naydich and pleaded “no contest” to the single felony charge of aggravated battery filed against him after beating the school paraprofessional after she recommended that his Nintendo Switch be confiscated, according to Unilad.
That charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Depa’s victim has been calling for the maximum sentence all along.
“He definitely needs to be in jail,” Naydich told the New York Post. “He needs to be in jail for what he did to me. I’m in my own jail of sorts every single day I wake up.”
Naydich said she had lost her income and all of her benefits since suffering five broken ribs and a concussion in the beating.
She still has issues with her vision and hearing, she told the outlet.
She also said that proponents of a lighter sentence for Depa have been exaggerating his disabilities.
“He’s not autistic like everybody believes he is,” Naydich said. “They are painting a picture of him that he’s not able to think for himself. He’s working on his GED in jail and he almost has it.
Should Depa face the maximum sentence allowed?
Yes: 99% (1126 Votes)
No: 1% (15 Votes)
“His mother has painted a picture of him that he’s incapable of putting socks on,” she said.
Leanne Depa, the attacker’s adoptive mother, didn’t blame Naydich but said the school district had to share some of the blame after it deviated from a treatment plan for her student that it had previously approved.
“This should never have been a criminal case,” she argued.
“I’m not blaming Joan,” she said. “In no way do I blame Joan for what happened. I blame the district. It’s a systemic problem. There is not enough funding and there’s a shortage of paraprofessionals.”
Video of the Feb. 21, 2023, incident at the Palm Coast, Florida, school showed Brendan Depa attacking Naydich and knocking her unconscious.
Brendan Depa is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 31.
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George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of “WJ Live,” powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English as well as a Master’s in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
