A Florida teen, who severely beat his teacher over a Nintendo Switch and was tried as an adult, will face up to five years in prison.
According to The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Brendan Depa, now 18, was sentenced Tuesday morning for the Feb. 21, 2023, beating of Joan Naydich. She was a paraprofessional at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast, Florida, who was attacked by the 6’6″, 270 lb. Depa when he was just 17.
The state sought to try him as an adult even though his adoptive mother insisted that, because her son was autistic, this was something that should be handled without jail time. The judge disagreed — which prompted his mother to say he was facing jail time for aggravated battery because he was black.
A security-footage clip of the beating went viral shortly after the young man’s arrest for the attack.
WARNING: The following video contains graphic violence that some readers will find offensive.
Teacher confiscates student’s Nintendo Switch during class.
Student then attacks her, kicking and punching her, leaving her unconscious. pic.twitter.com/SeDa7vp6k5
— Peter Lloyd (@Suffragent_) February 24, 2023
Several staff members were needed to restrain him from continuing to attack Naydich.
The teacher had given an interview earlier this year in which she said that Depa “definitely needs to be in jail” and that she was still recovering from her injuries.
Was this sentence just?
“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,” she said, adding she’d been without income or benefits due to the five broken ribs and concussion she suffered in the attack. (On Tuesday, prosecutors said she could no longer work in schools due to post-traumatic stress disorder, among other ailments, caused by the attack.)
Nor was she buying that he was as inhibited by his autism as his attorneys and family were claiming.
“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. His mother has painted a picture of him that he’s incapable of putting socks on,” she said.
And she was right: “I’m not blaming Joan,” Leanne Depa 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.”
A judge didn’t buy this, sentencing him to five years in state prison with 15 years of probation.
Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, noting that the video had been widely circulated, said that, “It captures the senseless, extreme violence in a very troubling way.”
“Compounding the senseless physical violence was the screaming of obscenities, spitting on Ms. Naydich both before and during the incident. He pursued her down the hallway, pushed her so violently from behind that she flew through the air and was knocked unconscious when she landed in the hallway floor,” Perkins said during the sentencing.
“He then proceeded to kick her, then jump on top of her, striking her in the head and body more than 15 times.”
He’ll get approximately 17.5 months credit for time served. He had initially pleaded no contest in October, according to the New York Post.
While he could have been sentenced to 30 years, the state was asking for seven, according to the News-Journal.
“The lack of remorse is frankly just shocking,” State Attorney Melissa Clark said. “He is dangerous.”
His mother, rather predictably, blamed racism and ableism.
“They are punishing that he is black. They are punishing that he is large, and they are punishing his disability,” she said after the sentence.
“I think he needs help. Absolutely. I think he needs help. And I think he needs treatment, but I don’t think he needs to be put away in a prison where he’s going to be taken advantage of or harmed.”
Hulking Florida teen Brendan Depa who severely beat teacher over Nintendo Switch sentenced to five years in prison https://t.co/4lMLXWDOHT pic.twitter.com/QmDgwiYDSg
— New York Post (@nypost) August 7, 2024
“I had 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 electronics was a huge trigger,” she added, the Post reported.
So her son was so out of control that the school needed to be told that electronics “triggered” him and to stay away. Then, when one of them punished him by taking away a video game system — as teachers are wont to do with students, even those with autism spectrum disorder, who have disciplinary issues — he beat her nearly to death. (It’s worth pointing out that there’s still some question as to whether this happened this way, according to the teacher — but even then, that would be no excuse.)
He was already a danger, as the prosecution noted, saying he had been involved in an attack just days before he went viral for attacking his teacher. He’s remained a danger, as evinced by the fact he’s continued a pattern of poor behavior in state custody.
But no: The fact that he got put behind bars for five years is because he’s black and autistic. We’re supposed to buy this.
This young man is a serious danger to the world and those around him. The judge ordered that the corrections department assess his mental health and develop a care plan for him. This is sufficient.
At this point, he needs to not only be punished for his actions but be kept from society because of the danger he poses to it. This has nothing to do with his race or his height, but the fact that he almost killed a woman over, reportedly, a Nintendo Switch. Someone who does that has much more serious issues than systemic racism, and thank heavens the judge didn’t agree with the mother on that count.
