Mum of 6ft 6in autistic boy who beat teacher over a Nintendo pleads with victim
A mom has pleaded for mercy from the victim of a beating handed out by her 6ft, 6in autistic son over a Nintendo Switch.
Leanne Depa says prison will be a 'death sentence' for her son Brendan Depa, then 17, who violently attacked a teacher's aide at a high school in Florida. The boy, now 18, was seen punching and kicking the woman in the back and head until she lay on the ground unconscious. He pleaded no contest as an adult for first-degree aggravated battery.
The student carried out the attack on Joan Naydich at Matanzas High School in February after he was told to stop playing on his Nintendo Switch and a visibly upset Leanne told NewsNation: "I am terrified for my child. I feel like if he gets sentenced to prison, it’s a death sentence for him."
READ MORE: Police release pictures of suspects after Nardo Wick fan hospitalized with brain bleed
Naydich – who suffered five broken ribs, a severe concussion and loss of hearing in one of her ears – has called for the teenager to be given the maximum 30-year sentence for the attack, but his mother has apologised for the beating and pleaded for her to "show mercy".
Nursery apologises after child with Down's syndrome ‘treated less favourably’
Brendan is set to be sentenced for the attack after a court-appointed psychologist found he was competent to stand trial and Circuit Judge Terence Perkins will decide his fate early next year. Mother Leanne said: "I am so sorry for what my son did. Nobody should ever have to go through that but at the same time please consider he has had a hard life and he has gone through so much trauma in his life.
Brendan was in shackles when he appeared in court (WESH 2)"He has autism. Please show mercy to him. He’s scared and to have your child call and cry and say I don’t want to die, it’s awful. It’s devastating that my heart is breaking." And Leanne has questioned why Brendan was charged as an adult and said she was told his severe autism was not a defence.
She said: "He was originally charged as a juvenile and two days later he was direct filed and his [autism] was not considered. My understanding is that autism is not a defence and it can’t even be considered until the sentencing phase."
Brendan is seen beating Joan Naydich and, right, some of her injuries (Flagler County sheriffs office)Naydich alleged she was placed on an unpaid leave of absence shortly after returning to work in August under a different title and has been surviving on charity from the community. Her gofundme campaign has raised $120,000 so far.
She previously told Fox35: "I was attacked on February 21st and I feel like I'm just constantly being attacked." She says it has been hard to get her workers' compensation case resolved and is frustrated with the lack of support from the Flagler County School District. She also revealed she has not watched the harrowing video of her beating since it was released and does not want to.
The victim shows her injuries after the attack (Joan Naydich)
She was badly hurt (Joan Naydich)Naydich said Brendan was angry with another member of staff who did not allow him to play on his Nintendo Switch and confirmed she did not take his device from him before the attack. She has seen numerous medics who are trying to diagnose some of the neurological symptoms she now has. Naydich claims her speech has slowed, she has issues with patience and frequently has difficulty with routine cognitive functions.
The teen pummelled her repeatedly (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office)She said: "Everybody that knows me or knew me [before the attack], knows that I'm a totally different person now,' she said. 'My whole life was just turned upside down. Unfortunately, a lot of my injuries that are not visible I'm going to have for the rest of my life." Naydich is prepared to go to court to make sure Brendan is given the maximum sentence to make sure "he is not able to walk the streets freely".
The victim flew through the air (Flagler County sheriffs office)However, Leanne does not understand why her son's Nintendo Switch was allowed to be part of his day and that previous attempts to remove it from him resulted in a crisis team being called. She said in his original Individual Education Plan (IEP) it was stated that if they had to take the electronic device, the school would call in a crisis team.
She added: "The original IEP called for a token economy to motivate him to do his work so he could earn tokens to go to things like a snack closet. This year he had a new teacher. It was her first year teaching and I don’t know if she didn’t understand the IEP, or if she didn’t read it."
Other staff had to come to her rescue as the boy savagely beat her (Flagler County sheriffs office)She added: "He originally was in an autism behavioural hospital back before Covid hit. He was placed in a behavioural group home and I questioned it at the beginning. I had always home-schooled him because he didn’t handle the school environment. I asked the group home, did he have to go to public school, could he not do school online. I was assured by them that all their clients went to public school. So even though he was a level six, I never thought he belonged in public school. I didn’t have a choice."
Striking teacher forced to take a second job to pay bills ahead of mass walkout
The teenager had three prior battery arrests before the February attack and was in a prison fight in September. He was led shackled into court in Florida wearing an orange jumpsuit on October 30 to plead to the charges. The minimum recommended prison sentence is just short of three years.
Joan Naydich wants her attacker to serve the maximum 30-year sentence (Joan Naydich/Facebook)His lawyer, Kurt Teifke, sought to have him declared incompetent to stand trial, because he is autistic and Brendan's family had hoped to minimise or eliminate prison time to focus instead on probation and treatment, but the prosecution appears to have been unwilling to negotiate. He is held at the Flagler County Jail on £790k ($1m) bond and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 31.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
