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Brendan Depa Tenders Open Plea in Beating of Matanzas High Staffer, Leaving Sentence Up to Judge

October 30, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

Brendan Depa preparing to tender a plea today before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. Perkins sent him back to the defendant's table: Depa had not read his plea agreement. (© FlaglerLive)
Brendan Depa preparing to tender a plea today before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. Perkins sent him back to the defendant’s table: Depa had not read his plea agreement. (© FlaglerLive)

Brendan Depa, the 18-year-old special education student facing up to 30 years in prison for the merciless beating of a Matanzas High School teacher aide last February, pleaded to the first-degree felony charge today before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. He will be sentenced in January.

The plea was no longer a surprise–if it ever was: Kurt Teifke, Depa’s attorney, asked the court to schedule today’s plea hearing on Oct. 11.




Even before then, it had become almost certain that Depa had little choice but to plead out. Video evidence shows Depa throwing Joan Naydich, the aide, to the ground–shoving her from behind–then pummeling her unconscious. Depa’s own capability to sit through a trial is questionable. His attorney and family sought to have him declared incompetent to stand trial, because of his autism. Based on a court-appointed psychologist’s finding of competence, Perkins ruled that trial would proceed.

It is an open plea. The immediate consequence is that Perkins will decide Depa’s sentence in its entirety, with wide latitude. Perkins may sentence him either as an adult or as a juvenile offender. The penalty as an adult carries a minimum recommended prison sentence of just short of three years years. The maximum is 30 years.

Open pleas sometimes have negotiated components, like a sentencing range. Not this one, which points to another consequence of the plea: Teifke and Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark, who is prosecuting the case, could not agree to a negotiated plea. Depa’s family had sought to minimize or eliminate prison time, focusing on probation and treatment. The prosecution appears not to have been so willing. That left Teifke with the choice of trial, which he had already characterized as a potential spectacle, or an open plea.

There were no witnesses called today. That will be at the sentencing hearing. “There will be plenty of that,” Teifke said of the witnesses ahead, asking for at least a three-hour hearing.

Perkins and Depa had the required exchange for the plea colloquy, when the judge ensures that the defendant is acting voluntarily and understands everything being signed to. But the first time Depa went through it, he told the judge he had not read his plea agreement before signing it. The judge sent him back to the defendant’s table to re-read it.

Have you now re-read the plea form?” Perkins asked him the second time around.

“I have,” Depa said, his voice breaking. It wasn’t clear whether his voice was naturally hoarse at that moment or if he had been emotional.

“Do you understand what we are doing?” Perkins asked him.

“Yes.”




“What does that mean, an open plea?”

“We haven’t agreed on, like, a sentence, yet,” Depa told the judge.

When Perkins asked him how that would be determined, Depa asked him whether it would be at trial.

It could be, Perkins said, but it could also be at a hearing. Perkins explained how the sentencing hearing would go, and told him that he would have the right to testify at that hearing. “I understand,” Depa said

When the judge asked him how he pleads to the charge, Depa said: “no contest.”

The judge told him the sentencing would be on Jan. 31 at 1:30 p.m.

Click On:


  • Brendan Depa's Sentencing Set to Conclude 3 Months After It Started: 'I'm Going to Accept Whatever Happens'
  • Mother of Tristin Murphy, Who Killed Himself with Chainsaw in Prison, Pleads with Judge on Brendan Depa’s Behalf
  • Brendan Depa's Sentencing Will Not Resume Until Aug. 6, Giving Defense Time to Recover from Bad Day
  • At Brendan Depa Sentencing, Prisons’ Mental Health Chief Draws Bizarrely Rosy Picture of Services Awaiting Him
  • Joan Naydich, Brendan Depa’s Victim of Beating, Details How ‘Everything Was Taken Away’ from Her
  • Chief Engert: How Flagler County Jail Stepped Up to Ensure Brendan Depa’s Continuing Education
  • Lawsuit Blames Flagler Schools’ Failure to Address Brendan Depa’s Known Needs and Risks Before Attack on Aide
  • The Dis-Education of Brendan Depa
  • The Brendan Depa I Have Come To Know
  • Brendan Depa’s Mother Tells Her Son’s Story
  • Brendan Depa's Sentencing is Postponed as Lawyers Cite More Preparation Needed
  • Brendan Depa Tenders Open Plea in Beating of Matanzas High Staffer, Leaving Sentence Up to Judge
  • Brendan Depa Will Plead Out in Teacher-Assault Case, Leaving His Fate to a Judge
  • Brendan Depa, Now 18, Is Transferred to the Flagler County Jail to Await Trial
  • Shocking Disparities in Flagler’s Handling of 3 Different Assaults by Disabled Students Against School Staff
  • Despite Severe Autism, Judge Finds Depa, Ex-Matanzas High Student, Competent to Be Tried for Assault on Aide
  • Court Roundup: Plea Possible in Ex-Matanzas Student Case; Murder Trials Pushed Back
  • Matanzas Aide Attacked by 17 Year Old Had Reported His Threats As Far Back as August
  • Judge Orders Mental Evaluation for Matanzas Student Who Assaulted Aide
  • Matanzas Assault Case: A Miscarriage of Justice Hardens Before Our Eyes
  • Matanzas Student Who Attacked Aide Was Arrested 3 Times for Battery Before; Other Cases Examined
  • Matanzas Student Charged as Adult with 1st-Degree Felony in Assault on Teacher Aide
  • Matanzas High School Special Education Student Arrested in Attack of Teacher Aide
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brian says

    October 30, 2023 at 4:01 pm

    Sentence him as an adult to the maximum allowed. Society needs to be protected from this ticking time bomb.

  2. Robin says

    October 30, 2023 at 5:59 pm

    Justice will not be served for the assaulted staff member nor the defendant with incarceration.

  3. Just Sad says

    October 31, 2023 at 12:09 pm

    I’m sorry – from what I see hear, this individual does not fully understand nor comprehend what is at stake. He should not be permitted to proceed with this plea.

    This is a tradegy in all aspects.

  4. Christina says

    October 31, 2023 at 10:53 pm

    Somebody contact Ben Crump for this kid already!

  5. billy says

    November 1, 2023 at 10:40 am

    life imprisonment for this boy this is a generation that is pure in there
    own eyes but have not been washed from there filthiness.proverbs 30-12
    a generation that is lost and the parents are no better

  6. Michael W Crichton says

    November 16, 2023 at 9:41 pm

    He has the mind of a six year old. If a literal six year old somehow managed to do this sort of damage to someone, would you condemn _them_ to life imprisonment too?

  7. Michael W Crichton says

    November 16, 2023 at 9:44 pm

    Society can be just as protected with him in a nice padded room in a mental institution where he can play his Nintendo games in peace. Sending someone with the mind of a child to prison is unnecessary.

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