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.
Brian says
Sentence him as an adult to the maximum allowed. Society needs to be protected from this ticking time bomb.
Robin says
Justice will not be served for the assaulted staff member nor the defendant with incarceration.
Just Sad says
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.
Christina says
Somebody contact Ben Crump for this kid already!
billy says
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
Michael W Crichton says
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?
Michael W Crichton says
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.