Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student who drew global attention and a first-degree felony charge as an adult after a video of his assault on a paraprofessional circulated, will plead out, avoiding a trial. But he will also be taking the risk of a steep sentence.
Depa appeared in court today for a pre-trial, alongside Kurt Teifke, his attorney. Teifke asked for an Oct. 30 plea hearing, and a sentencing hearing yet to be scheduled.
Teifke did not elaborate. There is no agreed plea deal between the two sides, leaving it to what would be an open plea, meaning that Depa will leave it in Circuit Judge Terence Perkins’s hands to decide what his penalty ought to be. He can face anywhere from probation to 30 years in prison. Even though he was charged as an adult, the judge can also opt to sentence him as a juvenile.
Depa was initially charged as a juvenile after assaulting Joan Naydich, a paraprofessional assigned to Depa’s special education class. Depa is autistic (a detail that may have been central to the Feb. 21 incident, but that has no bearing on Florida’s sentencing guidelines). There was a conflict over Depa’s allowance to use an electronic game at a particular point, and there are still questions over whether school staffers appropriately handled the matter when it first arose. As Depa was ordered not to use the game toward the end of a class and staffers discussed the issue in front of him, his anger rose, and he eventually followed Naydich out of the classroom, in to a hallway.
There, in an incident captured on surveillance video (without sound), Depa is seen violently shoving Naydich to the ground, then pummeling an apparently unconscious Naydich mercilessly until school staffers pull him off of her. In bodycam video the Sheriff’s Office released of his arrest, Depa is heard cussing out the paraprofessional as others were tending to her. She was hospitalized and released, but has since shown no interest in mitigating what penalties Depa may face.
When victims aren’t willing to deal, the defense has a much steeper climb to convince the prosecution to plead. Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark, who is prosecuting the case, has not made the kind of offer that Teifke could accept. Given the visceral violence of the video, there’s no likelihood of a favorable outcome in a trial. So Teifke is opting for the open plea on Depa’s behalf, hoping he can convince the judge of a lesser sentence.
Clark and Teifke will each make their case, the state for more a steeper penalty, the defense for a lesser one. Each side can call up witnesses. But the prosecution is also likely to bring up Depa’s past criminal history: he was arrested three times as a juvenile on battery charges, and in September had a disciplinary issue at the Flagler County jail after getting in a fight with an inmate there. (Depa was arrested when he was 17. He has since turned 18.)
But Perkins will have very wide latitude to decide what his sentence will be. Depa will have a “scoresheet,” literally a tally that objectively totals “points” for his past offenses, the nature of the offense against Nayditch, the fact that it involved injuries, the points translating to a recommended minimum sentence, which at this point is estimated to be somewhere between three to five years in state prison.
It is in Perkins’s discretion to “downward depart,” the legal term for imposing a lesser sentence than the guidelines call for, if the defense convinces him of mitigating circumstances: the law doesn’t take autism into account, but the judge may. It is also no small matter for the court when a defendant opts for a plea, sparing the court, the victim and other witnesses (if not himself, in. Depa’s case) the trauma or spectacle of a trial.
On the other hand a trial would have shed an unusually bright light on the school district’s procedures involving special needs students–complex and at times controversial procedures that are typically kept out of the public’s eye, as they have been in Depa’s case, in the name of confidentiality. If staffers faltered or misapplied regulations in the lead-up to the incident, as Depa’s mother suggested in a previously published piece here, those issues will not be aired.
It remains rare for Perkins to depart so far down as to take eliminate prison altogether, though Depa’s age at the time of the offense will likely play a role in the decision.
In two relatively recent cases involving high school students assaulting teachers or staffers, one was sentenced to probation, the other was found incompetent to proceed. Both are autistic, and both were, like Depa, living in group homes run by the same company as Depa’s. But those cases involved a considerably lesser degree of violence than did Depa’s–and neither of those incidents were recorded on video, as was Depa’s.
ASF says
I hope justice will prevail.
endless dark money says
Justice system is a joke and depends on your bank account as to what punishment you will recieve. This guy has no money and will pay even more because of it. Poverty charges interest. Since hes african american in racist rons south you can bet they will charge the minor as an adult and give him an extreme sentence. Im sure the jail will provide proper mental health for him……not. Enjoy being raped because thats allowed in american institutions.
Dennis C Rathsam says
THROW THE BOOK AT HIM!
Me Too says
I hope you are wrong. Praying for this man, the victim and this man’s familty.
bob says
time served is enough for this confused boy AND to the others that should have had different actions prior sit down and shut up
ASF says
Mr. Depa has been aggressive even while incarcerated. He may need treatment but he is apparently not been sufficiently repsonsive to mulitple attempts that have been made in the past, especially on an outpatient basis.
The public deserves protection as much as Mr. Depa does. I hope something or somebody can get through to Mr Depa in such a way that his problems are more sufficently addressed than they have been to date–but not at the cost of somebody else’s safety and future.
Concerned Citizen says
What about his victim? Did she deserve to be beat down?
Atwp says
If only he were a white boy. Would things be different, probably much better. All African American people should always try and stay out of trouble, especially the young men. It is not a good idea to give this society a reason to arrest you as a person of color, the punishment is harder. A lot of times the cops will stop us just because of the color of our skin. Sometimes we are arrested.
Carol Bacha says
Exceptional Education students are allowed to remain in school until the summer they turn 21.
My opinion from working with Exceptional Youth the age of Brendan 18-21 is to give him a safe environment within the confines of his legal rights to be in Flagler County Public School and construct a rehabilitative haven that will be individualized to his needs and to the safety of the school and community.
Eckerd Academy in Christmas, Florida (East of Orlando in Orange County, Florida) where I served male youth 12-18 with music practice interventions no longer has this residential juvenile rehabilitation center. Now these challenged youth are more likely to be behind prison bars or another type of unhealthy lock up and do not have the care we gave them, and their in return thankfulness and affirmative life changes with positive outcomes.
Brendan Depa would then be a founder and a lifeline for others in our community who rise to the occasion for long-term equality and justice to address this sorrowful event to the paraprofessional at Flagler County Schools.
I warned the community in 2020 when running for Flagler County School Board of the need to change the ratio then double the Florida appointed amount of maximum 25 IEP’s per teacher and Flagler had 50 IEP’s per teacher before the added crisis of the COVID 19 Pandemic. An Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) that is a meaningful action plan, and not only a piece of paper, would have in my opinion averted the whole of the crisis of Brendan Depa and the tragic anger over the device that had been Brendan’s go to when he felt environmentally threatened.
Flagler County stand up and take responsibility!!!
Touche' says
well said!
My Take says
Okay Bob, we’ll send him to live you. Otherwise, this manbaby should be locked away for an extremely long time.
Chris says
I do not blame the teacher for refusing to advocate for this serial assaulter to get a lesser sentence. He easily could have killed her. Society would be safer if he was in prison. At any time he could have stopped. If he would have stopped after throwing her down I might even see the case for a lesser sentence. When you repeatedly stomp on someone who is defenseless there is little room for sympathy for the criminal. His past history, and his behavior since then show that he has no true remorse.
Jade Barker says
Are you all delusional? He is a repeat offender, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. This MAN needs to be kept away from the general population for his safety and the safety of others. There is no excuse to chase down a woman and mercilessly beat her. Imagine if she were a shorter woman, or a child. He knows right from wrong because he’ understands how to play switch games, and he’s been in this situation before so he knows the consequences. Or wait are we saying biological men vs biological women are no different? Because I’d like to see some of you take on a 6’6 270 pound man. Lock him up before he picks the wrong fit.
Robert R. Moser says
Are you kidding me? The best thing for him and society would be life in prison!
my sach says
got damn 50 IEP’s per teacher? that’s the most insane thing ive ever heard of and my ol lady is a spec ed teacher for past decade. social emotional and behavior kids i think they max out at 20 students per and ALL of them have IEP’s that said this guy was a huge violent social emotional containment issue. charged with 3 battery cases as juvi, and god knows how many less serious hits, bites, kicks, etc, went unreported im sure the staff just LOVED dealing with him. That said, he knows right from wrong, you don’t hit and control your emotions, hes likely from a household with little consequences for bad actions or has no impulse control. Some staff are very capable of dealing with these types of kids but once they reach adulthood they get incredibly strong and unpredictable with misfiring brain. He also got in a fight while in jail, little surprise, The judge will prolly hand out 8-10 years would be my guess and i dunno if they can order him to be medicated or doped up etc. but this is florida god knows what will come out of it. That big bully knew to not hit others but used his size to get what he wanted. Im sure theres a reddit post somewhere with classmates saying he was a time bomb etc or maybe gentle giant, who the hell even knows.
Michael Van Buren says
Thank you. Me as well.
Dan says
Yeah this appears to be a race issue. I’m glad someone didn’t forget to pull that card
HG says
Correct. There is only one way to make sure that he doesn’t kill an innocent person in the future. Locked up.
klark kent says
100% agree This fatherless behavior and every weak minded person making excuses needs to stop. The best thing for everyone is for him to be locked up for awhile.
Ed says
He assaulted a defenseless woman and even said so because of his video game
For God’s sake keep him away from the rest of us for as long as possible in prison
Mike Crichton says
Through no real fault of his own, he’s a danger to everyone around him. He needs to be removed from society for a good long while, but he doesn’t belong in prison. A nice comfortable mental institution where he can play his video games in peace would be ideal, too bad he won’t get it. in a slightly more just world, whatever idiot decided to allow him into a normal high school in the first place would be charged instead.
Edge says
This is why he needs a long term hospital for aggressive violent people. Like the criminally insane. While he’s not insane. He is volatile, aggressive, violent, and dangerous.