The adoptive mother of a hulking Florida teenager who knocked a teacher’s aide unconscious and then beat her on the floor is pleading for mercy, even as the victim of the attack has made clear she wants accountability.
Leanne Depa appeared in a recent interview asking the public and the courts to “please show mercy” for her son Brendan Depa, who was 17 at the time of the February 2023 assault at Matanzas High School in Palm Coast. “I’m so sorry for what my son did… nobody should ever have to go through that,” she said. “Please consider that my son has had a hard life.”
Joan Naydich, the paraprofessional Depa attacked, has opposed a lighter sentence. She suffered five broken ribs, a concussion, hearing and vision problems, and lasting trauma after the 6-foot-6, 270-pound student chased her down a hallway, shoved her to the ground, and punched and kicked her more than a dozen times while she lay motionless. School surveillance video of the beating circulated widely and left little room for debate about what happened.
Naydich has said the attack was not a sudden outburst without warning. She described Depa spitting in her face and calling her names after she flagged his Nintendo Switch as a classroom distraction. She has rejected claims that she confiscated the device and has argued that disabilities do not erase the choice to keep attacking an unconscious woman. “He needs to be in jail for what he did to me,” she has said.
Depa pleaded no contest to aggravated battery on a school employee, a first-degree felony that carried a potential 30-year prison term. His mother has called prison a “death sentence” for her son, citing his autism, other behavioral diagnoses, and a difficult early life that included foster care. Defense arguments focused on his disabilities, school supports that they said fell short, and fears he would not survive adult prison.
Prosecutors and the victim emphasized the video, the injuries, and prior behavioral incidents. Circuit Judge Terence Perkins ultimately sentenced Depa in August 2024 to five years in state prison followed by 15 years of probation, rejecting a bid for juvenile sanctions or house arrest. An appeals court later upheld the sentence. Naydich later said she was satisfied with the outcome given the lengthy probation that followed.
The case has remained a flashpoint in debates over how schools handle violent special-needs students and whether adult charges are appropriate when a disability is cited as a factor. Naydich lost her job, health insurance, and sense of safety. Depa’s family continues to argue the system failed their son long before the hallway attack. The video, however, remains the central fact of the case: a teacher’s aide on the floor while a much larger student continued to strike her.
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