The hulking Florida high schooler who severely beat a teacher’s aide over a Nintendo Switch wrote an apology letter to his victim that was never read in court, claiming he made a “mistake, one I will never let happen again.”
Brendan Depa, 18, was sentenced to five years in prison for felony aggravated battery – bodily harm after he attacked paraprofessional Joan Naydich in a hallway inside Matanzas High School in Palm Coast in Feb. 2023.
“Many people have claimed that I feel no remorse for the incident of last year, and that I don’t take responsibility for my actions,” Depa wrote in the letter titled “Apology” obtained by NewsNation.
“This is not true: I am extremely sorry for injuring Miss Joan so severely and I am happy to see the injuries I inflicted did not leave any permanent scars or bruises,” he remorsed in the handwritten note.
Depa’s tutor, Gene Lopes, encouraged the teen to work through his remorse and realize the effects of his actions, which led to the apology letter.
“He wrote this himself,” Lopes told the outlet. “Brendan is a gifted writer, as you can see from this. So this was all him.”
The tutor insisted he made no edits or changed any words to what Depa wrote, noting that some factual errors regarding Naydich’s injuries as the teen has yet to see the video of his attack and didn’t know how much he injured her, the outlet added.
Hallway security cameras captured Depa, who stands at 6-foot-6 and weighs roughly 270 pounds, sprinting toward the female educator, who turns and spots her assailant a split-second before he shoves her to the floor.
Depa, then 17 years old, repeatedly stomps on the unconscious paraprofessional before punching her 15 times.
Several staff members were needed to remove Depa from Naydich and hold him to the floor.
“I recognize what I did was wrong and take responsibility for my actions. I deeply regret allowing my emotions to get the best of me and letting things happen the way that they did,” the teen added.
During the sentencing, Florida Seventh Circuit Court Judge Terence Perkins claimed Depa had no remorse for the attack and said it wasn’t an isolated attack as the teen had numerous battery charges in the past.
Depa argued that the Feb. 2023 attack and subsequent conviction should not define him.
“In a choice between letting this incident destroy, define or strengthen me, I have chosen to let it strengthen me,” he said. “During my incarceration, I have learned coping skills to ensure something like this never happens again.
“I have grown and matured in ways otherwise impossible, making me not happy I have been incarcerated, but nonetheless grateful. My eyes have been opened to skills and strategies I would otherwise have been blind to,” Depa added.
“I made a mistake — one I will never let happen again — and I am sorry.”
Depa’s adoptive mother Leanne, fought against the five-year sentencing as they were punishing her son because “he is black, they are punishing that he is large and they are punishing his disability.”
“I think he needs help, and I think he needs treatment. But I don’t think he needs to be put away in a prison where he’s going to be taken advantage of or harmed,” she added after his sentencing, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Depa, who turns 19 on Aug. 22, was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD and mood disorder, but his tutor says he has made progress since the horrifying incident last year.
“I would have Brendan in my house in a second,” Lopes said on NewsNation’s “Banfield.” “Everything I’ve done has been working…He’s accepted this. He has been a blessing to me.”
Leanne Depa said she has received multiple offers from hospitals and group homes that are willing to take her son in as an alternative to jail.
“I really don’t think he understands what he’s facing,” Leanne Depa told NewsNation’s “Banfield,” with the mother previously calling it a “death sentenced.”
“He’s scared,” Leanne Depa said, according to the outlet. “To have your child call and cry and say ‘I don’t want to die’ — it’s awful.”
