An autistic teen who brutally beat his special education teacher because she confiscated his Nintendo Switch was sentenced to five years in prison in Florida on Tuesday.
Brendon Depa, who was 17 at the time of the February 2023 assault, has been charged with assault and serious bodily injury after striking Joan Naidich, a special education teacher, in the hallways of her high school in Palm Coast, Florida.
He will also have to serve 15 years of probation after his release and will be placed in a group home, according to court records reported by the court. New York Post.
The African-American teenager with autism spectrum disorder will serve his sentence in prison despite the pleas of his mother and his defense attorney.
“They're punishing him because he's black, because he's tall, because he has a disability,” the teen's adoptive mother, Lianne Deba, said after the verdict, according to US media.
In the surveillance video, the boy, who is 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) tall and weighs 270 pounds (122 kg), can be seen lunging at Ms. Neidich, knocking her to the ground and hitting her several times. Several people had to intervene to get him away from the woman, who fell to the ground, and whom he continued to hit.
“The last thing I remember is putting my hand on the doorknob,” Nedic said. New York Post In January. I don't remember anything else until 3:30 p.m. when I woke up. I was in the emergency room at that time and my son and daughter were there.”
The defense wanted him to be tried as a minor, as he was only 17 years old at the time of the attack, but the prosecution supported the option of trying him as an adult, as it was not his first violent incident, according to American media.
