Florida student who assaulted school employee over Nintendo Switch gets 5 years in prison

A Florida student accused of beating a school employee unconscious after she confiscated his Nintendo Switch last year was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday, court records show.

Brendan Depa, 18, pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated battery on an elected official or education employee, according to sentencing documents from the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court in Flagler County.

Depa, who was 17 at the time of the assault, was also sentenced to 15 years of probation.

During Depa’s sentencing, Judge Terence Perkins said Depa had shown no remorse over the assault on Feb. 21, 2023, at Matanzas High School, north of Daytona Beach.

Video of the incident shows Depa charging the employee and knocking her to the ground. The video shows her body go limp as he kicked and punched her more than a dozen times.

An arrest report said the employee, Joan Naydich, lost consciousness. In court, Naydich testified that she continues to struggle with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the assault, according to NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando.

“My life will never be what it was before,” she said, according to the station.

Depa’s mother testified that her son has mental health issues and was triggered by the removal of his electronics, the station reported. A court-ordered evaluation found that he has autism and several other conditions, according to an order that found him competent to stand trial.

“I think he needs help and I think he needs treatment,” Leanne Depa told the station after his sentencing. “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.”

Leanne Depa told the station that her son’s school district failed him by not following the individualized education program developed to help with his special needs.

Lawyers for her family sued the district earlier this year, accusing school officials of failing to provide her son with proper support and helping prompt the 2023 assault, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by a local TV affiliate, ABC Action News.