Florida teen who beat a female teacher unconscious after his Nintendo Switch video game was confiscated at school pleaded guilty to the shocking crime Monday and faces up to 30 years behind bars.
Brendan Depa, then 17, violently threw Matanzas High School paraprofessional Joan Naydich to the ground before kicking and punching her in the back and head more than a dozen times.
Surveillance footage of the disturbing February attack — which occurred inside the school — quickly went viral.
Appearing in court Monday, Depa, who is reportedly autistic, copped to the crime and will now have his sentence determined by Judge Terrence Perkins at a January hearing.
Deputies and administrators who tried to quell the chaos were shoved and punched during the incident.
‘The lack of respect demonstrated by these students is simply shameful,’ Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said of the fight. ‘But actions have consequences.’
In yet another violent episode this week, a 16-year-old student was arrested for biting a teacher who tried to stop her from fighting another girl.
Perkins will have wide berth in handling the high profile case, with a minimum sentence of probation and maximum term of 30 years available to him.
Slated for January, the proceeding will include witness testimony for both the prosecution and defense.
Depa’s attorneys have stressed his mental condition, and argued he wasn’t competent to stand trial before Perkins nixed that effort ahead of the plea.
Depa, reportedly threatened to kill Naydich during his arrest.
Depa, was charged as an adult and faces up to 30 years in prison for the first-degree felony charge of aggravated battery.
The teen, who was initially charged as a juvenile before being upgraded to an adult, is set to plead guilty in an attempt to avoid jail time, the New York Post reported.
Naydich has ‘shown no interest in mitigating what penalties Depa might face’, according to news site Flagler Live.
Depa had three prior battery arrests before the February attack and has been in a prison fight just last month, the Post reported.
‘I’m hopeful that the awareness of this incident being spread far and wide will prevent anyone else from ever dealing with the trauma, physical healing and disruption of everyday life this has caused,’ she said on a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $100,000.
Depa is slated to issue his plea later month and will be sentenced after that in a separate proceeding.
Matanzas High School where the assault occurred has been beset with violence in recent years, the Post reported.
