Leanne Depa Testified That Her Adoptive Son Brendan Depa Has Had A Hard Life

While testifying during her son Brandon Depa's trial, Leanne Depa talked about his early years with their family, per The Daytona Beach News-Journal. She and her husband adopted Depa when he was only five months old and immediately took note of the fact that he had sensory issues and didn't like noises of any kind. He was afraid of things such as stickers on bananas and constantly needed to be held.

Eventually, Depa would be diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Mood Dysregulation Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Anxiety, as described by Leanne in a piece for FlaglerLive. These diagnoses led to a lifetime of doctors, mental health professionals, and institutions designed to help people like Depa. Sadly something went wrong, and Brendan Depa's parents were left begging a courtroom to keep their son out of prison.

In an effort to help the world understand her son better, Leanne wrote about who he was and what his life was like before he attacked a paraprofessional assigned to him at his school. The blog is thorough and starts with the early signs of Depa's neurodevelopmental disorders. He did much better in a smaller learning environment, so the Depas opted to homeschool him while enrolling him in co-op classes so he could socialize with other homeschooled children.

At the age of 12, Depa was prescribed anti-psychotic medication for the first time due to his heightened aggression. Not only did it not help but numerous side effects, such as rapidly gaining 100 pounds, made life difficult for Depa. Under the Baker Act, a law that allows family members to provide emergency mental health services to loved ones, Depa was hospitalized several times. When a neurologist took him off his mood stabilizers in 2019, things took a terrible turn.

Due to the fact that insurance no longer covered Depa's hospital stays, he was eventually moved into the East Coast Habilitation Options group home in Palm Coast, and attended Matanzas High School while there. While at Mantanzas High School, Depa was on "six psychiatric medications, all of which can have devastating side effects," per Leanne. The group home was aware of the fact that Depa played his Nintendo Switch at certain hours, and removing it was a trigger for him.

The incident occurred in February 2023. Due to a miscommunication, Depa was asked to put his Nintendo Switch away while in class. The mere discussion of it caused Depa to attack Matanzas High School paraprofessional Joan Naydich. The attack was recorded by a security camera. It was a brutal beating that led to a five-year prison sentence after Depa pleaded no contest to aggravated battery, per Court TV.