Ohio prosecutors demanding vape-puffing teen be charged as adult for beating 60-year-old

Publish date: 2024-06-19

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Ohio prosecutors are demanding that a Cincinnati teen be charged as an adult for beating a 60-year-old female teacher unconscious last month, as police released disturbing new bodycam footage from the incident this week.

Officials said the 15-year-old assailant repeatedly punched the special education teacher in the head after taking a hit from a vape in a school bathroom and ingesting an unknown drug.

New bodycam footage shows police interviewing the attacker inside the school after the Jan. 4 incident.

“I think I’m in a dream,” the student states repeatedly. “Am I in a dream?”

At another point, he tells a teacher attempting to restrain him that he “needs a hug” and insists that he’s “not crazy.”

Despite his age, prosecutors are hoping that a Cincinnati judge will try the teen’s case as an adult due to the severity of the injuries sustained in the attack.

Ohio police interview a teen student who beat a teacher in a drug-induced frenzy last month. Colerain Police Department

That ruling is expected by Monday.

The veteran educator’s head trauma was so severe from the repeated blows that surgeons removed her skull cap to relieve pressure on her brain.

She remained unconscious for several days after the operation and is continuing to recuperate, her family has said.

According to an incident report, the teen suddenly attacked another classmate who was working on a computer, prompting the teacher to tell him that she would have to call for security.

“She said she was going to call the police and I started punching,” he can be heard telling an officer while holding the hand of an unknown staffer.

The victim in the case had to have a portion of her skull removed during emergency surgery. Colerain High School

The teen said he was “glitching” during the incident and later began hitting himself in the head in an attempt to “wake up” from the drug-induced episode.

Other students told investigators that he told them he had taken “edibles” the day of the assault.

The bodycam footage shows officers discussing a “juicy strawberry” vaping device that was taken from the student.

His attorney, Clyde Bennett, told reporters after the attack that his client wasn’t conscious of his actions at the time.

“This young man is not like the young men that are causing problems in the community,” Bennett told WLWT.

“This young man from a great family has no criminal record and basically consumed vape and didn’t know drugs was in it and it precipitated or facilitated his conduct thereafter. So he should not be treated like the other individuals you see on the news wreaking havoc on the community.”

The teen told detectives that he thought he was in the middle of a dream during the attack. Colerain Police Department

But the Hamilton County DA wants the student tried as an adult for felony assault, a charge that would carry a far higher maximum sentence.

“No teacher should fear going to work on interacting with their students,” the agency said in a statement last month. “Currently, there is no evidence to suggest this was anything other than a vicious attack by the juvenile. It is fortunate that the victim is alive today. This is an incredibly serious matter and we intend to treat it as such.”

Grisly attacks on teachers at the hands of students have been on the rise across the country, with the beating of paraprofessional Joan Naydich in Florida the most prominent recent example.

Then 17-year-old Brendan Depa battered Naydich unconscious at Matanza High School in Flagler County last February after his Nintendo Switch was confiscated.

Prosecutors successfully sought to have the autistic teen tried as an adult, and a judge is expected to sentence him in the coming months. He is facing as little as probation and a maximum term of 30 years in prison.

Naydich has stated publicly that she wants him to face the top end of his term.

Prosecutors have been grappling with assault and murder cases stemming from drug-induced psychosis, with defense attorneys asserting that their clients are unable to comprehend their actions.

A California woman who fatally stabbed her boyfriend 108 times after taking a hit of potent marijuana from a bong was sentenced to probation last month.

Bryn Spejcher’s lawyers argued that she was technically “unconscious” at the time of the Ventura County murder was and thus unable to form an intent to kill.

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