A Florida man convicted of murdering a 5-year-old girl by abandoning her in the Florida Everglades will not get the death penalty, a Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ruled Friday.
Harrel Braddy’s resentencing trial began January 20 and ended Friday afternoon in connection with the 1998 death of Quatisha Maycock.
The jury’s decision allowed Braddy, now 76, to once again avoid the death penalty by issuing a sentence of life in prison, according to the Miami Herald.
NBC Miami reported that the trial reopened painful memories for the 5-year-old’s family. Addressing jurors, State Attorney Abbe Rifkin described the child whose life had been taken.
“She was five years old. She was smart. She was loving. She was sweet like candy,” Rifkin said.
In 2007, a jury found Braddy guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and related charges stemming from the November 1998 incident, after he abducted Quatisha and her mother, Shandelle Maycock.
Prosecutors said he left the child in an area commonly referred to as “Alligator Alley,” where alligators attacked and killed her.
During the resentencing trial, Maycock testified in court, facing Braddy once again. She told jurors she met Braddy and his wife through a church group in the late 1990s and that the couple initially appeared supportive.
“I am here if you need me. I am here. Just like that, I am here,” Shandelle recalled Braddy telling her early on.
According to her testimony, Braddy offered rides to work and provided her with money.
The relationship reportedly took a violent turn when she asked him to leave her apartment because she had other company arriving.
Prosecutors alleged Braddy then attacked her, throwing her to the ground, climbing on top of her, and choking her.
“You used me,” Maycock testified, recalling what Braddy said during the assault.
Authorities said Braddy then forced both Maycock and Quantisha into a car, later leaving the mother near U.S. 27, near the “Broward-Palm Beach county line,” Tampa Bay Times reports.
Maycock testified that Braddy beat her until she lost consciousness. She later regained awareness and managed to find help.
Police later found Quantisha’s mutilated body near a canal. Prosecutors said her injuries were consistent with a fatal animal attack.
“Deep into her skull, teeth marks, where an alligator tried to bite her head,” Rifkin told jurors while describing the evidence.
Officials overturned Braddy’s 2007 death sentence in 2017, after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed Florida’s death penalty unconstitutional.
The decision led the Florida Supreme Court to vacate multiple death sentences. Braddy faced the death penalty again, under Florida’s 2023 revised death penalty law.
Court records indicated that Braddy had an extensive criminal history before the incident. He had been sentenced to 30 years in prison but was released approximately 18 months before the murder.
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[Feature Photo: Family Handout]
