Harrel Braddy: Man avoids death penalty after leaving five-year-old girl to be eaten by alligators in Florida
He left the girl alive in an area known as Alligator Alley because he was worried she would be able to identify him. WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
WARNING: Graphic content
A man has avoided the death penalty after he left a five-year-old girl alone to be eaten by alligators in the middle of an isolated wetland.
Harrel Braddy, 76, was found guilty of murdering Quatisha Maycock after he threw the young girl into the waters of Florida’s Everglades on November 7, 1998 where she was attacked and killed.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.He was formerly on death row, but after a state law was deemed unconstitutional, he was given a resentencing hearing.
Sitting in court on January 30, Braddy appeared to cry after it was revealed the jury decided he should be given a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
Before he abandoned Quatisha, he had kidnapped her alongside her mother Shandelle Maycock from their home.
He beat Ms Maycock, choked her, shoved her in the boot of his car and left her on the side of a deserted stretch of the US 27 road.
Braddy then left Quatisha alive in an area known as Alligator Alley because he was worried she would be able to identify him. Prosecutors said he did not believe the girl’s mother would survive the assault, the Miami Herald reported.
Tragically, the five-year-old’s body was found in a canal two days later by local fishermen. She was missing her left arm, her skull had been crushed and she had bite marks across her body.
Despite all odds, Ms Maycock survived her brutal ordeal and went on to testify against Braddy at his trial.
He was only sentenced in 2007, nine years after the crime - and was held on death row until 2017, when he had a re-sentencing opportunity.
Florida’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s death penalty system was unconstitutional because it called for the presiding judge to determine whether such a sentence should be imposed.
It was found that this violated the right to trial by jury protected by the sixth amendment.
This meant that Braddy, alongside about 100 other death row inmates, were able to have their case heard in a fresh resentencing trial.
It has taken until 2026 for Braddy to receive his final sentence. The jury deliberated for more than three hours on January 30 before their verdict was read to the court.
He was spared the death penalty and instead handed a life sentence.
“The jurors in the resentencing of Harrel Braddy worked hard to find a proper sense of justice for the 1998 murder of 5-year-old Quatisha Maycock,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.
“No one can adequately describe the pain that Quatisha’s mother, Shandelle Maycock, had to go through reliving the details of her daughter’s murder.”
The prosecution said Braddy was motivated to commit his crimes because he had been rejected by Ms Maycock, who he met through church.
