A pensioner who kidnapped a five-year-old girl nearly 30 years ago and left her to be killed by alligators has been spared the death penalty.
Harrel Braddy, now 76, kidnapped Quatisha Maycock in 1998 and abandoned her on ‘Alligator Alley’ in the wetland area of Florida known as the Everglades.
He was originally sentenced to death for his crimes in 2007 by an 11-1 jury vote, but that was overturned in 2017 due to a law requiring a unanimous verdict.
His fate was again in the hands of jurors in a re-sentencing trial after a new law meant an 8-4 vote could put him back on death row.
‘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 attack unfolded on a November 1998 night after Braddy drove Quatisha’s mother, Shandelle, home from work.
The pair knew each other through a church acquaintance and he later agreed to take Shandelle to pick up her daughter, who was visiting a family friend.
When they returned home Shandelle rejected Braddy’s advances and made up an excuse to try get him to leave.
He attacked her when she told him to leave, with Braddy choking her until she lost consciousness.
Shandelle was still in her apartment when she regained consciousness and Braddy chocked her again until she passed out.
Braddy put Shandelle in the trunk of his car and left her on a deserted part of road.
Shandelle survived and later testified about what happened, but was reportedly not present for the verdict.
Braddy then abandoned Quatisha on Alligator Alley in the Everglades – a crucial stretch of road in Florida infested with the reptiles.
Fisherman discovered the five-year-old’s body a few days later with bitemarks on her head and stomach, and her left arm severed.
Prosecutor Abbe Rifkin urged the jury to impose the death penalty on Braddy, arguing he showed ‘no decency’.
He also described how Quatisha was conscious and aware of what was happening to her in her final moments.
Braddy’s defense attorney, Khurrum Wahid, asked the jury to consider the ‘full picture’ of the convict’s life.
The lawyer said he was known as a generous family man and a ‘model prisoner’ during his decades in jail.
Execution would also devastate his family and wife Cyteria, who he has been married to since the 90s, and their five children, Wahid said.
Braddy’s criminal history also includes convictions for robbery, kidnapping, and attempting to kill a corrections officer by choking him.
After three hours of deliberations, jurors returned and sentenced Braddy to life in prison, not death.
The 76-year-old put his head down when the verdict was read out, with eyes appearing to water.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.