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NewsTuesday, October 16, 2007 1:21 PM CDT
Man sentenced to death for leaving girl to die in Everglades
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MIAMI (MCT) -- Harrel Franklin Braddy dumped a little girl in the Everglades nine years ago to get chewed up by alligators.

On Monday, a Miami-Dade judge sentenced Braddy to die for it.

“The defendant ... caused this 5-year-old to die, alone in the wilderness, and to be mutilated by monsters of the swamp,” Circuit Judge Leonard E. Glick wrote in his sentencing order. “Adults are supposed to protect children from monsters; they are not supposed to be the monsters themselves.”

Braddy, 58, was convicted in July for the November 1998 killing of Quatisha Maycock.

The child was found dead in the Everglades with alligator bite marks on her head and stomach and her left arm severed. The medical examiner testified that the girl was still alive when one or more alligators bit her.

Braddy told investigators he left Quatisha in the swamp because she witnessed him trying to kill her mother, who survived Braddy’s choking attack.

Prosecutors argued for a death sentence during the penalty phase of Braddy’s trial. Assistant State Attorney Abbe Rifkin told jurors about Braddy’s criminal history, which included convictions for robbery, kidnapping and trying to kill a corrections officer by choking him.

The jurors in August voted 11-1 for the death penalty. Braddy showed no reaction when the decision was announced.

Braddy also sat quietly Monday as Glick announced that he was upholding the jury’s recommendation of death.

Braddy’s parents were in the courtroom to hear the sentence. On another side, Quatisha’s mother, Shandelle Maycock, crumpled a tissue in her hands and cried while a homicide counselor consoled her.

In deciding between death and life in prison without parole, Glick considered Braddy’s reason for harming Quatisha -- to keep her from identifying him as the person who tried to kill her mother.

“This plan, well thought out and well carried out, could have no justification, moral or legal, but could only be the product of a person who is so cold and so calculating, so devoid of humanity and only concerned with his own welfare,” Glick wrote.

Rifkin said the sentence fit the crime.

“Due to his own horrific actions, Harrel Braddy has caused a lot of pain to a lot of people, including the people who loved him and cared for him,” Rifkin said. “The state is grateful that Quatisha’s small voice was finally heard, and that the defendant received the sentence he so rightfully earned.”

Braddy’s attorney, Terence Lenamon, said he was “disappointed” at the death sentence. A public defender was appointed to handle Braddy’s appellate options.

(c) 2007, The Miami Herald. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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Reader comments on this story - 12 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

sadworld7 wrote on Nov 28, 2007 11:45 AM:

" Just reading this article hits in the pit of my heart. No child or human being should have to suffer like that poor baby. She was just a baby. What is going on in our world, our children are not sare, we as humans kill each other out of selfishness. If god would just destroy human life and start from scratch. "

to:to not only: wrote on Oct 16, 2007 3:06 PM:

" i only want for HIM what he gave the lil girl. i think anyone with any kind of an imagination could think up a million things they would do to someone who would do this to a child. he deserves what he got and then some! he actually DID this to a lil girl, I however just wish as much pain for him as he gave. but thanks for wanting to debate me on MY thoughts on the subject that never seems to amaze me how some ppl only want to get on here JUST to say something about what someone ELSE says and never anything about the topic. maybe you just want someone to argue with, what ever the reason, i think i was pretty clear on what i THOUGHT he deserves, and WHY, he should die a worse death then the poor girl he killed! what he did was SICK what i said he should get was only fair!!! :) "

to: not only wrote on Oct 16, 2007 11:57 AM:

" I like how you describe in explicit detail how you want this person to be mutilated, tortured, and to finally suffer a slow and agonizing death, and then say "what a sick twisted person!" "

not only sad but sick wrote on Oct 16, 2007 8:50 AM:

" this guy should die by the same fate he handed the lil girl. monster is right. some one should torcher him with knives before he goes in to the pit of starving aligators! better yet, maybe not so hungry if they are real hungry they might devour him to fast for him to suffer! so lets feed them first, then cut him up and serve him for a late snack they can nibble for a while! what a sick twisted person! "

Leland Lesher wrote on Oct 16, 2007 7:33 AM:

" Put him in a pit with two very hungry alligators and let nature take its revenge. "

HOWIE wrote on Oct 16, 2007 6:50 AM:

" Only A typical bleeding heart who thinks that a person like this can be rehabilitated would have voted against the death penalty in this case. "

I vote wrote on Oct 16, 2007 6:34 AM:

" for death by alligators. "

Joe wrote on Oct 16, 2007 5:03 AM:

" Finally a judge with some sense. Now if he is thrown into a pen of alligators justice would be served. "

Feed him to the gators wrote on Oct 16, 2007 3:59 AM:

" Let him die the same way. That was senseless. "

Perhaps a good way... wrote on Oct 16, 2007 3:46 AM:

" to execute this lower than life person would be to tie him up in the Everglades and let the alligators chew on him until he dies. That poor, precious baby! How could anyone even THINK to do this to a precious child? "

plaid braisley wrote on Oct 16, 2007 1:00 AM:

" i agree with "stormin normin".i thought most states required unanimous vote for death sentence.apparently not florida. "

Stormin' Norman wrote on Oct 16, 2007 12:43 AM:

" One juror didn't believe the death penalty would apply in this case? If not this case, one wonders what circumstances have to occur before he or she would indeed vote for death... "

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