Florida | Man convicted of leaving girl to be eaten by gators avoids death penalty

Alligator Alley, the stretch of I-75 cutting through Florida's Everglades

After about 4 hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock.

A South Florida man who dropped off a 5-year-old child in the Everglades to be eaten alive by gators nearly 3 decades ago was given a second chance at life as jurors recommended he should spend the rest of his life behind bars instead of being sent to death row.

After about four hours of deliberations, jurors on Friday recommended Harrel Braddy should be sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of 5-year-old Quantisha Maycock.

"A child at the beginning of her life is dead because Harrel Braddy wanted her dead," State Attorney Abbe Rifkin said during closing statements as she attempted to convince jurors to recommend the death penalty. "This is the fate he… chose for a child whose only crime was having witnessed what he had done."

Resentencing Trial

For the past week, Braddy has been having a resentencing trial where jurors were charged with deciding a punishment recommendation. At the end, Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez would have the ultimate say on sentencing.

In 2007, Braddy, now 76, was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping, and other charges.

Prosecutors said Braddy met the child’s mother, Shandelle Maycock, in a church group. Braddy would help the mother with rides to work and money. However, he was known to show up unannounced at her efficiency apartment.

Shandelle Maycock testified that Braddy became upset after she asked him to leave because she was expecting company.

Eaten Alive By Gators

According to prosecutors, on November 7, 1998, Braddy beat and choked Shandelle, forced her into the trunk of his car, and later left her in a remote area along U.S. 27 near the Broward–Palm Beach county line.

Shandelle managed to escape in the dark and walk to safety. Prosecutors said Braddy, however, took her daughter to nearby canals and left her there.

Authorities believe Quantisha was attacked by alligators and also consumed by other animals, including snapping turtles.

“My life will never be the same. For 27 years I have been on an emotional roller coaster. I have had countless sleepless nights. Loss of appetite. Anxiety attacks thinking about what happened to my child,” Maycock said.

Last week, former medical examiner Dr. Emma Lew testified and showed jurors brain scans of Quantisha.

“Are those 3 puncture wounds into the skull of Quantisha Maycock consistent with an alligator biting the top of her head?” Rifkin asked.

“Yes,” Lew responded. “These two punctures would be consistent with alligator teeth.”

Death Penalty

In 2007, jurors found Braddy guilty of beating and kidnapping Shandelle and killing her child. The jury recommended the death penalty, and a judge later sentenced Braddy to death row.

That sentence was overturned in 2017 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida’s death penalty sentencing law unconstitutional.

As a result, the Florida Supreme Court ordered several death sentences vacated and granted new penalty phase trials.

Court records show Braddy was a convicted felon who had previously been sentenced to 30 years in prison but was released after serving approximately 18 months, shortly before Quantisha’s killing in 1998.

Second Chance At Life

Throughout the trial, Braddy's attorneys tried convincing jurors to let their client die in prison instead of being executed.

Defense attorneys argued Braddy was a hard worker, who grew up in a poor neighborhood in a racially segregated Miami. They painted Braddy as a church leader, a loving father, who was affected by the loss of several close members of his family.

However, prosecutors told jurors Braddy committed a cold, calculated, and cruel murder that deserved the death penalty.

On Friday, jurors sided with Braddy's attorneys and chose life in prison.

Braddy, with watery eyes, learned he avoided the death penalty for a second time.

Source: nbcmiami.com, Staff, January 31, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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