A South Florida man convicted of murdering a 5-year-old girl after leaving her to be eaten alive by alligators in the Everglades nearly three decades ago is once again facing a possible death sentence.
Harrel Braddy, now 76, was found guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and other charges in the November 1998 killing of Quantisha Maycock.
Following his 2007 trial, Braddy was sentenced to death but that sentence was reversed in 2017.
On Monday, jury selection began in his resentencing trial as he could once again face the death penalty under Florida’s 2023 law that allows a death sentence to be imposed with an 8-4 jury vote.
Braddy had befriended the girl’s mother, Shandelle Maycock, who testified at the 2007 trial that Braddy had showed up at her house and grew enraged when she asked him to leave.
Prosecutors said Braddy drove the girl’s mother to a remote sugarcane field, choked her until she was unconscious and left her to die, but she woke up and managed to flag down help.
Braddy also drove the girl to Alligator Alley and dropped her in the water beside the road, prosecutors said. She was alive when alligators bit her on the head and stomach, a medical examiner said.
Authorities found the girl’s body two days later, her left arm missing and her skull crushed, prosecutors said.
Braddy had also been sentenced to three consecutive life terms for kidnapping and burglary with an assault charges, and also received 30 years in prison for the attempted murder of Shandelle Maycock, 15 years for child neglect causing great bodily harm and five years for attempted escape.
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