Florida Man Harrel Braddy who left five-year-old girl to be killed by alligators spared death penalty

MIAMI — A Miami-Dade County jury on Friday spared a 76-year-old man from the death penalty in the 1998 killing of a 5-year-old girl whose body was later found in alligator-infested waters, opting instead to sentence him to life in prison.

Harrel Braddy was convicted in 2007 of kidnapping and murdering Quatisha “Candy” Maycock and of the attempted murder of her mother, Shandelle Maycock. The girl’s body was later discovered in a canal in the Florida Everglades, authorities said, with evidence indicating she had been mauled by alligators.

Quantisha Maycock was savaged by alligators after being left for dead there

Braddy’s original death sentence was overturned after Florida’s Supreme Court ruled that a nonunanimous jury recommendation could not support capital punishment, prompting a resentencing hearing under the state’s updated death penalty law.

Shandelle Maycock was chocked and left for dead, before leaving her daughter Quatisha in Alligator Alley (Picture: NBC6)

After more than three hours of deliberations, jurors recommended life in prison rather than death. The judge will formally impose the sentence.

Prosecutors argued that Braddy, who had known Shandelle Maycock through a church acquaintance, attacked her after she asked him to leave her home, abducted her and her daughter, and ultimately left the child where he expected she would be killed by wildlife. Shandelle Maycock survived and later testified during the resentencing trial.

Braddy was once on death row for the kidnapping and murder (Picture: Miami-Dade Corrections)

Braddy’s defense attorneys urged jurors to consider his age, health issues and behavior in prison, arguing that his life sentence would serve justice while avoiding execution.