Nearly 30 years after a brutal crime shocked Florida, a long-dormant case has resurfaced as the man responsible faces resentencing under updated capital punishment laws, per the Miami Herald.
In November 1998, Harrel Braddy, now 76, abandoned a five-year-old girl near a canal known as Alligator Alley. The body of the girl was later found by fishermen.
As the courts revisit the brutal incident, the child’s final words have once again echoed through the courtrooms and across the internet.
The five-year-old’s mother remembered her daughter’s last words before she was fed to the alligators
Image credits: Miami Herald
Quatisha Maycock, known as Candy to her family, was abducted on November 7, 1998, alongside her mother, Shandelle, by Harrel Braddy, whom they had met through church.
According to Shandelle’s testimony to the Orlando Sentinel, Braddy came at them after she had rejected his multiple romantic advances.
She further reported that he became violent after she asked him to leave her apartment when he overstayed.
Image credits: Miami-Dade Corrections
He choked her and forced both Shandelle and Candy into his car. When Shandelle tried to escape with her child, Braddy fought back, shoving her into the trunk.
The last words Shandelle ever heard from her daughter were, “No, mommy, no.”
Braddy later pulled over, dragged Shandelle from the car, and choked her until she lost consciousness, believing she was deceased.
Image credits: NBC 6
He then drove Candy to the Florida Everglades and left her near Alligator Alley.
Candy’s body was found two days later by fishermen. Jurors were shown photographs of Candy in her Polly Pocket pajamas.
According to the medical examiners, she was alive when alligators bit her head and torso, as well as severed her left arm.
Harrel Braddy escaped justice after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida’s capital punishment system unconstitutional in 2017
Image credits: NBC 6
After the gruesome act, Braddy was arrested and eventually convicted of first-degree m*rder in 2007. A jury voted 11-1 to finalize his execution.
However, that sentence was revoked in 2017 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Florida’s capital punishment system unconstitutional because it did not require unanimous jury verdicts.
In 2023, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new law that allowed juries to recommend his execution with an 8-4 vote instead of requiring a unanimous decision. That change has reopened Braddy’s case.
Image credits: NBC 6
Braddy is now back in court facing resentencing, with jury selection recently underway in Miami-Dade County.
He reportedly admitted to the prosecutors that he left Candy to perish near the canal because he was worried that she would tell people what he had done to her mother.
Braddy further stated that he knew Quatisha “would probably” lose her life.
At the time of the crime, Braddy had been out of prison for just 18 months after serving part of a 30-year sentence for previous violent offenses, including robbery, kidnapping, and attempting to fatally strangle a corrections officer.
The brutality of the case has reignited intense reactions across social media platforms
Image credits: Miami Herald
Former Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Leonard E. Glick once described the homicide as a betrayal of the most basic human decency.
“Adults are supposed to protect children from monsters,” he wrote. “They are not supposed to be the monsters themselves.”
The reopening of the case has sparked intense reactions online among viewers, with several commenters expressing grief and rage.
Image credits: NBC 6
“Monsters should not walk amongst humans,” one wrote.
Another added, “This literally brought tears to my eyes. He deserves the same fate as that innocent child.”
Others focused on the legal process itself. “What he did was horrific,” one said, “but he’s already been tried and sentenced. Going back again doesn’t sit right with me.”
As the court weighs whether Braddy will once again receive capital punishment or spend the rest of his life in prison, the memory of the five-year-old remains at the center of the case.
“Put him where he put that baby,” wrote one netizen, sharing fury over Braddy’s brutal act
