Man guilty of abducting mom, leaving daughter to alligatorsandMIAMI, Florida (AP) -- A man who had been released from prison early for good behavior was convicted Tuesday of trying to kill a young mother and leaving her 5-year-old daughter to be eaten alive by alligators in the Everglades.
Harrel Franklin Braddy had befriended Shandelle Maycock and her daughter Quatisha. Maycock testified that Braddy went to her home in November 1998 and grew enraged when she asked him to leave.
He choked Maycock until she was unconscious and then forced her and Quatisha into his car, the woman testified. At one point, Maycock gained consciousness, grabbed the child and jumped out of the moving vehicle.
Braddy stopped, choked the woman again and put her in the trunk, she testified. Maycock never saw her daughter again. Prosecutors said Braddy then drove to a section of Interstate 75 in the Everglades known as Alligator Alley and dropped Quatisha in the water beside the road.
She was alive when alligators bit her on the head and stomach, a medical examiner said.
Dad to child killer: 'My daughter has heard me cry'Some times there are no words.Couey, a convicted sex offender, was staying nearby in a trailer with his half-sister. Couey kidnapped the girl from her bedroom and later, in a taped confession, admitted that he buried the child alive. "I went out there one night and dug a hole and put her in it. Buried her," he said.
She was found wrapped in garbage bags, holding a stuffed toy dolphin, her hands bound with stereo wire. Jessica died from asphyxiation after being sexually assaulted, according to a medical examiner's report.
5 comments:
I'm so with you on these stories. I just heard about the story of the girl in the Everglades. It brought me to tears. I sit here & try to imagine how that child must have felt. To first witness her mother being strangled, wondering to herself, "Who will help me?" Then to be thrown in a swamp. I just can't wrap my brain around it. This man should be thrown to the gators himself. That indeed should be the method of execution.
There really are no words. I can't tellyou all the crazy things that went through my head - about why couldn't they at least kill mercifully if they have to kill (asphyxiation is about the worst wayto go, eaten alive has surely got to rank up there, too), but really, that's just buying into their evil.
You know, I'm not a death penalty person, but cases like these do leave me wondering what one ought to do instead. Especially since there doens't seem to be any doubt in these cases about identity or what was intended.
But then I'm still just buying into the craziness. There really just aren't any words.
Anon,
It has merit.
KRG,
Being eaten alive is a personal fear. Yuck. I understand what you are saying. I am not always in favor of the death penalty, but sometimes it is warranted.
Jack, you said Some times there are no words.
But there should be a death penalty. It might be too good for them, but it is necessary.
It's really unfathomable how evil human beings can be.
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