Pod Insights True Crime All The Time Quatisha Maycock About this episode In this heartbreaking episode, Mike and Gibby examine the 1998 murder of five-year-old Quatisha Maycock. What began as a friendship formed through church ended in one of Florida's most disturbing child murder cases. The episode follows the tragic events that unfolded after Harrel Braddy, a man with a hidden violent past, became involved in the lives of Quatisha and her mother, Shandelle Maycock.
This case also explores the failures of the criminal justice system that allowed Braddy to be released early from prison despite an extensive history of violent offenses and multiple escape attempts.
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1:20 Speaker 00 Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 513 of the True Crime All the Time Podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you?
1:31 Speaker 01 Yo, I'm doing good, man.
1:32 Speaker 00 Did you throw a yo in front of that?
1:34 Speaker 01 I did.
1:35 Speaker 00 And then do some kind of, don't be flashing no gang signs up in here.
1:39 Speaker 01 I'm just telling you.
1:42 Speaker 01 Old school here.
1:42 Speaker 00 Yeah, you're old school, that's for sure. The key part of that phrase is old.
1:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:50 Speaker 00 All right, buddy. We're diving right in. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All the Time?
1:56 Speaker 01 Of course.
1:56 Speaker 00 We're talking about the murder of Kwatisia Makeup.
2:01 Speaker 00 But we're starting in 1998, right? Twenty-two-year-old Shandell Maycock was living in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County. She was working as an administrative assistant at a Miami-based consulting firm. She was a single mother to her daughter, five-year-old Quatisha. Quatisha was described as a sweet girl who went by the nickname Candy. And I could see having a nickname. The name Quatisha is actually very nice.
2:32 Speaker 01 It is.
2:33 Speaker 00 But I could see maybe some people having trouble saying it. Candy is obviously much easier to say.
2:39 Speaker 01 Candy's all easy, rolls right off.
2:42 Speaker 00 It does. It was said Quatisha was excited when she started kindergarten in the fall of 1998. She'd only been in school for about nine weeks before she was killed. And let's face it, these cases are tough. They always are. You're talking about a very, very young child.
3:03 Speaker 01 Yep.
3:04 Speaker 00 Who's murdered and, you know, those evoke different types of emotions.
3:11 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:11 Speaker 00 Right? All cases evoke emotions.
3:13 Speaker 01 They do.
3:14 Speaker 00 But, you know, when you talk about animals, you talk about young children, it can hit people harder.
3:21 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:22 Speaker 00 Sometimes than other types of cases.
3:25 Speaker 01 I just don't know what is wrong with people that do anything bad.
3:28 Speaker 00 Yeah.
3:29 Speaker 01 I don't know what's wrong with people that can hurt a child.
3:32 Speaker 00 A young child. Well, we're going to get into it.
3:34 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:35 Speaker 00 She had just learned how to write her name and she was practicing it every day. She liked coloring, playing with dolls, dressing up and going to school with her classmates.
3:46 Speaker 01 I'm still trying to figure out how to write my name.
3:48 Speaker 00 Yeah. I know printing you're good at. It's the cursive.
3:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
3:54 Speaker 00 That kind of throws you.
3:55 Speaker 01 And I actually went through all that in school. I know they don't teach it today or they're, they didn't. Now they're bringing it back.
4:00 Speaker 00 I don't know. My, my daughter, my oldest daughter is terrible with curses.
4:04 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:04 Speaker 00 I don't think they did a lot with curses.
4:06 Speaker 01 I know my kids, they didn't teach it. They said, no, we don't. Don't. Need to do that anymore. And now I thought recently I heard something that they're going to bring it back at some level, just so there's some.
4:19 Speaker 00 I think there should be a cursory knowledge.
4:22 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:22 Speaker 00 It's kind of like telling time. I understand everybody's got a phone.
4:27 Speaker 01 Right.
4:27 Speaker 00 Or a digital watch, but I feel like every adult should know how to tell time on a standard clock.
4:37 Speaker 01 You know, you're right. I told somebody the other day, I'll see you at quarter till. And they're like, quarter till, like quarter till? You don't know what quarter till is? They're like, no.
4:47 Speaker 00 There's a lot of people that don't.
4:48 Speaker 01 I'm like, oh, my gosh. Okay. I'll see you at whatever time.
4:53 Speaker 00 Yeah, 5:45.
4:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
4:55 Speaker 00 Sometimes I'll just say, you know, half past the crack of your ass or something like that. Maybe that might get a.
5:01 Speaker 01 Might get some.
5:02 Speaker 00 Might be more descriptive. I don't know. Couldn't be any less for some people.
5:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:08 Speaker 00 Her school principal, Patricia Zell, recalled at her funeral, is quoted by the Miami Herald. She was sweet. She was beautiful. She was blossoming. Just wanting to learn.
5:19 Speaker 01 She was a freaking kindergartner. I mean, it's like they're so innocent, so innocent. Like, what could anybody ever be upset with? Somebody's a kindergartner.
5:30 Speaker 00 And one of the things that came shining through in all of the research was that, you know, Quatisha came from a family who really loved her.
5:41 Speaker 01 Yeah.
5:42 Speaker 00 Shandell said about her daughter, she was a beautiful little girl. Everything I did was for her. I just wanted a better life for her. I loved her with all my heart and I know she loved me.
5:53 Speaker 01 I get that, you know, we both have kids and I think when my kids were born, it changed everything.
6:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, me too.
6:01 Speaker 01 On how I looked at what I wanted to do in my life and what was more, what was more valuable, you know, was it, do I still want to go do all this stuff I did as a, as a. You know, a guy that didn't have kids.
6:15 Speaker 00 Yeah, like streaking through the quad or, you know.
6:18 Speaker 01 That was you.
6:18 Speaker 00 Ultimately ending up at KFC. I don't know. But I do think, you know, most good parents, they strive to want to provide a better life for their children.
6:31 Speaker 01 Sure.
6:31 Speaker 00 You know, that it's that old saying, right? You want to give your kids a better life than you had and maybe it's not always possible. Maybe you had a great life and maybe you can't duplicate.
6:42 Speaker 01 Yeah.
6:43 Speaker 00 What your parents were able to do for you, but I think for a lot of people, that's what they're striving for.
6:48 Speaker 01 I think so.
6:49 Speaker 00 In the late spring of 1998, Shandell met Harold Brady and his wife Sateria through their church group. Harold was a father of four. He and his wife befriended Shandell and Harold offered to help her when she needed. He specifically told her, I'm here if you need me, just like that, I am here.
7:12 Speaker 01 It's always nice to hear.
7:14 Speaker 00 Sounds like a great guy, right? Goes to church, uh, father of four, husband. Okay. Does that mean you can trust everybody like that? No, but he also doesn't sound like the stereotypical loner who's sitting in his basement.
7:32 Speaker 01 Yeah.
7:33 Speaker 00 Writing down names of people that he wants to hurt. Shandell initially thought Harold was a nice person and she would accept, you know, his offers to help her here and there. But at one point he made it clear he was interested in a romantic relationship. But according to Shandell, I always told him, I don't see you and me. But all of a sudden he started coming by asking, do you need anything done? I said, yes, he'd take me to the laundromat, grocery store, pick a tea shop from daycare. I mean, these are all things that she needed done.
8:11 Speaker 01 Right.
8:12 Speaker 00 She, you know, was a single parent.
8:14 Speaker 01 Yep.
8:15 Speaker 00 Here you have somebody offering an unbelievable amount of support. That would go a long way.
8:23 Speaker 01 But she also made it clear that. This was supposed to just be friends.
8:28 Speaker 00 But does it change your mindset a little bit about this person, right? You go from thinking, oh, here's just a guy being nice.
8:37 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:37 Speaker 00 He's married, a father of four, he goes to my church to now, well, he's got an agenda.
8:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
8:45 Speaker 00 He's doing all these nice things, but is it because he wants to pursue this romantic relationship with me?
8:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, it definitely would give you some questions.
8:55 Speaker 00 It would. There's no doubt about it. Harold began showing up at Shandell's Home Alone unannounced and stayed for short periods of time with seemingly no purpose.
9:08 Speaker 01 So to me, that's a little alarming, right? Cause now you're just coming out to hang out with me. You have a wife.
9:14 Speaker 00 Yeah.
9:15 Speaker 01 You know, I said, I'm not interested, but still you're showing up and just wanting to sit around and chill with me? I don't know.
9:21 Speaker 00 Yeah. I mean, you come every week.
9:24 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:24 Speaker 00 Right? To my house is because we tape a number of podcast episodes. If you just showed up at dinnertime and said, hey, what's everybody doing?
9:34 Speaker 01 Yeah.
9:35 Speaker 00 You might be a little less welcome.
9:36 Speaker 01 Probably.
9:37 Speaker 00 I don't know. I mean.
9:38 Speaker 01 Maybe the first time be like, he just got the wrong day.
9:41 Speaker 00 Yeah, that could be, but at a certain point, it's like, hmm, somehow he knows how to when dinner is. He knows when to show up.
9:50 Speaker 01 I just don't leave after tonight. I just like kick my shoes off and put my feet up on the.
9:55 Speaker 00 Just lay down on the couch and take a nap.
9:57 Speaker 01 What kind of snacks you got in that fridge over there?
9:59 Speaker 00 Harold once inappropriately placed his hand between Shandell's legs.
10:05 Speaker 01 Okay, that's a big no-no.
10:07 Speaker 00 It is. When she became angry and threatened him with a knife, he left her apartment and apologized for his actions later. He never made a sexual advance towards her again.
10:19 Speaker 01 Uh, you get a knife pushed up against you, you're probably going to think about twice before sliding that hand on someone's leg or in between.
10:26 Speaker 00 Yeah. Which I think you should think about that before you do it. But it also sounded like she wasn't taking any crap.
10:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
10:36 Speaker 00 And wasn't going to put up with it to the point where, um, you know, she threatened him with a knife that. You know, you touch me, you grab me, things are not going to go well for you.
10:47 Speaker 01 That's right. I got this K bar here.
10:49 Speaker 00 And I don't blame her at all. I mean, you gotta protect yourself. No one should violate your
10:55 Speaker 01 No.
10:56 Speaker 00 personal boundary and your safety.
10:58 Speaker 01 And the way they do that is to draw a very hard line very quick.
11:01 Speaker 00 It's a hard line.
11:02 Speaker 01 Yes.
11:02 Speaker 00 Right? When you threaten somebody with a knife. The, the issue is Gibbs, Shandell had no idea that Harold had a violent past. And he also had a, a pretty lengthy criminal record. In 1984, he shot the woman he was having an affair with and left her for dead. But she survived.
11:23 Speaker 01 Okay. So this, this is, uh, wanting to be with other women is not something new to him.
11:30 Speaker 00 No, sounds like that he had a history with as well.
11:34 Speaker 01 Yeah.
11:35 Speaker 00 I, I don't know. There wasn't a, a ton of information about it, but I don't know if she tried to end it or, or what happened. Luckily she did survive. He was charged with attempted murder in Miami Dade County. In August of 1984, he attended court and was denied bail. On the way to a holding cell, he overpowered Officer Jose Bermudez. He beat Bermudez, choked him with a belt until he was unconscious and locked him in a cell before escaping.
12:13 Speaker 01 So this is not a good guy.
12:14 Speaker 00 No, and it also sounds, it sounds like he's a very dangerous.
12:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
12:18 Speaker 00 Individual. 11 days later, he was arrested in Hollywood, Florida for breaking into an electronics store. He was bitten by a police dog and taken to the hospital for treatment. He attacked the officers watching him and escaped from the ER.
12:36 Speaker 01 So I, at this point, I, I don't feel sorry for him. Because he's doing, he's causing, you know, all this himself.
12:44 Speaker 00 Oh, he is. I'm just wondering at what point, how many escapes does it take before maybe we keep a really close eye on this?
12:53 Speaker 01 Yeah.
12:54 Speaker 00 Now, I get it. It might be a little bit tougher in the hospital, but you could always cuff somebody to the bed, I believe.
13:00 Speaker 01 I guess. I love the, I love the fact that the dog bit him, you know?
13:04 Speaker 00 Uh, well, it happened, uh, three days later when he was caught from this escape. Uh, police dog bit him again.
13:12 Speaker 01 Good.
13:12 Speaker 00 And he was taken to the hospital to be checked out.
13:16 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:16 Speaker 00 Now, here's the thing, right? I, I watch a lot of body cams, videos. It's no secret. There are a lot of people who ask to be taken to the hospital.
13:27 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:28 Speaker 00 Even when they have no vis- visible injuries, a lot of times I think it's because they don't want to go to jail.
13:34 Speaker 01 Right. Trying to, to delay.
13:36 Speaker 00 And, and, and sometimes if they go to the hospital, they can just be released from the hospital.
13:43 Speaker 01 They can.
13:44 Speaker 00 It, I, people even talk about how it happened.
13:47 Speaker 01 Yeah.
13:48 Speaker 00 Um, but I also think maybe there's a thing here where he knows it's easier to escape from the hospital. So maybe that's why he's, he's wanting to go that route.
13:59 Speaker 01 Right.
14:00 Speaker 00 You know, every time he's caught.
14:02 Speaker 01 And may, maybe it's, maybe he allows the dog to bite him, knowing it's going to get him on the ride to the hospital.
14:08 Speaker 00 You can't put it past.
14:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:10 Speaker 00 Um, these people that they'd be willing to, to do anything. Even to let a, a dog bite you as, as bad as that might hurt. That's kind of one of those things I try to steer away from.
14:22 Speaker 01 Dog bites?
14:23 Speaker 00 Specifically letting dogs bite me.
14:26 Speaker 01 If, if your dogs bit you, I would laugh.
14:28 Speaker 00 Yeah. I mean, one of them's got like four teeth.
14:31 Speaker 01 Yeah.
14:32 Speaker 00 She's older and even the one that has all the teeth are super small. I mean, an eight pound Maltese, not going to do too much damage.
14:42 Speaker 01 No.
14:42 Speaker 00 But man, they bark like they're badasses.
14:44 Speaker 01 Oh, man. Yeah, they think they're something.
14:46 Speaker 00 They do. So then he got to the hospital again, right? He's just the hospital every time. Harold asked to use the bathroom. When his chains were unlocked, he lunged at the officer and grabbed the officer's gun. When another officer came into the room, somehow he managed to get a hold of that officer's gun too, and forced both officers into the bathroom. And then he again escaped from the hospital.
15:13 Speaker 01 I would think there should be like,
15:16 Speaker 01 something when you pull up his name in the system, it says, hey, he will trick you at the hospital.
15:23 Speaker 00 Yeah.
15:24 Speaker 01 You know, do not let him out of the chain.
15:25 Speaker 00 Well, and I, you know, I don't want to laugh about it, but I have a feeling when these two guys got back, if they were guys, it just said officers, but whoever. When these two officers got back to the station, at a certain point, you know, they were going to be made fun of.
15:42 Speaker 01 Oh, for sure.
15:43 Speaker 00 So just let me get this right. This guy stole your gun.
15:47 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:47 Speaker 00 And then you come in and he steals your gun.
15:50 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:52 Speaker 00 Okay, what are we doing, guys?
15:53 Speaker 01 Yeah.
15:54 Speaker 00 Can we not keep a firm grip on the gun or?
15:58 Speaker 01 I feel like it's a scenario from that movie, uh, is it The Other Guys or?
16:03 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah, with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell.
16:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, I feel like it'd be something like that where the rock comes in, making fun of those guys.
16:10 Speaker 00 You never done a Des Pop?
16:11 Speaker 01 Yeah.
16:16 Speaker 00 Harold broke into the home of Joseph and Lorraine Cole, an elderly couple who lived in an affluent neighborhood. He hid in their closet for six hours.
16:26 Speaker 01 That's a long time to hang out in a closet.
16:28 Speaker 00 It is. So Lorraine heard some scratching coming from the closet. So she called for her husband. Harold jumped out with a gun and told the terrified couple, he just wanted to get away. He stole their car and fled the area.
16:45 Speaker 01 You know, he's really tough with these police and escaping, but here he's afraid and hangs out in the closet for six hours and then, you know.
16:53 Speaker 00 Well, thankfully, he, he didn't shoot and kill anyone.
16:56 Speaker 01 Oh, I'm glad he didn't.
16:59 Speaker 00 A few days later, he stole a car from a 22 year old in Hialeah. On October 14th, 1984, Harold was pulled over in Georgia with the stolen car. He was almost let go, but the officer realized he had a fake driver's license. When he gave the officer the wrong birthday.
17:19 Speaker 01 See, that's the key. When you have a fake ID, you have to memorize what it says on the front.
17:25 Speaker 00 Yeah.
17:26 Speaker 01 Your name, your address, your birthday.
17:29 Speaker 00 You gotta know all the details.
17:30 Speaker 01 Yeah.
17:31 Speaker 00 Right? You can't just put McLovin on your driver's license with a, a fake date and then not know any of the, the details.
17:39 Speaker 01 It's like some of the first things we learn in spy craft, you know? I mean, memorize who you are going to tell people you are.
17:46 Speaker 00 Yeah. Well, when you're like Jason Bourne and you go to your bank deposit box and you pull out 23 different passports and various names, you gotta keep all that stuff straight.
17:58 Speaker 01 Not easy, unless you're part of Mensa.
18:02 Speaker 00 In 1985, prosecutors dropped the attempted murder charge for Harold's girlfriend. And he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of the jail guard as well as kidnapping, armed robbery and burglary. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and I feel like, okay, that, that's a pretty fair sentence.
18:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, for what he did.
18:24 Speaker 00 You know, attempted murder, armed robbery, kidnapping.
18:30 Speaker 00 I, I could make a case that maybe they shouldn't have dropped the attempted murder charge for, on his girlfriend, but. At the time of sentencing, Harold told the judge per the Miami Herald, "I don't feel like I'm a threat to society. I don't consider myself a criminal."
18:47 Speaker 01 What do you consider yourself? You're doing criminal action.
18:51 Speaker 00 But that's the thing, right? You have these criminals who are caught, they just pretty much do whatever they want.
19:00 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:01 Speaker 00 And then when they get in front of the judge, they're like, you know, I'm not a threat to anybody. I know I tried to kill my girlfriend. I stole, you know, officers' guns. I kidnapped them. I forced them into another room. I kidnapped, you know, held an elderly couple at gunpoint, stole their car, stole another person's car using a gun, but I'm really not a threat to society.
19:28 Speaker 01 Really wasn't gonna ever use the gun.
19:31 Speaker 00 But here's the problem, right? I said 30 years seems to me like a pretty fair sentence.
19:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:36 Speaker 00 Here's the problem that always comes up. In 1997, he was released after serving just 13 years.
19:44 Speaker 01 See, that's a bunch of, uh, malarkey.
19:47 Speaker 00 Malarkey. Wash your mouth out with lava, young man.
19:51 Speaker 01 Yes.
19:51 Speaker 00 It is, right? 30 years is fair. 13 years is too low. Now, I get it. People don't do their whole time, but this is less than half.
20:03 Speaker 01 It's barely a third.
20:05 Speaker 00 You're right.
20:06 Speaker 01 I mean, technically. I don't want to, you know, jump over you as a genius, but.
20:11 Speaker 00 Yeah. It's actually closer to half than it is to being a third, but you know, who's, not to split hairs, but, uh.
20:20 Speaker 01 You.
20:22 Speaker 00 But apparently, he was one of hundreds of inmates who earned early release due to what was called game time.
20:31 Speaker 00 He was exempt from a state law passed in 1995, requiring inmates to serve at least 85% of their sentence. And this was a big problem. And we've talked about it in other cases as well. You know, this, uh, whether you call it gain time or time off for good behavior, or whatever it is, there have been states and, and at times where you could almost gain like two for one.
21:03 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:04 Speaker 00 As long as you were good and you weren't causing trouble, um, your sentence would be reduced dramatically. Now 85%, okay, I'm a little better with that. You know, 85% would be like 25 years.
21:21 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:21 Speaker 00 Or something.
21:22 Speaker 01 Somewhere around there. Yeah.
21:23 Speaker 00 I, I'd be fine with that. As long as you're a model inmate, you go through some programs, you do what you're supposed to do. I'd be okay with that. But 13 years, I'm ticked off.
21:33 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's not right.
21:34 Speaker 00 I, I don't agree with that at all. So, Shandell meets Harold, right? We talked about that.
21:44 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:44 Speaker 00 She had no idea that he was a violent criminal. When, you know, he befriended her, she thought, now, you know, here's a guy, he's respectable guy.
21:57 Speaker 01 Yeah.
21:57 Speaker 00 Married father, he's involved in the, the church community. I, I think when you're looking at people where, you know, you're asking the question, do I, how high do I have to have my guard up?
22:11 Speaker 01 Right.
22:12 Speaker 00 There are some people who rightly or wrongly, it could be completely incorrect, but you view them as less of a risk than, than other people.
22:24 Speaker 01 You know, he, he's a dad, you know, and he looks like he's good with his kids. There's a notch up, you know? Oh, he's married. They seem happy. Another notch up. And he goes to the same church.
22:35 Speaker 00 Right.
22:36 Speaker 01 He's gotta be a good person. Another notch up.
22:38 Speaker 00 I'm right with you. Right? He just doesn't seem like on the surface and everything for us is right on the surface because nobody really knows what's under the surface all the time. On November 6th, 1998, Harold picked Shandelle up from work and drove her home. He left her apartment at about 5:30 PM. She began making calls, looking for a ride to pick up Quatisha, who was being watched by a family member. She hadn't found a ride by 10 PM. At that time, Harold returned to her apartment in a car he rented earlier that day.
23:17 Speaker 00 He told Shandelle they needed to talk, but first he agreed to drive her to pick up her daughter. And, you know, this is a tough position for Shandelle to be in.
23:30 Speaker 01 Sure it is.
23:31 Speaker 00 You don't have a car, but you gotta go pick your daughter up. You're calling around, you're calling around. No one can help you out. You might have to agree to let this guy help you.
23:43 Speaker 01 Somebody that you don't really want to be alone in a car with maybe, but this time you're like,
23:48 Speaker 00 Yeah.
23:48 Speaker 01 I'll do what I have to.
23:49 Speaker 00 Well, at the very least, I think her, her thoughts had changed to a, some degree from
23:56 Speaker 01 Wrong guard.
23:57 Speaker 00 The time she first met him. He wasn't exactly who she thought he was. So they picked up Quatisha and returned to Shandelle's apartment. Harold again told her they needed to talk. Shandelle agreed, but then the phone rang. So she answered the phone, had a brief conversation, and after hanging up, told Harold he needed to leave because she was expecting someone. Now, this was a lie, but she wanted him to leave because it was late and she was tired.
24:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, I get it. She just wanted him to go, but didn't want to really hurt his feelings.
24:35 Speaker 00 Yeah, because he had already said, right? We need to talk. A certain point, you get tired. You're like, I don't want to sit and talk for an hour or whatever it's going to be. But Harold immediately attacked her and choked Shandell until she lost consciousness. She woke up and then Harold choked her again until she passed out. So, I mean, you talk about, you know, going from, it might not be zero because I think she had her suspicions.
25:06 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:07 Speaker 00 But really, you know, driving to help you pick your daughter up, it kind of is zero to 60.
25:14 Speaker 01 It really is. I mean, and you think about the whole relationship. I mean, at one point, she trusted him enough just to go get his, get her daughter without her.
25:23 Speaker 00 Yeah.
25:24 Speaker 01 You know, I mean, that's a lot of trust.
25:25 Speaker 00 It is.
25:27 Speaker 01 And now all of a sudden, you know, this guy is choking you, making you pass out.
25:32 Speaker 00 Multiple times.
25:33 Speaker 01 Multiple times.
25:34 Speaker 00 In November, 1998, Shandell did an interview with the Miami Herald, recounting her harrowing experience. She said about the attack, he just jumped me. He was choking me. I was fighting him. I fell to the floor. That's when I fell out. I woke up in his car. My daughter was in the front seat. So undoubtedly an extremely scary situation for Shando.
26:00 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:01 Speaker 00 And I would think for Quatisha too, because how much of this is she witnessing?
26:07 Speaker 01 She's gotta be nervous. I mean, even at a, you know, kindergarten's age, it's gotta be scary.
26:14 Speaker 00 Yeah, I would think so. Absolutely. Shandell's landlord, who occupied the house that her apartment was attached to, later testified that he heard shouting coming from the apartment. When he looked outside a short time later, he saw Harold standing at the driver's side door of a car and Quatisha standing by the passenger door. He did not see Shandell. As Shandell recounted, when she woke up the second time, she was in the backseat of Harold's vehicle parked in the driveway. Quatisha was in the front seat and Harold was in the driver's seat. He began driving towards the Everglades. Okay, now let's, let's talk about it, right? Florida.
26:56 Speaker 01 Yeah.
26:57 Speaker 00 The Everglades, I'm sure there's a lot of things you can do.
27:02 Speaker 01 Right.
27:04 Speaker 00 In and around the Everglades.
27:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
27:06 Speaker 00 But the alligators just scare me to no end.
27:09 Speaker 01 Yeah.
27:10 Speaker 00 I am deathly afraid of alligators.
27:12 Speaker 01 I mean, I don't know if it's still that way today, but back in the day, if you wanted to go from east coast to west coast, down in the south part of Florida, you would go across Alligator Alley.
27:21 Speaker 00 Mm hmm.
27:21 Speaker 01 Right? And then both sides of you in the, I call them the berms, whatever you want to call them, the ditches. There was always, you know, the, the backish water that had the alligators in it. So if you wanted to.
27:35 Speaker 00 Did you call it backish water?
27:37 Speaker 01 Is it backish or blackish water?
27:39 Speaker 00 I think it's brackish.
27:40 Speaker 01 Brackish, that's what it is.
27:41 Speaker 00 Blackish?
27:44 Speaker 01 It's nasty water.
27:45 Speaker 00 You're gonna get, just keep replacing the second letter.
27:48 Speaker 01 Yeah.
27:48 Speaker 00 With. Another consonant, you'll get there eventually.
27:53 Speaker 01 But it's that water where the sea water, ocean water mixes with the river water and it's just.
27:59 Speaker 00 Well, we're going to talk about Alligator Alley.
28:01 Speaker 01 Are we?
28:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, factors into this case.
28:03 Speaker 01 Interesting.
28:03 Speaker 00 So you probably didn't see that part.
28:06 Speaker 01 Well, you know me, I'm just thinking ahead and remember days of being down in Florida and that was always a scary trip to take from one coast to the other coast.
28:17 Speaker 00 I don't do alligators at all. As Harold was driving, Shandell told Quatisha they were going to jump out. Harold warned her not to jump, but still pulled Quatisha into the backseat and she opened the door. When Harold saw they were about to jump, he accelerated and turned a corner, causing them to fall out of the car. He stopped and he put Shandell in the trunk and Quatisha in the backseat. Shandell remained in the trunk for 30 to 45 minutes while Harold continued driving.
28:51 Speaker 01 You ever been stuck in a trunk before?
28:53 Speaker 00 I have not.
28:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:56 Speaker 00 Why it would be.
28:57 Speaker 01 Not fun.
28:58 Speaker 00 No, I can imagine it's not fun in Florida, especially.
29:03 Speaker 01 Oh, no.
29:04 Speaker 00 With the sun beating down on you. So, I mean, this situation continues to get worse and worse.
29:12 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:13 Speaker 00 I think, you know, if you're Shandell, okay, you're looking to escape the situation by jumping out of the car with your daughter. It's not a bad idea.
29:23 Speaker 01 Doing anything at this point that you can.
29:25 Speaker 00 Yeah, because we don't know where this is going, but it doesn't seem like it's going to end well.
29:32 Speaker 01 No.
29:33 Speaker 00 But now she's in the trunk and I can only imagine, you know, the thoughts that were running through her mind. When the car stopped, Harold pulled her out of the trunk, threw her to the ground and choked her until she lost consciousness. He threaded, threatened to kill her.
29:51 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:52 Speaker 00 And accused her of using him.
29:55 Speaker 01 Well, I mean, he offered up his services.
29:58 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, technically she did use him.
30:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
30:03 Speaker 00 But it was because he offered to help her out.
30:06 Speaker 01 Absolutely.
30:07 Speaker 00 And who, what single mother is going to turn down that kind of unbelievable help from a guy she thought was a stand-up person?
30:16 Speaker 01 Right. And then she made it clear, I can't offer you, you know, what you.
30:20 Speaker 00 The other part.
30:21 Speaker 01 The other part.
30:22 Speaker 00 Romantic part.
30:23 Speaker 01 Yeah, but you know, if you want to help out, I could use the help and thank you.
30:26 Speaker 00 Yeah. So she was pleading for her life, saying, why are you doing this? I know you're not this type of person. You don't need to do this. He just kept repeating, you used me. And he said, I know I'm going to jail for the rest of my life anyway. And if I heard those words, those would, that would scare me.
30:47 Speaker 01 That would.
30:48 Speaker 00 Because that sounds like a person who doesn't, is not worried about the consequences because to them, they're already thinking they're going to jail for the rest of their life.
30:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's a hard, uh, place to D S. Escalate them from if they already if they're already there. How do you back them out of that saying, no, no, you're not going to go away for the rest of your life, you know?
31:12 Speaker 00 I'm not going to tell anybody. We'll just sweep this under the rug. It's gonna be hard. After Shandell lost consciousness, Harold left her in a remote area along US 27 near the Broward Palm Beach County line, likely thinking he had killed her. He returned home between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. on November 7. His wife, Satyria, testified that he woke her up when he returned. She went to the door to meet him and saw him wiping down the interior of his car with a cloth. The washing machine was running, and when she looked inside, she saw the clothes he had been wearing earlier.
31:52 Speaker 01 Not a good sign.
31:53 Speaker 00 Well, I mean, come on now, you know, every wife, girlfriend, listening to this. If that's the scene that you woke up to. I mean, what are you thinking?
32:03 Speaker 01 It's troublesome.
32:04 Speaker 00 First of all, your man's washing his clothes. That should be red flag number one.
32:10 Speaker 01 Well, that's true.
32:11 Speaker 00 You know, and he's only washing the clothes that he had on that day.
32:15 Speaker 01 Right.
32:16 Speaker 00 Okay, and you're wiping down the interior of your car. Not not to say that people don't wash their clothes, don't clean their car. It's also like 2:30 in the morning.
32:29 Speaker 01 Yeah, this is more like alt fiction wipe down.
32:31 Speaker 00 Yes, something has happened and I don't want to talk about it.
32:36 Speaker 01 Yeah.
32:37 Speaker 00 You know, so Shandell did regain consciousness. But when she did, it was daylight and she was in a remote area surrounded by foliage. Her daughter was nowhere to be found.
32:50 Speaker 01 It's a scary moment right then.
32:52 Speaker 00 Yeah, just panic, right? Number one, this guy has essentially tried to kill you like three or four times. He's choked you to the point where you lost consciousness. At one point this last time, he might have even thought he killed her.
33:09 Speaker 01 Yeah.
33:09 Speaker 00 She managed to get to the side of the road and tried to flag down a passing driver. She said about 10 to 20 cars passed by before two men stopped to help her. She could hardly walk without falling. She was barefoot, weak and bleeding from her injuries.
33:27 Speaker 01 I'm surprised that dozen plus cars went by her. Like, does nobody want to help anybody anymore or are they that scared?
33:36 Speaker 00 Yeah, I mean, you and I talk about it, right? The difference between wanting to stop and help people. But the, the notion that, okay, this could be a trick. This doesn't sound like that to me. You have a woman who is obviously in distress. She's bleeding. She can hardly walk. Not to say that it couldn't be a ruse to get you to stop. And then a guy jumps out of the woods. We don't know, but it doesn't seem the, the same.
34:04 Speaker 01 Right.
34:05 Speaker 00 Here to me. I would have a hard time passing this person and not stopping because they obviously appear to be in need.
34:14 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
34:15 Speaker 00 She told the Miami Herald, I was staggering. So people probably thought I was drunk, but I don't drink. If it wasn't for them, the two men, I don't know what would have happened.
34:27 Speaker 01 Yeah, well, thank goodness they stopped.
34:29 Speaker 00 So police obtained a statement from Shandell at the hospital and detectives went to Harold's home to determine Quatisha's whereabouts. And again, going back to Shandell, yeah, you're a mess, right? You went through a lot of stuff, but I can guarantee you the biggest thing on her mind is where is my five year old daughter?
34:50 Speaker 01 Absolutely. It's the only thing she cares about.
34:51 Speaker 00 Yeah. Shortly after the detectives arrived, Harold drove off. They followed him to a gas station. They approached him. When they asked him about Quatisha, he seemed calm and denied having any knowledge of the situation. When detectives informed him that Shandell was alive and had implicated him and her daughter's disappearance. He went pale and began to sweat, shake and cry.
35:18 Speaker 01 Yeah, because he's that type of person.
35:21 Speaker 00 Well, it's also kind of a dead giveaway that you are involved.
35:25 Speaker 01 Yeah.
35:26 Speaker 00 You know, hey, I didn't have anything to do with that. You find out one piece of information and then you're sweating, shaking and crying.
35:34 Speaker 01 He thought he was going to be free and clear of any problems.
35:37 Speaker 00 Yeah, well, I think he thought Shandelle was dead. He was taken to the police department and his car was sent for processing. Harold was read his rights and consented to provide DNA samples and to have his car searched, although he hesitated before signing the consent form.
35:55 Speaker 01 I'm sure he was like, if I don't sign it, they know something's up. If I do sign it, probably going to be the end of me.
36:02 Speaker 00 Yeah, he's probably maybe also thinking, how well did I wipe down the interior?
36:06 Speaker 01 Right.
36:07 Speaker 00 Of the car. Shandelle Maycock's blood was later found on the liner of the trunk of the car. And that's we always go back and say, right? You can be a whiz at cleaning stuff up.
36:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
36:19 Speaker 00 But to get rid of every single drop of blood, I think in a lot of situations is very, very tough.
36:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's why you burn the car.
36:29 Speaker 00 Okay.
36:30 Speaker 01 But don't do that. We want you to get caught.
36:33 Speaker 00 Yeah, you're just saying you burn cars.
36:36 Speaker 01 I burn cars.
36:37 Speaker 00 Okay. During his interview, Harold gave no information regarding Quatisha's whereabouts. As the interview continued, the detectives accused him of lying. Harold said, per Bratty versus State, I can't tell you. Even if I'm found innocent, my family will not talk to me again. And I feel like that's a bad, bad omen.
36:59 Speaker 01 It is.
37:00 Speaker 00 Because you are hinting at the fact that you've done something so horrific that your family will never speak to you.
37:09 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:11 Speaker 00 The interview lasted into the early morning hours of November 8th. At one point detectives lied to Harold and told him his mother suffered a heart attack. He said he was tired of talking and if they didn't believe him, they could take him to jail. Now, he was visibly upset about this remark about his mother.
37:33 Speaker 01 Yeah.
37:34 Speaker 00 But even that didn't cause him to give up any information about Quatisha. He was basically sticking to his story and saying, hey, you don't believe me? Take me to jail. I got nothing to say.
37:45 Speaker 01 He was holding strong on that.
37:46 Speaker 00 Yeah, he was. The interview ended, but Harold remained in the interview room. A few hours later, detectives returned to bring him breakfast. They found him standing on a chair in the corner of the room with his shoes off. And Harold said, I'll take you to where I left her.
38:05 Speaker 01 Okay.
38:06 Speaker 00 Detectives drove north from Miami Dade County on US Highway 27 through Broward County and into Palm Beach County to the site where Shandell was found. Other officers were already at this site conducting a search. Detectives drove with Harold along dirt roads and through fields off the highway for about three hours, but found no trace of Quatisha.
38:32 Speaker 01 Probably felt like they were on a
38:34 Speaker 00 Wild goose chase?
38:34 Speaker 01 Yes.
38:35 Speaker 00 Yeah, I knew. I knew that's probably what you were thinking of. After Harold had led them in a vain search for several hours, a detective pulled him out of the car, pinned him against the side of the vehicle by placing a forearm across his throat. The detective held this position for about 15 seconds and demanded to know where Harold left Quatisha. But Harold didn't respond.
39:01 Speaker 01 You know what? I can see myself getting frustrated like that.
39:05 Speaker 00 Yeah.
39:05 Speaker 01 Like, look, I've been driving you around for three hours. You have just been wasting our time. Where is this little girl at? Where is she?
39:14 Speaker 00 Well, you know, I, how many body cam, police body cam videos I watch?
39:19 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:20 Speaker 00 I don't think I have the patience to be any type of law enforcement officer.
39:25 Speaker 01 No.
39:26 Speaker 00 The shit that they have to deal with.
39:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
39:29 Speaker 00 I, I have a feeling I would snap on somebody.
39:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, it'd be difficult for sure to remain orderly.
39:36 Speaker 00 Professional during, you know,
39:40 Speaker 00 All the type of verbal and abuse that they take.
39:45 Speaker 01 Because there are people that will try to goat you into doing something.
39:48 Speaker 00 Absolutely.
39:49 Speaker 01 You know, so.
39:50 Speaker 00 And they know they can get away with saying certain stuff.
39:53 Speaker 01 Absolutely.
39:54 Speaker 00 Because of freedom of speech, but you know, a person can only take so much of that.
39:59 Speaker 01 I mean, yeah.
40:00 Speaker 00 And when your job's on the line, yeah, you gotta take it. But I, I don't know if I'd be able to be like, I could always get another job.
40:07 Speaker 01 Yeah.
40:08 Speaker 00 So, you know, yeah, I get it. They have to be, you know, upset about this or getting PO'd at him. After this incident, the foot search continued. At one point during the search, Harold asked out how long it would take a body in the water to surface, speculating that although Quatisha was alive when he left her, she might have fallen into the water. At 4:00 PM, Harold admitted he left Quatisha in a different location. He directed detectives to a section of Interstate 75 in Broward County, known as Alligator Alley.
40:49 Speaker 00 He claimed he left Quatisha alive on the other side of the road at a bridge crossing over a canal.
40:57 Speaker 01 Either way, it's a really shitty thing to do.
41:00 Speaker 00 Well, it is because we're talking about a five-year-old here.
41:04 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:05 Speaker 00 In Alligator Alley. You know, what is the survival rate for a five-year-old that's left anywhere?
41:15 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:16 Speaker 00 In, in any type of remote area, it's, it's probably not great. But now we add in vicious alligators?
41:24 Speaker 01 Yeah.
41:24 Speaker 00 It's not good at all. So he directed detectives to three bridges in the area because he wasn't sure exactly where he left her. He gave different reasonings for leaving the child on the side of the road in the Everglades in the middle of the night. He was angry with Shandell and he was worried that Quatisha would tell others what he did. He admitted that when he left her, he knew she would probably die.
41:52 Speaker 01 No, crap.
41:55 Speaker 00 You're in the Everglades in the middle of the night, it's pitch black.
41:59 Speaker 01 Yeah, I can't.
42:00 Speaker 00 A five year old.
42:01 Speaker 01 I don't even know how an adult person would make it through the night in some stretches of Alligator Alley, at least back in the day when I would drive through there. There's no way I would want to walk that stretch.
42:16 Speaker 01 Because they're everywhere.
42:17 Speaker 00 Yeah, let alone a five year old man.
42:19 Speaker 01 Yeah.
42:20 Speaker 00 So the search continued until dark. Harold was escorted back to the police department and taken back to the interrogation room, which had not been touched since he was in it that morning. Upon entering the room, detectives noticed the metal ceiling grate in the corner of the room was bent on both ends. They suspected he was trying to escape.
42:42 Speaker 01 That's why he was up on the chair.
42:44 Speaker 00 So, again, to your point, do you not check this guy's record and see that he's escaped multiple times?
42:52 Speaker 01 You would think, no wonder he's like, he knew he was going to get caught, so he's shifted immediately saying, I'll tell you where she's at, you know, to get out of there.
43:00 Speaker 00 Buying time for something. He was questioned again, but never admitted to killing Quatisha. On the morning of November 9th, two fishermen found Quatisha's floating body in a canal running parallel to Alligator Alley. At first, the fishermen thought the body was a pajama clad doll.
43:22 Speaker 01 I bet, so tiny.
43:23 Speaker 00 And we've heard that a lot, right? Whether somebody says, I thought it was a mannequin. In this case, you know, she's smaller, so they think maybe it's a doll. She was found about 15 miles from where officers focused their search efforts. A medical examiner determined that she suffered alligator bites to her torso and head while she was still alive.
43:45 Speaker 01 Oh my God.
43:47 Speaker 00 There were teeth marks deep in her skull. Her left arm was bitten off after death.
43:53 Speaker 01 I can't even fathom what that little girl went through to be bitten and still remain alive for however long.
44:01 Speaker 00 No.
44:02 Speaker 01 And knowing the fear of knowing what was about to come.
44:07 Speaker 00 Well, and there's more. They determined that the fall from the car caused her to suffer a broken skull, a damaged liver and other blunt trauma. But it is possible she could have survived with treatment.
44:20 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:21 Speaker 00 So for me, that goes back to his saying, I knew she would probably die.
44:27 Speaker 01 Yeah.
44:28 Speaker 00 Well, first of all, she was badly injured. And second of all, you're leaving her in alligator alley in the middle of the night.
44:38 Speaker 01 Purposely.
44:39 Speaker 00 Yeah.
44:39 Speaker 01 Is what I would believe, right?
44:41 Speaker 00 Right.
44:42 Speaker 01 Cause he was hoping that there would be no evidence left.
44:46 Speaker 00 I believe so. Because of these injuries, she was likely not conscious at the time she was bitten by alligators.
44:54 Speaker 01 Man, you hope, you hope that's.
44:55 Speaker 00 You hope that's the case. She also suffered brush burn injuries while she was alive, consistent with her having grazed a hard, flat surface from falling out of a car and sliding on the road.
45:08 Speaker 01 And that stuff hurts. I've, I've done that. Uh, when, when I was younger, I was on a moped.
45:14 Speaker 00 Mm hmm.
45:15 Speaker 01 And I went off the road and came back on it, caught the lip and it, I went sliding down the road, just my shorts on and you know.
45:23 Speaker 00 Yeah, they called it brush burn. We've always called it road rash.
45:26 Speaker 01 Road rash, yeah.
45:27 Speaker 00 I think it's, it's pretty much the same thing. She suffered several injuries after she died or while she was close to death, including more brush burns and alligator bites and injuries to her lips, consistent with fish feeding on her remains.
45:43 Speaker 01 Yeah.
45:44 Speaker 00 Poor girl, man. It's just, I'm heartbroken for her. It was determined that Quatisha's death was primarily caused by blunt force trauma to the left side of her head, consistent with her either having fallen from a great distance or having been thrown onto a prominent protruding object, such as the jutting rocks along the canal where her body was found.
46:11 Speaker 01 Yeah, that's true.
46:12 Speaker 00 Well, if that's the case though, does it change your way of thinking in regards to his story? And I just left her out there, even though I knew she was probably going to die versus maybe he had even more of a hand in it than he was willing to admit.
46:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, to me, none of this would have happened if he wouldn't have kidnapped him.
46:37 Speaker 00 Yeah, well, either way, however it went down, and in my view, he's responsible for her death.
46:42 Speaker 01 Oh yeah, 100%.
46:43 Speaker 00 100%. Shandell was released from the hospital on the day that her daughter's body was found.
46:50 Speaker 01 Oh, man. How rough on her.
46:52 Speaker 00 Shandell's brother, Michael Washington, told the Miami Herald that she was still shocked and confused. He said, "From the way Shandell explained it to me, she said she never expected he was that kind of man. He was in with the church, he was helping our people, that kind of stuff."
47:08 Speaker 01 Like we said earlier, you know, I mean, why would you think anything different? He was, you know, showing the good, the good card, right? Like, look at me, I'm a good father, good husband, a good church-going guy, and I'm going to be here to help you out because that's just who I am.
47:24 Speaker 00 Yeah. On November 10th, 1998, Harold was charged with first-degree murder and felony child neglect. He was already being held on kidnapping, burglary, attempted first-degree murder, and attempted escape charges.
47:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
47:39 Speaker 00 His murder trial didn't start until July 9th, 2007.
47:44 Speaker 01 Wow.
47:45 Speaker 00 That's nine years.
47:46 Speaker 01 That's a heck of a delay.
47:49 Speaker 00 Almost nine years after he was charged. The prosecutor described the horrific details of Quatisha's last moments, and Shandell bravely testified about surviving the attack and losing her daughter. And you would have to call that brave.
48:05 Speaker 01 Oh, for sure.
48:06 Speaker 00 First of all, it'd be very difficult.
48:08 Speaker 01 Yeah.
48:08 Speaker 00 To get up on their, on the stand and talk about that. But you also want this guy to go away.
48:14 Speaker 01 You do.
48:15 Speaker 00 In their closing argument, the defense tried to blame Shandell for Quatisha's death, saying, "Quatisha Maycock suffered an injury and died as a result of flying out of a car and hitting her head. It's up to you to decide whether Mr. Brady is responsible for that."
48:35 Speaker 01 They were in the car because they were kidnapped.
48:38 Speaker 00 Yeah.
48:39 Speaker 01 And he wouldn't let them out of the car. And middle of the Everglades, they had no other choice but tried to get out of the car.
48:46 Speaker 00 I get it, right? You know, Shandell is the one who tried to, you know, to get them to jump out, ultimately did jump out. But it's the reason behind it.
48:57 Speaker 01 Right.
48:57 Speaker 00 That's important. It's not because she wanted to hurt her daughter, it's because she thought this guy was going to kill them both.
49:04 Speaker 01 Yeah, and he did speed up knowing that they were trying to jump out.
49:08 Speaker 00 Yeah.
49:08 Speaker 01 And driving a radical.
49:12 Speaker 00 Early in the closing argument, the prosecution asked the jury, how desperate would you have to be to jump out of a moving car with your child?
49:22 Speaker 01 Pretty desperate.
49:23 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think so. And I think a jury would see it that way as well. On July 17th, Harold was found guilty of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, burglary of a structure with an assault or battery therein, child neglect causing great bodily harm and attempted escape. On August 31st, the jury voted for the death penalty 11 to one. And it was during the penalty phase that the jury got to hear about his very long criminal history.
49:54 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:55 Speaker 00 And we detailed out a lot of it. In October, the judge upheld the death penalty and told Harold, as quoted by the Miami Herald, the defendant caused this five-year-old to die alone in the wilderness and to be mutilated by monsters of the swamp. Adults are supposed to protect children from monsters. They're not supposed to be the monsters themselves.
50:20 Speaker 01 Spot on there, you know, and this guy deserves what he's gonna get.
50:24 Speaker 00 Yeah, I think it's very well said by the judge. In 2017, a decade after his conviction, Harold's death sentence was overturned after the Supreme Court found Florida's death penalty law to be unconstitutional. He was granted a new penalty phase before a jury. So Florida changed the law in 2023. Now a jury can recommend death by a majority of eight to four, but the final sentence is determined by a judge. Harold's resentencing trial began on January 20th, 2026. So just this year,
51:01 Speaker 01 Right.
51:02 Speaker 00 Prosecutor Ab Rifkin told the jurors that Quatisha was smart. She was loving. She was sweet like candy. Harold and Abid Hunter drove to a remote part of the Everglades, known as Alligator Alley, and left Quatisha to be eaten alive by alligators.
51:21 Speaker 01 He knew what he was doing. He absolutely knew it.
51:24 Speaker 00 He did. Prosecutors still aren't fully sure whether he abandoned her on the side of the road or threw her into the water.
51:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, I think he probably tossed her in the water.
51:33 Speaker 00 I think so too, and maybe even onto the rocks, which caused, you know, some of the head injuries. His motive for murdering the child was that he didn't want her to be able to identify him after he brutally attacked her mother. Once again, jurors heard testimony from Quatisha's mother, Shandell Maycock. She said, "Every day I wake up and I remember what happened to Quatisha. There's no justice that can bring her back, but I have to speak for her now because she cannot." Prosecutors argued that Harold's history of violence, his calculated actions, and his lack of remorse warranted the harshest penalty.
52:16 Speaker 01 This is a guy that thought he wasn't even a criminal.
52:18 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm not a criminal. I'm not dangerous. State attorney Rifkin in closing statement said, "A child at the beginning of her life is dead because Harold Brady wanted her dead. This is the fate he chose for a child whose only crime was having witnessed what he had done." The defense presented mitigating evidence such as Harold's troubled upbringing in a segregated neighborhood in Miami, his mental health problems, and his attempts at rehabilitation while incarcerated. Before he was incarcerated in 1998, he was a church leader and a loving father, who was affected by the loss of several close family members. Harold and his wife were still married, and he was a model prisoner with only two
53:03 Speaker 00 disciplinary reports. And that's great, but it doesn't change what you did.
53:11 Speaker 01 No.
53:12 Speaker 00 I understand, they're trying to mitigate.
53:16 Speaker 01 Right.
53:16 Speaker 00 And, you know, it's up to the judge or the jury or whoever to make of that evidence, you know, what they, what they will. But to me, I just don't put a lot into it.
53:29 Speaker 01 Oh, you don't get a pass because you did something bad, but because you're going to say the reason you did something bad was because of things in your past. No, you're an adult. You know what you're doing is wrong. Don't do it.
53:43 Speaker 00 Well, and also how you've acted in prison since you've been incarcerated.
53:50 Speaker 00 That doesn't, that doesn't mean anything to me because you shouldn't be allowed to get away with anything in prison. That's, you're in prison.
53:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, exactly.
53:59 Speaker 00 You don't have a lot of choices. He's dealt with throat cancer and brain damage after being attacked by inmates in 2019.
54:08 Speaker 01 Well, you know, you chose to do what you did that put you in prison. So that's unfortunate, but that's what happens in some prisons, you know?
54:15 Speaker 00 Well, and I do wonder how much of that had to do with him hurting a child because we know from other cases that inmates don't look kindly on people who hurt kids.
54:26 Speaker 01 They don't.
54:27 Speaker 00 They could have killed 20 people, but they think you're the scum of the earth because you hurt or killed a, a child.
54:35 Speaker 01 Yeah.
54:35 Speaker 00 The defense argued that Harold would be punished by dying behind bars. But the question was whether he would die of natural causes or be executed. On January 30th, 2026, after four hours of deliberations, the jury recommended life in prison.
54:54 Speaker 01 Good.
54:54 Speaker 00 Outside the courthouse, Shandell Maycock said to reporters, she was my world. This isn't just about one family. It's about protecting other children, about making sure monsters like this are never free again. So Harold is currently 76 years old, meaning I don't think there's any doubt he is going to die behind bars.
55:16 Speaker 01 Yes.
55:17 Speaker 00 And he should.
55:17 Speaker 01 It may be natural causes or maybe somebody will take him out, whatever.
55:21 Speaker 00 Either way, he's never going to see, uh, freedom.
55:24 Speaker 01 No.
55:25 Speaker 00 Again, and some people could argue that, okay, he should have been executed. I don't really have a, a preference either way. My big thing is I just don't want these people back out on the street.
55:40 Speaker 01 No.
55:41 Speaker 00 You know, if you're a guy like this who has such a long criminal history of doing really terrible things, you just can't be trusted in society.
55:51 Speaker 01 No, you don't. Look, they could do the meth, you know, go down the, the pike and execute them.
56:00 Speaker 01 I'm fine. I don't have a problem with that.
56:01 Speaker 00 Yeah, I'm, I'm fine with it too.
56:03 Speaker 01 But the fact is, is that if he has to wake up in a small cell every day, whether without a roommate, depends on the, where he's, where he's located, and he doesn't have all the freedoms, and he's not going to be looked upon as a good person, and even in prison.
56:19 Speaker 00 No.
56:20 Speaker 01 Right? I mean, he'll be watching his back every place he goes in there.
56:24 Speaker 00 Yeah.
56:24 Speaker 01 Um, I'm good with that too, because you know, what he did was unexcusable.
56:30 Speaker 00 It was. Absolutely is. But, um, he's just a terrible guy.
56:35 Speaker 01 He is.
56:36 Speaker 00 I mean, you've already, you know, kind of shown the world and the courts that, okay, you got off early.
56:45 Speaker 01 Right.
56:46 Speaker 00 They let you go 13 years into a 30 year sentence.
56:49 Speaker 01 Yeah.
56:50 Speaker 00 And all you did was commit crime after crime after crime.
56:54 Speaker 01 Tried to escape. It just proves that that was a mistake.
56:57 Speaker 00 It was, yes.
56:58 Speaker 01 He should have stayed in the whole freaking time.
57:00 Speaker 00 Yeah, now, it's, it's easy to see it, you know, in hindsight, but if you get caught again, I think all that should be factored in.
57:09 Speaker 01 It should be. The, the other thing is, is it just goes to show you that you can't trust meeting anybody, right? What they, what they display on the outside is, might not be who they really are.
57:21 Speaker 00 It's really tough, which makes it hard to date, you know, for
57:25 Speaker 01 Sure.
57:25 Speaker 00 those, those of you out on the, in the dating world, I, I feel bad for you in a way, because I, I don't know if I could do it now. I'm glad that I found someone and I've been married 30 years.
57:39 Speaker 01 Yeah.
57:40 Speaker 00 Um, because I have a lot less trust in people, which I hate to say, but I think podcasting true crime will do that to you.
57:49 Speaker 01 Sure will. Yeah.
57:50 Speaker 00 It is hard to keep the same level of trust in people when you're doing these types of stories day in and day out.
57:57 Speaker 01 But I, I can see people dating today going, all right, I need a blood sample to run some DNA test on you. I need to run a, a few, uh, background checks, uh, need your fingerprints and, uh, I guess while you're at it, go ahead and get your credit, uh, credit check.
58:12 Speaker 00 Genetic genealogy, just to make sure there's no, uh, uh, big time serial killers in your family.
58:20 Speaker 00 But that's it for our episode on Quatisha Mecac. It's a sad one because she was so young. What happened to her was absolutely horrific. She never got to really start living her life. Those are always tough. It is. No doubt about it. But that's it for another episode of True Crime All The Time. So for Mike. And Gibby. Stay safe and keep your own time ticking.
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