Quatisha Maycock

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. You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetime Visit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation information An Emash Digital production See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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• 1:20Speaker 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?

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Yo, I'm doing good, man.

• 1:32Speaker 00

  Did you throw a yo in front of that?

• 1:34Speaker 01

  I did.

• 1:35Speaker 00

  And then do some kind of, don't be flashing no gang signs up in here.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  I'm just telling you.

• 1:42Speaker 01

  Old school here.

• 1:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, you're old school, that's for sure. The key part of that phrase is old.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:50Speaker 00

  All right, buddy. We're diving right in. Are you ready to get into this episode of True Crime All the Time?

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 1:56Speaker 00

  We're talking about the murder of Kwatisia Makeup.

• 2:01Speaker 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.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  It is.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  But I could see maybe some people having trouble saying it. Candy is obviously much easier to say.

• 2:39Speaker 01

  Candy's all easy, rolls right off.

• 2:42Speaker 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.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 3:04Speaker 00

  Who's murdered and, you know, those evoke different types of emotions.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:11Speaker 00

  Right? All cases evoke emotions.

• 3:13Speaker 01

  They do.

• 3:14Speaker 00

  But, you know, when you talk about animals, you talk about young children, it can hit people harder.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:22Speaker 00

  Sometimes than other types of cases.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  I just don't know what is wrong with people that do anything bad.

• 3:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  I don't know what's wrong with people that can hurt a child.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  A young child. Well, we're going to get into it.

• 3:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:35Speaker 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.

• 3:46Speaker 01

  I'm still trying to figure out how to write my name.

• 3:48Speaker 00

  Yeah. I know printing you're good at. It's the cursive.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  That kind of throws you.

• 3:55Speaker 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.

• 4:00Speaker 00

  I don't know. My, my daughter, my oldest daughter is terrible with curses.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 00

  I don't think they did a lot with curses.

• 4:06Speaker 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.

• 4:19Speaker 00

  I think there should be a cursory knowledge.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:22Speaker 00

  It's kind of like telling time. I understand everybody's got a phone.

• 4:27Speaker 01

  Right.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Or a digital watch, but I feel like every adult should know how to tell time on a standard clock.

• 4:37Speaker 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.

• 4:47Speaker 00

  There's a lot of people that don't.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  I'm like, oh, my gosh. Okay. I'll see you at whatever time.

• 4:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, 5:45.

• 4:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:55Speaker 00

  Sometimes I'll just say, you know, half past the crack of your ass or something like that. Maybe that might get a.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  Might get some.

• 5:02Speaker 00

  Might be more descriptive. I don't know. Couldn't be any less for some people.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:08Speaker 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.

• 5:19Speaker 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.

• 5:30Speaker 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.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:42Speaker 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.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  I get that, you know, we both have kids and I think when my kids were born, it changed everything.

• 6:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, me too.

• 6:01Speaker 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.

• 6:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, like streaking through the quad or, you know.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  That was you.

• 6:18Speaker 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.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 6:31Speaker 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.

• 6:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:43Speaker 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.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  I think so.

• 6:49Speaker 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.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  It's always nice to hear.

• 7:14Speaker 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.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:33Speaker 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.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 8:12Speaker 00

  She, you know, was a single parent.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 8:15Speaker 00

  Here you have somebody offering an unbelievable amount of support. That would go a long way.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  But she also made it clear that. This was supposed to just be friends.

• 8:28Speaker 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.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:37Speaker 00

  He's married, a father of four, he goes to my church to now, well, he's got an agenda.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:45Speaker 00

  He's doing all these nice things, but is it because he wants to pursue this romantic relationship with me?

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it definitely would give you some questions.

• 8:55Speaker 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.

• 9:08Speaker 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.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:15Speaker 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.

• 9:21Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, you come every week.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:24Speaker 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?

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:35Speaker 00

  You might be a little less welcome.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 9:37Speaker 00

  I don't know. I mean.

• 9:38Speaker 01

  Maybe the first time be like, he just got the wrong day.

• 9:41Speaker 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.

• 9:50Speaker 01

  I just don't leave after tonight. I just like kick my shoes off and put my feet up on the.

• 9:55Speaker 00

  Just lay down on the couch and take a nap.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  What kind of snacks you got in that fridge over there?

• 9:59Speaker 00

  Harold once inappropriately placed his hand between Shandell's legs.

• 10:05Speaker 01

  Okay, that's a big no-no.

• 10:07Speaker 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.

• 10:19Speaker 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.

• 10:26Speaker 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.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:36Speaker 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.

• 10:47Speaker 01

  That's right. I got this K bar here.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  And I don't blame her at all. I mean, you gotta protect yourself. No one should violate your

• 10:55Speaker 01

  No.

• 10:56Speaker 00

  personal boundary and your safety.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  And the way they do that is to draw a very hard line very quick.

• 11:01Speaker 00

  It's a hard line.

• 11:02Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 11:02Speaker 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.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  Okay. So this, this is, uh, wanting to be with other women is not something new to him.

• 11:30Speaker 00

  No, sounds like that he had a history with as well.

• 11:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:35Speaker 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.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  So this is not a good guy.

• 12:14Speaker 00

  No, and it also sounds, it sounds like he's a very dangerous.

• 12:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:18Speaker 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.

• 12:36Speaker 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.

• 12:44Speaker 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?

• 12:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:54Speaker 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.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  I guess. I love the, I love the fact that the dog bit him, you know?

• 13:04Speaker 00

  Uh, well, it happened, uh, three days later when he was caught from this escape. Uh, police dog bit him again.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  Good.

• 13:12Speaker 00

  And he was taken to the hospital to be checked out.

• 13:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:16Speaker 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.

• 13:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:28Speaker 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.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  Right. Trying to, to delay.

• 13:36Speaker 00

  And, and, and sometimes if they go to the hospital, they can just be released from the hospital.

• 13:43Speaker 01

  They can.

• 13:44Speaker 00

  It, I, people even talk about how it happened.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:48Speaker 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.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  Right.

• 14:00Speaker 00

  You know, every time he's caught.

• 14:02Speaker 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.

• 14:08Speaker 00

  You can't put it past.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 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.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  Dog bites?

• 14:23Speaker 00

  Specifically letting dogs bite me.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  If, if your dogs bit you, I would laugh.

• 14:28Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, one of them's got like four teeth.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:32Speaker 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.

• 14:42Speaker 01

  No.

• 14:42Speaker 00

  But man, they bark like they're badasses.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  Oh, man. Yeah, they think they're something.

• 14:46Speaker 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.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  I would think there should be like,

• 15:16Speaker 01

  something when you pull up his name in the system, it says, hey, he will trick you at the hospital.

• 15:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:24Speaker 01

  You know, do not let him out of the chain.

• 15:25Speaker 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.

• 15:42Speaker 01

  Oh, for sure.

• 15:43Speaker 00

  So just let me get this right. This guy stole your gun.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:47Speaker 00

  And then you come in and he steals your gun.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  Okay, what are we doing, guys?

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:54Speaker 00

  Can we not keep a firm grip on the gun or?

• 15:58Speaker 01

  I feel like it's a scenario from that movie, uh, is it The Other Guys or?

• 16:03Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, with Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell.

• 16:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like it'd be something like that where the rock comes in, making fun of those guys.

• 16:10Speaker 00

  You never done a Des Pop?

• 16:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:16Speaker 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.

• 16:26Speaker 01

  That's a long time to hang out in a closet.

• 16:28Speaker 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.

• 16:45Speaker 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.

• 16:53Speaker 00

  Well, thankfully, he, he didn't shoot and kill anyone.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm glad he didn't.

• 16:59Speaker 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.

• 17:19Speaker 01

  See, that's the key. When you have a fake ID, you have to memorize what it says on the front.

• 17:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  Your name, your address, your birthday.

• 17:29Speaker 00

  You gotta know all the details.

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:31Speaker 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.

• 17:39Speaker 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.

• 17:46Speaker 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.

• 17:58Speaker 01

  Not easy, unless you're part of Mensa.

• 18:02Speaker 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.

• 18:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, for what he did.

• 18:24Speaker 00

  You know, attempted murder, armed robbery, kidnapping.

• 18:30Speaker 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."

• 18:47Speaker 01

  What do you consider yourself? You're doing criminal action.

• 18:51Speaker 00

  But that's the thing, right? You have these criminals who are caught, they just pretty much do whatever they want.

• 19:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:01Speaker 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.

• 19:28Speaker 01

  Really wasn't gonna ever use the gun.

• 19:31Speaker 00

  But here's the problem, right? I said 30 years seems to me like a pretty fair sentence.

• 19:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:36Speaker 00

  Here's the problem that always comes up. In 1997, he was released after serving just 13 years.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  See, that's a bunch of, uh, malarkey.

• 19:47Speaker 00

  Malarkey. Wash your mouth out with lava, young man.

• 19:51Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 19:51Speaker 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.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  It's barely a third.

• 20:05Speaker 00

  You're right.

• 20:06Speaker 01

  I mean, technically. I don't want to, you know, jump over you as a genius, but.

• 20:11Speaker 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.

• 20:20Speaker 01

  You.

• 20:22Speaker 00

  But apparently, he was one of hundreds of inmates who earned early release due to what was called game time.

• 20:31Speaker 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.

• 21:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:04Speaker 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.

• 21:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:21Speaker 00

  Or something.

• 21:22Speaker 01

  Somewhere around there. Yeah.

• 21:23Speaker 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.

• 21:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's not right.

• 21:34Speaker 00

  I, I don't agree with that at all. So, Shandell meets Harold, right? We talked about that.

• 21:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:44Speaker 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.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:57Speaker 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?

• 22:11Speaker 01

  Right.

• 22:12Speaker 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.

• 22:24Speaker 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.

• 22:35Speaker 00

  Right.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  He's gotta be a good person. Another notch up.

• 22:38Speaker 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.

• 23:17Speaker 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.

• 23:30Speaker 01

  Sure it is.

• 23:31Speaker 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.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  Somebody that you don't really want to be alone in a car with maybe, but this time you're like,

• 23:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  I'll do what I have to.

• 23:49Speaker 00

  Well, at the very least, I think her, her thoughts had changed to a, some degree from

• 23:56Speaker 01

  Wrong guard.

• 23:57Speaker 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.

• 24:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I get it. She just wanted him to go, but didn't want to really hurt his feelings.

• 24:35Speaker 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.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:07Speaker 00

  But really, you know, driving to help you pick your daughter up, it kind of is zero to 60.

• 25:14Speaker 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.

• 25:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:24Speaker 01

  You know, I mean, that's a lot of trust.

• 25:25Speaker 00

  It is.

• 25:27Speaker 01

  And now all of a sudden, you know, this guy is choking you, making you pass out.

• 25:32Speaker 00

  Multiple times.

• 25:33Speaker 01

  Multiple times.

• 25:34Speaker 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.

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:01Speaker 00

  And I would think for Quatisha too, because how much of this is she witnessing?

• 26:07Speaker 01

  She's gotta be nervous. I mean, even at a, you know, kindergarten's age, it's gotta be scary.

• 26:14Speaker 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.

• 26:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:57Speaker 00

  The Everglades, I'm sure there's a lot of things you can do.

• 27:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 27:04Speaker 00

  In and around the Everglades.

• 27:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:06Speaker 00

  But the alligators just scare me to no end.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:10Speaker 00

  I am deathly afraid of alligators.

• 27:12Speaker 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.

• 27:21Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 27:21Speaker 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.

• 27:35Speaker 00

  Did you call it backish water?

• 27:37Speaker 01

  Is it backish or blackish water?

• 27:39Speaker 00

  I think it's brackish.

• 27:40Speaker 01

  Brackish, that's what it is.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  Blackish?

• 27:44Speaker 01

  It's nasty water.

• 27:45Speaker 00

  You're gonna get, just keep replacing the second letter.

• 27:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:48Speaker 00

  With. Another consonant, you'll get there eventually.

• 27:53Speaker 01

  But it's that water where the sea water, ocean water mixes with the river water and it's just.

• 27:59Speaker 00

  Well, we're going to talk about Alligator Alley.

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Are we?

• 28:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, factors into this case.

• 28:03Speaker 01

  Interesting.

• 28:03Speaker 00

  So you probably didn't see that part.

• 28:06Speaker 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.

• 28:17Speaker 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.

• 28:51Speaker 01

  You ever been stuck in a trunk before?

• 28:53Speaker 00

  I have not.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:56Speaker 00

  Why it would be.

• 28:57Speaker 01

  Not fun.

• 28:58Speaker 00

  No, I can imagine it's not fun in Florida, especially.

• 29:03Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 29:04Speaker 00

  With the sun beating down on you. So, I mean, this situation continues to get worse and worse.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:13Speaker 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.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  Doing anything at this point that you can.

• 29:25Speaker 00

  Yeah, because we don't know where this is going, but it doesn't seem like it's going to end well.

• 29:32Speaker 01

  No.

• 29:33Speaker 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.

• 29:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:52Speaker 00

  And accused her of using him.

• 29:55Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, he offered up his services.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, technically she did use him.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 30:03Speaker 00

  But it was because he offered to help her out.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 30:07Speaker 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?

• 30:16Speaker 01

  Right. And then she made it clear, I can't offer you, you know, what you.

• 30:20Speaker 00

  The other part.

• 30:21Speaker 01

  The other part.

• 30:22Speaker 00

  Romantic part.

• 30:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, but you know, if you want to help out, I could use the help and thank you.

• 30:26Speaker 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.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  That would.

• 30:48Speaker 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.

• 30:59Speaker 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?

• 31:12Speaker 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.

• 31:52Speaker 01

  Not a good sign.

• 31:53Speaker 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?

• 32:03Speaker 01

  It's troublesome.

• 32:04Speaker 00

  First of all, your man's washing his clothes. That should be red flag number one.

• 32:10Speaker 01

  Well, that's true.

• 32:11Speaker 00

  You know, and he's only washing the clothes that he had on that day.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Right.

• 32:16Speaker 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.

• 32:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is more like alt fiction wipe down.

• 32:31Speaker 00

  Yes, something has happened and I don't want to talk about it.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:37Speaker 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.

• 32:50Speaker 01

  It's a scary moment right then.

• 32:52Speaker 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.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:09Speaker 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.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  I'm surprised that dozen plus cars went by her. Like, does nobody want to help anybody anymore or are they that scared?

• 33:36Speaker 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.

• 34:04Speaker 01

  Right.

• 34:05Speaker 00

  Here to me. I would have a hard time passing this person and not stopping because they obviously appear to be in need.

• 34:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:15Speaker 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.

• 34:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, thank goodness they stopped.

• 34:29Speaker 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?

• 34:50Speaker 01

  Absolutely. It's the only thing she cares about.

• 34:51Speaker 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.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, because he's that type of person.

• 35:21Speaker 00

  Well, it's also kind of a dead giveaway that you are involved.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:26Speaker 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.

• 35:34Speaker 01

  He thought he was going to be free and clear of any problems.

• 35:37Speaker 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.

• 35:55Speaker 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.

• 36:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's probably maybe also thinking, how well did I wipe down the interior?

• 36:06Speaker 01

  Right.

• 36:07Speaker 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.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:19Speaker 00

  But to get rid of every single drop of blood, I think in a lot of situations is very, very tough.

• 36:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's why you burn the car.

• 36:29Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  But don't do that. We want you to get caught.

• 36:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, you're just saying you burn cars.

• 36:36Speaker 01

  I burn cars.

• 36:37Speaker 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.

• 36:59Speaker 01

  It is.

• 37:00Speaker 00

  Because you are hinting at the fact that you've done something so horrific that your family will never speak to you.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:11Speaker 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.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:34Speaker 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.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  He was holding strong on that.

• 37:46Speaker 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.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 38:06Speaker 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.

• 38:32Speaker 01

  Probably felt like they were on a

• 38:34Speaker 00

  Wild goose chase?

• 38:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:35Speaker 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.

• 39:01Speaker 01

  You know what? I can see myself getting frustrated like that.

• 39:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:05Speaker 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?

• 39:14Speaker 00

  Well, you know, I, how many body cam, police body cam videos I watch?

• 39:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:20Speaker 00

  I don't think I have the patience to be any type of law enforcement officer.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  No.

• 39:26Speaker 00

  The shit that they have to deal with.

• 39:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:29Speaker 00

  I, I have a feeling I would snap on somebody.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, it'd be difficult for sure to remain orderly.

• 39:36Speaker 00

  Professional during, you know,

• 39:40Speaker 00

  All the type of verbal and abuse that they take.

• 39:45Speaker 01

  Because there are people that will try to goat you into doing something.

• 39:48Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 39:49Speaker 01

  You know, so.

• 39:50Speaker 00

  And they know they can get away with saying certain stuff.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  Absolutely.

• 39:54Speaker 00

  Because of freedom of speech, but you know, a person can only take so much of that.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  I mean, yeah.

• 40:00Speaker 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.

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:08Speaker 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.

• 40:49Speaker 00

  He claimed he left Quatisha alive on the other side of the road at a bridge crossing over a canal.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  Either way, it's a really shitty thing to do.

• 41:00Speaker 00

  Well, it is because we're talking about a five-year-old here.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:05Speaker 00

  In Alligator Alley. You know, what is the survival rate for a five-year-old that's left anywhere?

• 41:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:16Speaker 00

  In, in any type of remote area, it's, it's probably not great. But now we add in vicious alligators?

• 41:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:24Speaker 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.

• 41:52Speaker 01

  No, crap.

• 41:55Speaker 00

  You're in the Everglades in the middle of the night, it's pitch black.

• 41:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, I can't.

• 42:00Speaker 00

  A five year old.

• 42:01Speaker 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.

• 42:16Speaker 01

  Because they're everywhere.

• 42:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, let alone a five year old man.

• 42:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:20Speaker 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.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  That's why he was up on the chair.

• 42:44Speaker 00

  So, again, to your point, do you not check this guy's record and see that he's escaped multiple times?

• 42:52Speaker 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.

• 43:00Speaker 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.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  I bet, so tiny.

• 43:23Speaker 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.

• 43:45Speaker 01

  Oh my God.

• 43:47Speaker 00

  There were teeth marks deep in her skull. Her left arm was bitten off after death.

• 43:53Speaker 01

  I can't even fathom what that little girl went through to be bitten and still remain alive for however long.

• 44:01Speaker 00

  No.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  And knowing the fear of knowing what was about to come.

• 44:07Speaker 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.

• 44:20Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:21Speaker 00

  So for me, that goes back to his saying, I knew she would probably die.

• 44:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:28Speaker 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.

• 44:38Speaker 01

  Purposely.

• 44:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:39Speaker 01

  Is what I would believe, right?

• 44:41Speaker 00

  Right.

• 44:42Speaker 01

  Cause he was hoping that there would be no evidence left.

• 44:46Speaker 00

  I believe so. Because of these injuries, she was likely not conscious at the time she was bitten by alligators.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  Man, you hope, you hope that's.

• 44:55Speaker 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.

• 45:08Speaker 01

  And that stuff hurts. I've, I've done that. Uh, when, when I was younger, I was on a moped.

• 45:14Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 45:15Speaker 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.

• 45:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, they called it brush burn. We've always called it road rash.

• 45:26Speaker 01

  Road rash, yeah.

• 45:27Speaker 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.

• 45:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:44Speaker 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.

• 46:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's true.

• 46:12Speaker 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.

• 46:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, to me, none of this would have happened if he wouldn't have kidnapped him.

• 46:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, either way, however it went down, and in my view, he's responsible for her death.

• 46:42Speaker 01

  Oh yeah, 100%.

• 46:43Speaker 00

  100%. Shandell was released from the hospital on the day that her daughter's body was found.

• 46:50Speaker 01

  Oh, man. How rough on her.

• 46:52Speaker 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."

• 47:08Speaker 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.

• 47:24Speaker 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.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:39Speaker 00

  His murder trial didn't start until July 9th, 2007.

• 47:44Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 47:45Speaker 00

  That's nine years.

• 47:46Speaker 01

  That's a heck of a delay.

• 47:49Speaker 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.

• 48:05Speaker 01

  Oh, for sure.

• 48:06Speaker 00

  First of all, it'd be very difficult.

• 48:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  To get up on their, on the stand and talk about that. But you also want this guy to go away.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  You do.

• 48:15Speaker 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."

• 48:35Speaker 01

  They were in the car because they were kidnapped.

• 48:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:39Speaker 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.

• 48:46Speaker 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.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  Right.

• 48:57Speaker 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.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, and he did speed up knowing that they were trying to jump out.

• 49:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:08Speaker 01

  And driving a radical.

• 49:12Speaker 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?

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Pretty desperate.

• 49:23Speaker 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.

• 49:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:55Speaker 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.

• 50:20Speaker 01

  Spot on there, you know, and this guy deserves what he's gonna get.

• 50:24Speaker 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,

• 51:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 51:02Speaker 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.

• 51:21Speaker 01

  He knew what he was doing. He absolutely knew it.

• 51:24Speaker 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.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think he probably tossed her in the water.

• 51:33Speaker 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.

• 52:16Speaker 01

  This is a guy that thought he wasn't even a criminal.

• 52:18Speaker 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

• 53:03Speaker 00

  disciplinary reports. And that's great, but it doesn't change what you did.

• 53:11Speaker 01

  No.

• 53:12Speaker 00

  I understand, they're trying to mitigate.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 53:16Speaker 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.

• 53:29Speaker 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.

• 53:43Speaker 00

  Well, and also how you've acted in prison since you've been incarcerated.

• 53:50Speaker 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.

• 53:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 53:59Speaker 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.

• 54:08Speaker 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?

• 54:15Speaker 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.

• 54:26Speaker 01

  They don't.

• 54:27Speaker 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.

• 54:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:35Speaker 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.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  Good.

• 54:54Speaker 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.

• 55:16Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 55:17Speaker 00

  And he should.

• 55:17Speaker 01

  It may be natural causes or maybe somebody will take him out, whatever.

• 55:21Speaker 00

  Either way, he's never going to see, uh, freedom.

• 55:24Speaker 01

  No.

• 55:25Speaker 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.

• 55:40Speaker 01

  No.

• 55:41Speaker 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.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  No, you don't. Look, they could do the meth, you know, go down the, the pike and execute them.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  I'm fine. I don't have a problem with that.

• 56:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm, I'm fine with it too.

• 56:03Speaker 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.

• 56:19Speaker 00

  No.

• 56:20Speaker 01

  Right? I mean, he'll be watching his back every place he goes in there.

• 56:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  Um, I'm good with that too, because you know, what he did was unexcusable.

• 56:30Speaker 00

  It was. Absolutely is. But, um, he's just a terrible guy.

• 56:35Speaker 01

  He is.

• 56:36Speaker 00

  I mean, you've already, you know, kind of shown the world and the courts that, okay, you got off early.

• 56:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 56:46Speaker 00

  They let you go 13 years into a 30 year sentence.

• 56:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:50Speaker 00

  And all you did was commit crime after crime after crime.

• 56:54Speaker 01

  Tried to escape. It just proves that that was a mistake.

• 56:57Speaker 00

  It was, yes.

• 56:58Speaker 01

  He should have stayed in the whole freaking time.

• 57:00Speaker 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.

• 57:09Speaker 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.

• 57:21Speaker 00

  It's really tough, which makes it hard to date, you know, for

• 57:25Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 57:25Speaker 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.

• 57:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:40Speaker 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.

• 57:49Speaker 01

  Sure will. Yeah.

• 57:50Speaker 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.

• 57:57Speaker 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.

• 58:12Speaker 00

  Genetic genealogy, just to make sure there's no, uh, uh, big time serial killers in your family.

• 58:20Speaker 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.