Granny gets life in prison for running 9-year-old to death
Print Edition
An Alabama woman convicted of running her 9-year-old granddaughter to death as punishment for lying about candy has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Joyce Hardin Garrard, the diminutive grandmother whom prosecutors depicted as the “drill sergeant from hell”, stood before the judge on Monday, and told him if she could have anything in the world, it would be to have her granddaughter Savannah back with her today.
Prosecutors said Garrard forced 9-year-old Savannah to run for hours after school after Garrard became enraged over the child’s lie.
A jury convicted Garrard of capital murder in March and recommended the life sentence over death by a 7-5 vote.
“We accept the recommendation that the jury made,” Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp told Judge Billy Ogletree.
Garrard denied that she meant to harm the child. She told investigators the girl wanted to run and get faster after finishing second in a race at school, according to police testimony.
Prosecutors depicted Garrard as a woman who became so enraged that she made the child run until she dropped.
Testimony at trial showed that Savannah collapsed and vomited in 2012 outside her rural home following an afternoon of running and carrying sticks. She died several days later in a hospital after doctors removed her from life support.
Surveillance video from a school bus showed Garrard talking with the bus driver, Raenna Holmes, about Savannah taking candy without paying from another student who was selling it. Garrard told Holmes: “She’s going to run until I tell her to stop.”
Investigators said an autopsy revealed the girl was severely dehydrated and compared her condition to that of an athlete who ran a marathon without drinking any water. Defense lawyers challenged the autopsy findings.
Prosecutors during the trial said the 9-year-old girl suffered a painful death at the hands of a woman who was supposed to protect her, her grandmother.
“Life without parole in the state of Alabama means you come out of Julia Tutwiler Prison in a pine box,” Harp said after the sentencing. “We talk about the death penalty but life inside Julia Tutwiler Prison ... until the point she ceases to exist, is a death sentence to me. It’s just a question of when that death occurs.”
Defense lawyer Dani Bone said he was pleased the judge and prosecutor agreed to uphold the jury’s recommendation of a life sentence. “Joyce handled this like a Christian woman with strong faith,” Bone said.
The girl’s stepmother Jessica Mae Hardin is charged with murder and awaiting a separate trial.
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