8-Year-Old Girl Can't Wait To Start School And Get Away From Her Evil Grandmother. But She Never Makes It That Far
By Dreamer
A grandmother in Chicago has been convicted of first-degree murder in the horrific death of her 8-year-old granddaughter.
According to the Associated Press, 55-year-old Helen Ford is facing life in prison without parole for the 2013 murder of her granddaughter, Gizzell Ford, an act that Cook County Circuit Judge Evelyn Clay has called “exceptionally brutal.”
“This murder was torture. That child suffered a slow and agonizing death,” Clay reportedly said in the courtroom. “That little body looked like it had been pulverized from head to toe. ... Her treatment [of Gizzell] was evil.”
About eight months before Gizzell was killed, a judge had reportedly placed her in the custody of her father, Andre Ford, who was unemployed and living with his mother.
Although Ford was initially also charged in the death of his daughter, he died while awaiting trial in prison in August 2014.
Before gaining custody of Gizzell, Ford had reportedly argued in court that the little girl’s mother, Sandra Mercado, was homeless and didn’t get their daughter to school on time regularly.
At the time of Gizzell’s death, Mercado had been trying to regain custody of her daughter.
Mercado has since filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, claiming Gizzell’s caseworker ignored clear signs of abuse within the home.
According to PEOPLE, Gizzell kept a diary where she detailed some of the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her grandmother.
“I know if I be good and do everything I’m told I won’t have to do punishments,” Gizzell wrote.
Some of these “punishments” reportedly included squatting and standing in place for hours at a time.
According to her journal Gizzell couldn’t wait to start school in August so she could get away from her grandmother.
“I am going to be a beautiful smart and good young lady,” she wrote one day. “I can do anything I put my smart mind to. People say I’m smart and courageous and beautiful.”
In Gizzell’s last heartbreaking entry on July 11, 2013, she reportedly wrote: “I hate this life because I’m in super big trouble.”
The very next day, Gizzell’s body was found in her grandmother’s disgusting apartment that was filled with garbage. She had been beaten and strangled to death.
Prosecutors have believed from the beginning that the horrific attacks carried out by the cruel grandmother were ordered by Gizzell’s father.
“[Helen Ford] first broke her body, then she broke her spirit,”Assistant State’s Attorney Jennifer Coleman said, according to the AP.
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