GUILTY IL - Gizzell Ford, 8, brutally murdered, Chicago, 12 July 2013

[perfectingpink]

Helen Ford found guilty for murdering her granddaughter

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/gizzell-fords-grandma-guilty-of-murdering-the-8-year-old-girl/

I am so angry right now.

The 8-year-old, in her diary, expressed a desire to have a fulfilling relationship with her paternal grandmother nourished with deep conversation and love.

But all Helen Ford gave Gizzell was hell.

 

[perfectingpink]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/slain-8-old-alleged-horrific-192618986.html

Like many girls her age, 8-year-old Gizzell Ford kept a diary. The cover was striped with rainbows, and she used a pink marker to record her thoughts.

For the first few entries, Gizzell — known to friends as “Gizzy” — wrote about typical third-grade things: jumping rope, school teachers, clothes and friends.

But her life in Chicago seemed to derail in the summer of 2013, as she began detailing abuse she allegedly 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. She described how she had been forced to squat for hours and told to stand in one place for “an hour or two.”

She wrote that she looked forward to the start of school again in August, when she would be out of the house.

“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.”

“I hope that I don’t mess up today because I really want to be able to just sit down, watch T.V., talk and play with everybody,” she wrote in that same entry. “I am going to be great all day.”

Later, she added a postscript. “Not true,” she wrote. “I failed.”

On July 11, 2013, she wrote her last entry: “I hate this life because now I’m in super big trouble.”

Gizzell was dead the following day, and her body was found soon after. Authorities say she was discovered in her grandmother’s trash-filled apartment, where she’d lived with her father for several months.

She had been strangled and badly beaten.
Horrifying Accusations of Abuse

After Gizzell died, police arrested Gizzell’s father and grandmother. In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, investigators allege that her father directed the attacks, while her grandmother carried them out.

The grandmother, 55-year-old Helen Ford, is now on trial for murder. The father, Andre Ford, died in 2014 of a rare skin disease that caused him to have a heart attack.

In court on Wednesday, the prosecution introduced Gizzell’s diaries as well as other disturbing evidence against Helen. Prosecutors played cellphone video that allegedly showed her berating the terrified girl for breaking house rules. Gizzell stood silently, a sock stuffed in her mouth.

Prosecutors said that in the course of her abuse, Gizzell had been tied to a bed for several days. They also alleged that she was denied food and water and punished when she tried to sneak a sip of water from a toilet.

“They’re the most haunting images any of us will see until the end of our days,” Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Romito said of the evidence, in her opening at the trial.

“ had a terrific smile, beautiful, full hair and wonderful penmanship,” Romito said. “What Helen Ford did to her reduced that child to something completely unrecognizable.”

Wrenching Testimony

The testimony took its toll on witnesses: A veteran Chicago police forensic investigator broke down on the stand when she was shown photos of Gizzell’s body, describing the injuries as some of the worst she has seen in her 30 years on the force.

“I’m sorry,” said Officer Nancy DeCook as she wiped away tears. “This never happens.”

Gizzell’s 10-year-old half brother also took the stand, testifying about abuse that he, too, had allegedly received at the hands of his grandmother. Speaking softly, the boy told the judge that Helen would beat him with a belt. He said that she forced him to do squats as a punishment.

The boy testified that he had seen his grandmother use a spatula to hit Gizzell in the mouth. He also said that she would force the girl to eat hot peppers or stand in contorting positions for hours on end.

If Gizzell cried out in pain, the boy said, Ford would stick a sock in her granddaughter’s mouth.

As he described his little sister, the boy burst into tears. “She was very nice,” he said on the stand. “She liked to make friends. She liked to play.”

Helen, weeping, decided on Wednesday not to testify.

Defense: Self-Inflicted Wounds?

Helen’s public defender, Judie Smith, acknowledged the tragedy of the case in her opening statements. But she characterized the defendant as “overworked, overwhelmed and overcome” with the daily responsibilities of taking care of a bedridden son and three grandchildren.

Smith also alleged that many of Gizzell’s injuries were self-inflicted.

“She was a tragically troubled young lady,” Smith said. “She coped by inuring herself.”

The case is a non-jury trial which began Monday. A judge could render a verdict as early as Thursday afternoon.

This poor baby. You did not fail, sweetheart, the world failed you. You saved other children's lives and because of you, they were brave enough to speak out against the horrors in that home.

 

[perfectingpink]

We need some pictures of this sweet girl.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-bedridden-father-Andre-charged-murder.html

 

[perfectingpink]

http://homicides.suntimes.com/victims/gizzell-ford/

 

[perfectingpink]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-bedridden-father-Andre-charged-murder.html

 

[mrsselig]

We need some pictures of this sweet girl.

View attachment 111733 View attachment 111735

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ds-bedridden-father-Andre-charged-murder.html

What a beautiful child. My heart breaks, I would have taken her in myself.....I am sick to my stomach about what she went through. I have two grown beautiful daughters. This case is very hard to take; I can't imagine a punishment suitable for her murderer/torturer.

 

[LietKynes]

Usually avoid reading about these cases.....
What a sunny girl, full of hope for a FUTURE. (insert swearing)

I am so sorry, little Gizzell !

There is no excuse. That B. could've placed them in foster care.
Others have been overwhelmed and they didn't harm children.
Where was their biological mother ?
:moo:

 

[cvaldez1975]

Usually avoid reading about these cases.....
What a sunny girl, full of hope for a FUTURE. (insert swearing)

I am so sorry, little Gizzell !

There is no excuse. That B. could've placed them in foster care.
Others have been overwhelmed and they didn't harm children.
Where was their biological mother ?
:moo:

CPS took them from the mother because she didn't have a stable place to stay


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Grandmother of slain 8-year-old Gizzell Ford sentenced to life in prison

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-gizzell-ford-tortured-grandmother-sentenced-met-0608-20170607-story.html

The grandmother of an 8-year-old girl who was found emaciated and strangled in a filthy Chicago apartment will spend the rest of her life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder, a Cook County judge ruled Wednesday.

Helen Ford, 55, was found guilty in March of Gizzell Ford's "exceptionally brutal" slaying.

"This was a heinous torture murder which took place slowly while Gizzell was imprisoned in Helen Ford's apartment," said Cook County Judge Evelyn Clay.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/sentencing-wednesday-for-grandmother-who-killed-gizzell-ford-8/

Judge Evelyn Clay delivered her sentence at the end of a hearing that stretched nearly five hours, with a string of Ford’s relatives taking the stand to describe the 55-year-old as a mother figure unable to say “no” to family members in need.

Clay, scowling alternately at Ford and the defendant’s dozen or so family members in the gallery, recited a detailed outline of the evidence against Ford before passing sentence.

Gizzell Ford had been tortured brutally over a period of months by her grandmother and ailing father, forced to do squats and subject to cruel taunts. Seated beside her lawyers, Ford shook her head.

“No, Helen Ford did know how to say ‘no,'” Clay said. “She did know how to say ‘no’ to Gizzell. No water. No food. No sleep. No praise.

 

[mrsselig]

And one more "no"....no words. Grateful that this monster received the greatest punishment the law would allow, and angry beyond belief that we can't charge "her" with death. In my opinion, anyone who tortures and murders a child should get a fast track to the death penalty. I'd rather pay more in tax dollars to put this monster to death - than what I'll pay to clothe/feed/provide medical care (shudder) for the rest of her miserable life. I sincerely hope she never draws another peaceful breath. Poor little Gizzell had such potential and was a little light.....she was so innocent and helpless. There is value in the justice that is done, but it's not enough. Can never be. :sick:

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Civil trial to begin for doctor accused of missing ‘telltale sign of abuse’ before Gizzell Ford’s death

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-lawsuit-trial-gizell-ford-doctor-20171205-story.html

On Wednesday, a civil trial will begin in a lawsuit against Dr. Norell Rosado, the noted child-abuse pediatrician who examined the girl weeks before her death. Rosado, whom court records indicate may be called to testify, found an injury that appeared to be a healing loop mark — a “telltale sign of abuse” — but did not call the state’s child welfare hotline “despite a statutory duty to do so,” the wrongful death suit filed by both Sandra Mercado, the girl’s mother, and Juan Mercado, the girl’s maternal grandfather, alleges.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Jurors in doctor's civil trial overwhelmed by photos, details of 8-year-old's torture slaying

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...-gizzell-ford-civil-trial-20171207-story.html

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-gizzell-ford-doctor-testifies-met-20171208-story.html

The doctor on trial for alleged negligence in connection with the killing of 8-year-old Gizzell Ford testified Friday that a physical examination of the girl three weeks before she died revealed no signs of physical abuse.

Rosado, from the witness stand during the second day of the trial at the Daley Center, disputed the contention that abrasions on Gizzell’s legs and buttocks indicated she had been assaulted.

“Those marks were non-specific or non-concerning for abuse,” Rosado said. He also termed the marks “non-suspicious.”

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Torture death of 8-year-old Gizzell Ford leads to $48M jury award over doctor missteps

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-gizzell-ford-civil-trial-20171213-story.html

For five days, jurors heard how the state’s child protection system had repeatedly failed Gizzell Ford, an 8-year-old girl found strangled, starved and brutally beaten inside her grandmother’s West Side apartment.

On Wednesday, they decided to send a strong message. After deliberating about two hours, jurors awarded $48 million to the girl’s family, finding that respected Chicago child-abuse pediatrician Dr. Norell Rosado had been medically negligent in his treatment of Gizzell just weeks before her 2013 murder. Rosado was part of a multidisciplinary team, including a Department of Children and Family Services investigator, that was evaluating the girl after an abuse report.

“We just wanted justice for Gizzell, and in our eyes we got it,” said her mother Sandra Mercado. “I just hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Rosado showed no reaction as the jury foreman read the verdict Wednesday. Cook County’s insurer will likely be on the hook for paying out the nearly $50 million verdict since Rosado worked for the county’s hospital system at the time, attorneys said.