FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In a handwritten letter asking a judge for leniency, Brittany Hanfield wrote she had been behind bars since she was 17 years old and pregnant.
Hanfield, who was born in Fort Lauderdale, wrote to Broward County Circuit Judge Bernard Bober that she gave birth to her daughter while in detention.
Over the years, Hanfield wrote about her dream of being able to raise her daughter in freedom, and sent Bober a mother-daughter photo during a prison visit.
“The way I was living, I wouldn’t have lived to see 18,” Hanfield wrote. Years later, in another letter, she wrote, “Prison is an evil world of its own.”
In May, her daughter turned 17. On Tuesday, Hanfield appeared in Broward County court for a new capital homicide case related to when she was 17.
Records show that months after Hanfield turned 17, detectives identified her as a suspect in a case on April 11, 2007. It was for aggravated battery on a person 65 years old or older, burglary, and attempted robbery with a deadly weapon.
Detectives later identified Hanfield as a suspect in a case on Aug. 21, 2007. It was for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and carjacking.
Detectives also identified Hanfield as a suspect in an armed robbery case on Aug. 30, 2007. After her arrest, Hanfield was 18 when she gave birth to her daughter on May 16, 2008, records show.
“She was the most beautiful angelic child I had ever laid eyes on,” Hanfield wrote to the judge. “I’ll never forget a tear slid out of my right eye when I saw her. That’s when I realized it was time for a change.”
Court records show Hanfield was convicted of all six charges in the 2007 cases and sentenced to 25 years in prison on Sept. 26, 2008.
“That day my entire life from as far as I could remember until that very moment flashed before my eyes,” Hanfield wrote in a letter to the judge.
The Florida Department of Corrections took custody of Hanfield, who turned 18 on Nov. 8, 2008. and she was at the Lowell Annex Correctional Institution in Ocala when Broward County Circuit Judge Peter Holden ordered her return to court on Oct. 16.
Detectives had identified Hanfield as a suspect years after a man was found dead on May 13, 2007, in Broward County, records show. A grand jury indicted her on Oct. 16 for premeditated murder.
“Hanfield did so while engaged in the commission of or an attempt to commit the crime of robbery,” the grand jury’s foreperson wrote, according to the indictment.
Hanfield turned 36 on Saturday. On Tuesday, she appeared before Broward County Circuit Judge Carol-Lisa Phillips to face the premeditated murder charge.
“I will place the no-bond hold,” Phillips said in court, adding that Hanfield’s arraignment hearing for the capital homicide case was set for Nov. 14.
Inmate records show correctional deputies held Hanfield at the Broward County Main Jail in Fort Lauderdale. The public record omits the 2007 murder victim’s identity.
Hanfield appears in bond court
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