Dad also charged in girl’s death
Two months after the grandmother of 8-year-old Gizzell Ford was charged with the little girl’s murder, Gizzell’s father appeared in court Monday — now also accused in the brutal killing.
A skeletal Andre Ford appeared in a wheelchair before Judge Laura Sullivan at the George Leighton Criminal Courthouse, where the 28-year-old man was ordered held without bail.
Helen Ford, Gizzell’s grandmother, also is being held without bond in the case. During the grandmother’s July bond hearing, prosecutors said Gizzell’s body was found in the apartment she shared with her son in the 5200 block of West Adams on July 12, after paramedics answered a call of a person not breathing there. Prosecutors said paramedics found Gizzell’s cold, dead body covered with cuts, scratches and bruises — both old and new — at her 51-year-old grandmother’s home.
On Monday, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Bridget O’Brien acknowledged that Andre Ford’s frail health — he suffers from a disease that involves the build-up of scar tissue on the skin — might not have allowed him to beat his daughter, but that he did nothing to stop the abuse.
“He most certainly had a duty to protect the victim,” O’Brien said. “Moreover, it has been well-established by eye witnesses that Andre Ford was present while the victim was beaten by his mother, Helen Ford.”