Evil Granny: Grandma jailed for life for forcing 9-year-old grand daughter to run to death after she lied about eating sweets.

A grandma who forced her nine-year-old granddaughter to run until she collapsed and died has been jailed for life.

Cruel Joyce Hardin Garrard, 50, was seen instructing Savannah Hardin to keep running outside her house as punishment for having lied about eating sweets.

The schoolgirl, who heard loved horses and cheerleading, eventually collapsed and vomited from exhaustion.

She was rushed to hospital but died three days later in 2012.

A neighbour testified at Garrard's murder trial how he had seen the girl running up and down carrying sticks over a two-hour period.


"Joyce and Savannah were in the yard, and Joyce was telling Savannah to keep running," said Chad Jacobs.

"She was just saying, 'Keep running, I didn't tell you to stop'."

A court in Alabama, Georgia, also saw CCTV footage from a school bus at the time which showed Garrard talking to the driver.

"She's going to run until I tell her to stop," Garrard could be heard saying.

The grandma told a jury she had not intended to harm the child and was encouraging her to run faster after she finished second in a school race.

But she was convicted of capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole by Etowah County judge Billy Ogletree on Monday.

He could have imposed the death penalty.

Savannah's stepmother, Jessica Mae Hardin, is also accused of murder with prosecutors arguing she witnessed the punishment but failed to intervene.

Mirror Online.