It was said that a mother in Georgia cried in court when she was found guilty of killing her 20-month-old son. The boy’s body was found in a landfill.
After six hours of deliberation, the jury found Leilani Simon, 24, guilty of all 19 charges brought against her on Friday. These included murder with intent, hiding someone is death, and multiple counts of lying to the police, according to WTOC.
The woman told the police that her son Quinton was missing in the morning of October 5, 2022, and she thought that someone had taken him.
Police in Chatham County spent days looking through her neighborhood for the missing child. After a while, they said the boy was probably dead and that his mother was the main suspect in his death.
A few days later, the mom of three was seen drinking Patrón shots at a local bar with her mom and some friends. In a tearful interview with a local news station at the time, she said she had nothing to do with her son going missing.
On November 8, 2022, Quinton’s body parts were found in a landfill. His mother was arrested two days later.
“During the weeks that Chatham County was in shock over Quinton Simon’s disappearance, he really became our child.” It is fitting that today, 12 men and women from our county gave little Quinton the last bit of justice by finding him guilty.
After Simon’s verdict, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley told the press, “We hope this brings some peace and comfort to everyone who loved Quinton.”
WTOC reported that the jury unanimously found Simon guilty of all charges after hearing from 40 witnesses and seeing nearly 100 pieces of evidence that showed the young mother had killed her son and then thrown away his body.
Authorities say the young mother killed her 20-month-old child by hitting him or her with something. The indictment against Simon says that she went to Azalea Mobile Home Plaza that same morning and “threw her son’s remains in a dumpster.”
“This was a complicated case because we did not know how or why the person died, which is always a worry.”
“But the police did a great job investigating this case, and we did our best to show the evidence they had,” Jenny Parker, an assistant district attorney in Chatham County, told WTOC.
Williamie Howell, Simon’s mother, was not at the trial. She did, however, tell the local news source that she thought justice had been done.
“Our family is devastated, and Quinton deserves justice,” she stated. “We need Quinton to get home so that he can be buried.” I feel bad that I can not be with Leilani right now. We love her, but we will not stand for any of this.
