SAVANNAH, Ga. — A woman from Georgia has been convicted of murdering her 20-month-old son and discarding his body in a trash container two years prior.
A jury delivered their verdict on Friday, finding Leilani Simon guilty on all 19 counts, including malice murder, felony murder, concealing a death, and making false statements regarding the tragic case of her son, Quinton Simon, according to local news reports.
The jury was presented with eight days of testimony from various witnesses and began their deliberations on Thursday. After approximately two hours of discussion, they decided to break for the day. Deliberations resumed at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, culminating in a unanimous verdict announced at 2:30 p.m.
The events leading up to the trial began on the morning of October 5, 2022, when Simon dialed 911 to report that her son was missing from his playpen at their residence near Savannah. Following an intensive search by law enforcement in and around the area, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley stated that investigators came to believe the child was deceased, declaring Simon to be the primary suspect in the case.
Two weeks after the boy was reported missing, police and FBI agents shifted their focus to a nearby landfill. Their extensive search of the garbage lasted for over a month before they discovered human remains. DNA analyses later confirmed that the remains belonged to Quinton.