Leilani Simon, hailing from Savannah, has been charged with 19 offenses, which include malice murder, felony murder, concealing the death of another individual, and making misleading statements regarding the circumstances of her son, Quinton Simon’s death. Simon has maintained a plea of not guilty throughout the proceedings.
On the morning of October 5, 2022, Simon contacted emergency services to report that her son had vanished from his playpen at their residence close to Savannah. After several days of searching by law enforcement in the vicinity, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley declared that investigators had come to believe the child was deceased, naming Simon as the sole suspect in the case.
Following the report of the boy’s disappearance, the police and FBI agents turned their attention to a landfill two weeks later. They diligently sifted through refuse for over a month and ultimately discovered human remains, which DNA testing confirmed as belonging to Quinton.
During the opening statements on Monday, prosecutor Tim Dean detailed the challenges in Simon’s life leading up to her son’s disappearance, particularly noting her troubled relationship with her then-boyfriend, Daniel Youngkin. According to Dean, Simon spent the late hours of October 4 and early hours of October 5 using cocaine and Percocet, ultimately killing her son, disposing of his body, and then going to sleep afterward.
“She killed him, her own son, got in her car with his body, drove to a dumpster, and threw him away like a piece of trash,” Dean stated emphatically.
The jurors were shown videos of Simon’s interactions with law enforcement and body camera footage. Dean pointed out that Simon altered her account of events multiple times. Almost a week after her initial interviews, she stated that she might have blacked out, explaining her inability to remember the events that transpired.
“I will never touch cocaine again. I become angry and impulsive when I’m on it,” Simon reportedly stated during her 2022 police interrogation.
Throughout the nearly two hours of the prosecution’s case presentation, Dean refrained from mentioning how the state alleged Simon killed her son. The prosecution noted that by the time the child’s remains were recovered, the decomposition was too advanced to determine a definitive cause of death.
In stark contrast, the defense delivered a brief three-minute opening statement, claiming the state’s case relies heavily on rumors and conjecture rather than solid evidence. “The core conclusion is that Leilani Maree Simon murdered her child. The evidence will simply not support that bold conclusion,” asserted defense attorney Robert Persse.
One of the first witnesses for the prosecution, Sgt. Bobby Stewart, recounted his initial encounter upon arriving at the scene when the child was reported missing. The prosecutor inquired about Simon’s demeanor upon his arrival.
“Did you view her demeanor as consistent with that of other parents you’ve spoken to in missing children cases?” the prosecutor asked.
“No sir, I didn’t,” Stewart answered, suggesting that Simon’s behavior was not typical of a concerned parent.
Further testimonies were anticipated on Tuesday, including additional statements from Chatham County Police Department personnel, as well as the child’s babysitter and her daughter.
