Leilani Simon (Chattham County Sheriff's Office)
SAVANNAH, ga. - Opening statements began in the trial of the mother of a toddler found dead in a Georgia landfill. Leilani Simon has been charged with murder and other crimes in a 19-count indictment that alleges she used drugs before killing her 20-month-old son, Quinton, and dumping his body in a trash bin.
Simon arrived on Monday morning at the Chatham County courthouse for the first full day of the trial after a jury was seated last week.
Quinton’s remains were found on Nov. 21, 2022, after weeks spent combing through garbage at a landfill.
Simon called 911 the morning of Oct. 5, 2022, to report Quinton was missing from his indoor playpen at their home outside Savannah. After police spent days searching the home and surrounding neighborhood, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said that investigators believed the child was dead. He also named Simon as the sole suspect.
Quinton Simon (Chatham County Police Department)
Police and FBI agents focused their investigation on the landfill two weeks after the boy was reported missing. They sifted through trash for more than a month before finding human bones, which DNA tests confirmed to be Quinton’s.
She faces charges of murder, concealing a death, and falsely reporting a crime, in addition to 14 separate counts of lying to investigators.
The night before her son’s death, according to the indictment, Simon met with a drug dealer and used an unspecified drug.
The indictment said Quinton died the morning of Oct. 5, 2022, after his mother assaulted him with an unknown object, causing the child "serious bodily injury." The charges say she then dumped his body in a trash bin outside a mobile home park about 1.5 miles from her home. Simon later told investigators she had gone there to dispose of "normal household garbage."
At the time of Quinton’s death, Burke County court records indicate she was on probation for the burglary of $50 in coins, a crime she said she was talked into by the child’s father.