'Drugged up' Leilani Simon dumped 2-yr-old son Quinton Simon's body in trash after beating him to death
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA: Prosecutors claim that Quinton Simon was murdered by his "drugged up" mother and put in a dumpster for trailer homes. Using an unspecified object to beat her two-year-old son, Leilani Simon, 22, allegedly did so while under the influence of drugs, causing "serious bodily injury" that ultimately resulted in his death.
According to the accusation, the mother of three met with her drug dealer just before the murder in October while under the influence. At the Azalea Mobile Home Park, the 22-year-old discarded Quinton's body after that. She earlier informed the authorities that a thief broke into her Savannah home and kidnapped her son. Leilani was arrested in November but the circumstances behind her detention have not been made public by investigators. Malice murder, felony murder, concealing a death, and providing false statements to authorities regarding Quinton's death are among the 19 counts charged on Leilani. According to Fox News, Chatham County Police Chief thought Leilani was the suspect from the moment the inquiry got underway after Leilani reported her son missing from her house on October 5.
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When Quinton's body went missing and was found three days later, on November 18, in a landfill in Georgia, a grand jury in Chatham County returned an indictment against Leilani. According to the court documents, Leilani "did maliciously cause her son, Quinton Simon, a human being and a child under the age of 18 years, cruel and excessive physical pain... and the accused did, in the commission of this offense cause Quinton's death," as per WJLC. Leilani left her Buckhaulter home on October 4 to meet her drug dealer and then left the following morning on October 5 to dispose of his body, according to the indictment. Daniel Youngkin, Leilani's boyfriend, last spotted Quinton on October 5 at 6 am while he was in a pack-n-play.
Leilani reported Quinton missing from her house three hours later. She asserted that when she awoke at 9.30 am and discovered her son gone with the door of the house left open. “These are the cases that keep us up at night, these are the cases that need justice,” District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones said in a news conference. “We have the evidence to bring these charges because of the hard work of the investigators, agents and rangers who worked on this case.” Adding that the criminal investigation is still underway, she declined to say what proof the police discovered that resulted in Leilani's detention. About two weeks after Quinton vanished, Leilani was seen drinking tequila at Sting Ray's, a beach bar close to Tybee Island with her mother Billie Jo Betterton Howell. The two spent three hours at the bar downing Patron shots, as reported by Daily Mail.