SAVANNAH, Ga. — Friday wrapped up the first week of testimony for a Savannah area mother accused of killing her toddler and then reporting him missing.
Leilani Simon is accused of killing her 20-month-old son Quinton in October 2022. His body was found weeks later at a nearby landfill more than a month after reporting the toddler missing.
During testimony on Friday, Quinton’s babysitter, Michelle McCarta, took the stand.
“Quinton loved us. He was close to us. And I just felt like he would be better off at our house,” she said.
McCarta told the court that she kept Quinton overnight on a regular basis and said the child was in poor condition when he was dropped off.
“He would be in a long onesie, and he would have poop all over. I don’t want to say a baby didn’t smell good, but he smelled like rotten milk. He had rings around his neck. We would immediately bathe him,” McCarta said.
She also that it was rare that Leilani Simon would pick him up from her house, and that Quinto would often cry because he did not want to go home with his mother.
The defense was quick to point out that despite McCarta’s feelings about Simon’s parenting, she never alerted DFACS officials.
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“You never reached out and you weren’t concerned enough between January and October (2022) to do that on your own, were you?” asked Defense Attorney Martin Hilliard.
“I was very concerned,” McCarta said.
“But not concerned enough to reach out and make a report?” Hilliard asked.
“I didn’t have to. They reached out to me,” McCarta said.
An investigator with the Chatham County Police Department also showed the court video on Friday that he said showed Leilani Simon driving up to the dumpster where they believe she dumped Quinton’s body.
The camera however didn’t capture anything usable.
“This camera is not made for outside. We all live in Savannah, it’s humid and muggy. This is not a weatherized camera and we were not able to pull any images or videos from this camera at all,” Cpl. Gary Scott Coleman with the Chatham County Police Department said.
Testimony picks up on Monday.
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