SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Georgia woman convicted of killing her 20-month-old son and dumping his body in a garbage can was sentenced Thursday to life in prison.
Leilani Simon was spared the maximum life sentence without the possibility of parole. Her sentencing hearing in Chatham County Superior Court came a month after a jury found Simon guilty murder with intent and 18 other charges at the death of her son, Quinton Simon.
Simon called 911 on the morning of Oct. 5, 2022, to report that her son was missing from his playpen in their home outside Savannah. After police searched the home and surrounding neighborhood for days, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said investigators believed the child was dead. He also named Simon as the only suspect.
Police and FBI agents focused their investigation on one landfill two weeks after the boy was reported missing. They searched through the trash for over a month before finding human bones, which DNA testing confirmed were Quinton’s.
Murder carries an automatic life sentence under Georgian law. Because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, the key decision for Judge Tammy Stokes was whether to give Simon a chance to one day be released on parole. The judge imposed an additional ten years in prison for concealing the child’s death.
Simon did not testify at her sentencing hearing. She did speak to give the judge permission to release her son’s remains to her family. Authorities had kept them in case further forensic tests were ordered.
“My son has been through enough,” Simon said. “I want my baby at home.”