State and Defense rest their cases in the Leilani Simon trial

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Leilani Simon, the woman accused of killing her 20-month old son Quinton Simon, is on trial in Chatham County.
The jury will decide Simon’s fate on a 19 count indictment which accuses Simon of malice murder, felony murder, concealing the death of another, and making false statements.
WTOC’s livestream is on a 30 minute delay per the judge’s rules.
You can watch our previous trial livestream below:
FBI analysts take the stand on Wednesday
Testimony continued Wednesday morning as the state called two new witnesses to the stand - both of them FBI analysists from Quantico.
Sherri Fentress took the stand first. The biologist forensic examiner was brought in to explain her findings on a kinship analysis she conducted for the case.
Fentress used two bone samples from the remains that were discarded in the landfill.
She concluded that one of the samples was 4.1-quintillion times more likely to be the child of Leilani Simon than not. The other was 12-quintillion times more likely than not.
The second witness who took the stand was Dr. Cynthia Morris-Kukoski, a forensic examiner toxicologist for the FBI. She mentioned attempting to test a stained a pillow in Quinton’s pack and play that was ultimately deemed unsuitable for testing due to the lack of material.
There was also possible brain tissue Dr. Kukosi tested for traces of different drugs, all of which were not detected.
“After all of that, what was the result or conclusion you reached as to whether this brain tissue contained any cocaine or any cocaine metabolites.”
“I did not detect any.”
“Okay, so negative? ”
“Not detected.”
You may the defense questioning Leilani Simon‘s boyfriend, Daniel Youngkin, about whether Quinton or his siblings could’ve gotten into cocaine that was on a dresser next to the adults’ bed.
Dr. Kukoski, also said she received the pillow from Quinton‘s pack n’ play that investigators believe had vomit in it.
However, there’s no solid answer on whether it was actually vomit.
“After visually looking at the pillow inside the pillowcase, I deemed it unsuitable for toxicology analysis, meaning either the debris or stain that was on there was too small and couldn’t be analyzed,” said Dr. Kukoski.
After lunch, a medical examiner from the GBI took the stand as one of the last witnesses for the prosecution.
“When there’s only bones, there’s gonna be very limited ability to be able to provide enough information to say how a person has died,” said Dr. Lora Darrisaw, Forensic Pathologist with Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Dr. Darrisaw testified Quinton Simon’s remains were too damaged to tell exactly how he died, a fact that’s been a sticking point for the defense.
The defense cross-examined each witness in an attempt to discredit the data presented to the jury.
As their last witness, the prosecution called Detective Marian Lemmons from the Chatham County Police Department back to the stand to show jurors a video taken shortly before Leilani Simon is arrested.
Simon changed her dumpster story to say she was throwing away two trash bags that night, not one, and not denying that she killed her son.
“Did Special Agent Solomon say, ‘You hid him in the dumpster because you had harmed him in some way,” asked Tim Dean, Prosecutor, Chatham County District Attorney’s Office.
“She said that,” replied Detective Lemmons.
“And did she also fail to dispute that statement,” asked Dean.
“Yes, she did,” replied Detective Lemmons.
In never-before-seen interview police tapes, Leilani Simon claims she doesn’t part of the night prosecutors say she killed her toddler, Quinton, and dumped his body at the Azalea Mobile Home Plaza.
“It’s almost like the light is on, but no one’s home,” Leilani Simon said in the video.
Lemmons says Simon claimed a lack of memory shortly after going to a drug dealer the night before Quinton’s disappearance.
“She said the last thing that she ed was looking at Quinton and then driving back from Azalea,” Lemmons said.
Simon’s defense team cross examined Lemmons for the first time.
They asked about Simon’s demeanor after Lemmons said the mother’s reactions raised initial suspicion.
“That was when you made your decision, correct? October 5th,” asked Martin Hilliard, Leilani Simon’s defense attorney.
“Decision about what,” asked Lemmons.
“As to how and where you were going to focus your attention in this investigation,” asked Hilliard.
“No,” said Lemmons.
That closed out the prosecution’s eight day long case against Simon.
The defense, saying there was not enough evidence presented to convict her on the murder charges, and the concealing the death of another charge.
Prosecution & Defense rest their cases
Prosecutors and the defense rested their cases Wednesday afternoon.
Leilani Simon took the stand Wednesday, without the jury present, to say she would not be testifying.
This comes after her defense team made a request to Judge Stokes to rule that there is not enough evidence for jurors to reach a verdict on counts one through four of the indictment, which accuse Simon of murdering her toddler Quinton and concealing his death.
Defense attorney Robert Persse said the State has presented theories and opinion but nothing that established Simon’s guilt on these charges.
The State pushed back saying their evidence is not speculation and points to an intentional act of violence towards Quinton.
“At this point, the State‘s evidence is ground in speculation and grave suspicion, but not on facts and not on evidence. On behalf of Leilani Simon, we move for a directed verdict of acquittal with respect to counts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the indictment,” said Robert Persse, Leilani Simon’s defense attorney.
“We’ve presented sufficient evidence for the jury to find, based on both circumstantial and direct evidence, that the defendant is guilty on all four of those counts,” said Dean.
Ultimately, Judge Stokes siding with prosecutors, which means the jury will decide Simon’s fate on all 19 charges in the indictment.
The defense didn’t call any witnesses and rested their case.
After roughly 40 witnesses, the high-profile trial is now barreling toward closing statements.
Court will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday morning, but the jury will be back at 10 a.m. and we are expecting them to start deliberating at some point on Thursday.
You can view a timeline of events in the case below:
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