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.