SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – The second week of testimony continues Wednesday in the Leilani Simon murder trial.
The Chatham County mother is accused of killing her 20-month-old son Quinton in October 2022 and throwing his body in a dumpster. Simon faces 19 charges, including malice and felony murder.
Day seven of the trial consisted of more witness testimony, including discussions on landfill/waste operations and the search for Quinton’s remains. They were discovered on Nov. 18, 2022, in a landfill, weeks after Simon reported him missing on Oct. 5.
MORE: Complete coverage of the Leilani Simon murder trial
Craig Westin, who the state identified as Simon's drug dealer, also took the stand. Chatham County Police Det. Marian Lemmons read a series of texts between Westin and Simon about their apparent sexual encounters.
The state is expected to rest their case Wednesday afternoon or early Thursday.
LIVE BLOG
The live recording is on a 30-minute delay, per a court order. WSAV’s time stamps for Simon’s trial are set in the time of watching the recording, not as it happened in the courtroom. Please consider this difference when watching the live recording and reading the updates. Note that graphic content is possible.
10:39 a.m. - Judge Tammy Stokes calls the court into session.
10:43 a.m. - The state calls Sherri Fentress, an FBI DNA analyst, to the stand. She works out of Quantico, Virginia.
10:48 a.m. - Fentress says she was asked to perform a kinship analysis or an evaluation of relatedness between individuals on remains (bone and tissue) later identified as those of Quinton's.
She adds that the analysis involved Billie Joe Howell (Quinton's grandmother), Henry Moss Jr. (Quinton's biological father) and Leilani Simon.
Fentress says the analysis provided strong evidence that the remains originated from Quinton based on a likelihood ratio.
10:56 a.m. - The defense cross-examines, asking Fentress about the process.
11:04 a.m. - Fentress is excused. The state calls on Dr. Cynthia Morris-Kukoski, an FBI examiner-toxicologist who performed a forensic toxicology analysis in this case.
11:13 a.m. - Morris-Kukoski explains how she analyzed some brain tissue found within the frontal bone for cocaine and cocaine metabolites.
"Metabolite is a substance that forms when the body is breaking down a particular drug," she explains.
The witness says she did not detect any.
11:16 a.m. - The defense cross-examines. Morris-Kukoski says she also tested for other substances, including fentanyl, methamphetamine and oxycodone, and did not detect any.
11:25 a.m. - The witness is excused. The court breaks early for lunch and is expected to resume at 1 p.m.
1:35: p.m. - The court is back in session.
1:38 p.m. - The state calls Dr. Lora Darrisaw, Medical Examiner at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) to the stand.
1:42 p.m. - Dr. Darrisaw says that following the FBI investigation of part of the skeleton of Quinton Simon, she was sent and tasked with inventorying the bones.
1:48 p.m. - The defense cross-examines Dr. Darrisaw on the matter of whether she could determine asphyxiation in her role in the autopsy.
1:51 p.m. - The witness is excused.
1:56 p.m. - Marian Lemmons, CCPD, returns to the stand.
1:57 p.m. - The prosecution plays a security video from inside the Circle K.
2:05 p.m. - The court is on break for 10 minutes.
2:22 p.m. - The court is back in session. The prosecution plays a video of Lemmons and Brad Snider questioning Leilani about the cereal in the back of the car.
2:25 p.m. - The prosecution shows a slideshow showing the house at different times and a Google image of Gerber rice cereal, similar to what was found in the back of the car.
(Note: The court video will stream on this page at 1:30 p.m.).