Georgia
Woman accused of killing her toddler found guilty of murder
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia woman accused of killing her 20-month-old son and dumping his body in a trash bin two years ago has been found guilty of murder.
A jury on Friday found Leilani Simon guilty of all 19 charges against her in the death of her son, Quinton Simon, local news outlets reported. That includes counts of malice murder, felony murder, concealing the death of another and making false statements.
The jury heard eight days of witness testimony and began deliberating Thursday, news outlets reported. They deliberated for about two hours that afternoon before breaking for the day. Jurors resumed their deliberations around 9:30 Friday morning and their unanimous verdict was announced at 2:30 p.m.
Simon called 911 the morning of Oct. 5, 2022, to report her son was missing from his indoor playpen at their home outside Savannah. After police spent days searching the home and surrounding neighborhood, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said that investigators believed the child was dead. He also named Simon as the sole suspect.
Police and FBI agents focused their investigation on a landfill two weeks after the boy was reported missing. They sifted through trash for more than a month before finding human bones, which DNA tests confirmed belonged to Quinton.
Tennessee
Memphis man pleads guilty to kidnapping, killing teacher
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping a Memphis school teacher while she was on an early morning run and then killing her.
Cleotha Abston entered guilty pleas to first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping in the abduction and death of Eliza Fletcher.
Abston, 40, had been set to stand trial in February. Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty if Abston were convicted of first-degree murder. Instead, Judge Lee Coffee sentenced Abston to life in prison without parole after he entered the guilty pleas.
Fletcher was grabbed from a street while she was jogging before dawn near the University of Memphis on Sept. 2, 2022, and forced into an SUV. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex.
The killing of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community and led to a flood of support for her family. Runners in Memphis and several other cities held early morning running events in her honor a week after she was abducted, a tradition that has continued in the city on the anniversary of her kidnapping.
In a statement, Fletcher’s family said they “miss the bright light of Liza’s life every day.”
“Liza meant so much to so many, and her smile radiated happiness, energy, and comfort,” her family said. “Her husband, her children, her parents, her brother, the rest of her family, her friends, her students, her school families, her fellow teachers, her church community, and so many others were moved by countless examples of her faith, kindness, and compassion.”
Abston, who also has gone by the name Cleotha Henderson, was arrested after police detected his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen. An autopsy report showed Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head.
“We had been meeting with him regularly for the past few months and had been telling him that we need to settle this case, that we cannot go forward with a trial and expect to succeed,” said Juni Ganguli, Abston’s lawyer.
Abston was sentenced to 80 years in prison May 17 for raping a woman a year before he was charged in Fletcher’s death. He was convicted in April of raping the woman while holding her at gunpoint in September 2021.
Abston, whose history of criminal charges dates back to the 1990s when he was a juvenile, was not charged in the 2021 rape case until after being charged a year later with killing Fletcher because of a long delay in processing the sexual assault kit. After Fletcher’s death, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to issue a quarterly report on sexual assault kit testing times.
Indiana
Woman whose infant was disfigured in a rat attack gets probation
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to neglect after a rat attacked her 6-month-old son and left him with disfiguring injuries has been sentenced to probation, weeks after her husband received a lengthy prison term.
A Vanderburgh County judge sentenced Angel Schonabaum, 29, to four years in prison on Thursday but gave her credit for a year she has already served and suspended the remaining three years to probation, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.
Schonabaum pleaded guilty to a felony count of neglect of a dependent in September. Her attorney didn’t immediately respond to a Friday message seeking comment.
Police arrested Schonabaum and her husband, David Schonabaum, in September 2023 after he called 911 to report that the Evansville couple’s infant son had been severely injured by rats in their home, according to authorities.
The child suffered more than 50 rat bites and required hospital treatment, investigators said.
A jury convicted David Schonabaum in September on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent. He was sentenced this month to the maximum 16 years in prison on those charges.
An Evansville police detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit that all of the fingers on the child’s right hand “were missing the flesh from the top of them, exposing fingertip bones.”
Paramedics and police found the boy lying in blood in his crib with bad bites also on his face, leaving him “permanently disfigured,” said county prosecutor Diana Moers.
Moers’ office said Thursday in a Facebook post that Angel Schonabaum “was not residing in the home at the time of the rat-bite incident; however, she was held accountable for the deplorable conditions of the home which she was responsible for when residing there.”
The Schonabaums had lived with Angel Schonabaum’s sister, Delaina Thurman, in a home investigators said was filled with trash and had an ongoing rodent infestation.
Thurman was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent, according to court records.
Woman accused of killing her toddler found guilty of murder
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia woman accused of killing her 20-month-old son and dumping his body in a trash bin two years ago has been found guilty of murder.
A jury on Friday found Leilani Simon guilty of all 19 charges against her in the death of her son, Quinton Simon, local news outlets reported. That includes counts of malice murder, felony murder, concealing the death of another and making false statements.
The jury heard eight days of witness testimony and began deliberating Thursday, news outlets reported. They deliberated for about two hours that afternoon before breaking for the day. Jurors resumed their deliberations around 9:30 Friday morning and their unanimous verdict was announced at 2:30 p.m.
Simon called 911 the morning of Oct. 5, 2022, to report her son was missing from his indoor playpen at their home outside Savannah. After police spent days searching the home and surrounding neighborhood, Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said that investigators believed the child was dead. He also named Simon as the sole suspect.
Police and FBI agents focused their investigation on a landfill two weeks after the boy was reported missing. They sifted through trash for more than a month before finding human bones, which DNA tests confirmed belonged to Quinton.
Tennessee
Memphis man pleads guilty to kidnapping, killing teacher
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping a Memphis school teacher while she was on an early morning run and then killing her.
Cleotha Abston entered guilty pleas to first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping in the abduction and death of Eliza Fletcher.
Abston, 40, had been set to stand trial in February. Prosecutors had said they would seek the death penalty if Abston were convicted of first-degree murder. Instead, Judge Lee Coffee sentenced Abston to life in prison without parole after he entered the guilty pleas.
Fletcher was grabbed from a street while she was jogging before dawn near the University of Memphis on Sept. 2, 2022, and forced into an SUV. Her body was found days later near a vacant duplex.
The killing of Fletcher, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher and mother of two, shocked the Memphis community and led to a flood of support for her family. Runners in Memphis and several other cities held early morning running events in her honor a week after she was abducted, a tradition that has continued in the city on the anniversary of her kidnapping.
In a statement, Fletcher’s family said they “miss the bright light of Liza’s life every day.”
“Liza meant so much to so many, and her smile radiated happiness, energy, and comfort,” her family said. “Her husband, her children, her parents, her brother, the rest of her family, her friends, her students, her school families, her fellow teachers, her church community, and so many others were moved by countless examples of her faith, kindness, and compassion.”
Abston, who also has gone by the name Cleotha Henderson, was arrested after police detected his DNA on sandals found near the location where Fletcher was last seen. An autopsy report showed Fletcher died of a gunshot wound to the head.
“We had been meeting with him regularly for the past few months and had been telling him that we need to settle this case, that we cannot go forward with a trial and expect to succeed,” said Juni Ganguli, Abston’s lawyer.
Abston was sentenced to 80 years in prison May 17 for raping a woman a year before he was charged in Fletcher’s death. He was convicted in April of raping the woman while holding her at gunpoint in September 2021.
Abston, whose history of criminal charges dates back to the 1990s when he was a juvenile, was not charged in the 2021 rape case until after being charged a year later with killing Fletcher because of a long delay in processing the sexual assault kit. After Fletcher’s death, the Legislature passed a law requiring the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to issue a quarterly report on sexual assault kit testing times.
Indiana
Woman whose infant was disfigured in a rat attack gets probation
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to neglect after a rat attacked her 6-month-old son and left him with disfiguring injuries has been sentenced to probation, weeks after her husband received a lengthy prison term.
A Vanderburgh County judge sentenced Angel Schonabaum, 29, to four years in prison on Thursday but gave her credit for a year she has already served and suspended the remaining three years to probation, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.
Schonabaum pleaded guilty to a felony count of neglect of a dependent in September. Her attorney didn’t immediately respond to a Friday message seeking comment.
Police arrested Schonabaum and her husband, David Schonabaum, in September 2023 after he called 911 to report that the Evansville couple’s infant son had been severely injured by rats in their home, according to authorities.
The child suffered more than 50 rat bites and required hospital treatment, investigators said.
A jury convicted David Schonabaum in September on three felony counts of neglect of a dependent. He was sentenced this month to the maximum 16 years in prison on those charges.
An Evansville police detective wrote in a probable cause affidavit that all of the fingers on the child’s right hand “were missing the flesh from the top of them, exposing fingertip bones.”
Paramedics and police found the boy lying in blood in his crib with bad bites also on his face, leaving him “permanently disfigured,” said county prosecutor Diana Moers.
Moers’ office said Thursday in a Facebook post that Angel Schonabaum “was not residing in the home at the time of the rat-bite incident; however, she was held accountable for the deplorable conditions of the home which she was responsible for when residing there.”
The Schonabaums had lived with Angel Schonabaum’s sister, Delaina Thurman, in a home investigators said was filled with trash and had an ongoing rodent infestation.
Thurman was sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent, according to court records.
