Atlanta, GEORGIA – The 24-year-old Georgia woman must spend at least 3 decades behind bars before she is eligible for parole after she was convicted of multiple charges in connection with her baby’s death. Prosecutors claim the defendant killed her 1-year-old child, Quanton, two years ago before throwing the boy’s body in a dumpster. According to the court documents, the defendant, LeiIani, was sentenced last week after jury convicted her of maIice murder, feIony murder, conceaIing the death of another and faIse reporting.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the defendant murdered her 1-year-old child in October 2022. The young mom reportedly used an object to cause serious injuries to the child and ultimately causing the child’s death, whose remains were discovered in a landfill, 1 month after he went missing. During the trial, prosecutors also said the mother never showed any signs of remorse and even sent a letter to local news outlets, in which she reportedly claimed she is innocent.
The defendant’s parent told prosecutors that his daughter was a drug-addict and asked the court for mercy when sentencing her. During the investigation process, authorities in Georgia discovered that shortly after killing her 1-year-old child, the woman reportedly stopped at a dumpster at 1 a.m. in the morning to dispose of the boy’s body. The woman maintained that she stopped by the dumpster to throw away spoiled food, which was smelling bad in her vehicle. The woman reportedly explained to investigators that ‘here was spoiled food smelling in her car so when she pulled around and seen that dumpster, yeah, she stopped and threw the trash away. It was spoiled. She didn’t think anything of it to be honest, it’s just old food’.
But, according to prosecutors, the woman was getting rid of her child’s body, which was later found in pieces in a landfill. During the trial, Special Assistant District Attorney Tim reportedly said: “She throws Quanton’s body away like a piece of trash about 1:17 in the morning. The defendant violated that most basic, sacred trust of a parent in the most horrible way. In the middle of the night, she killed him, her own son, got in her car with his body, drove to a dumpster, then threw him away like a piece of trash.”
During the trial, prosecutors also added that the woman lied to investigators during the investigation process. The woman reportedly said that on the fatal night, she reportedly left her home to see her drug dealer because she needed to pay the person for an old debt. When investigators asked the woman why she left her home at 1 a.m. when she disposed of the victim’s body, the woman reportedly lied that she left home to meet one of her friends. During the trial, prosecutors also said the woman never showed signs or emotions of a mother whose child was missing.
The mother even attempted to blame the child’s disappearance on his biological father. According to reports, the woman told authorities that her ex-partner had abducted the toddler from her home under the cover of darkness. This claim led police to locate and question the boy’s estranged father shortly after the mother reported the child missing on October 5, 2022. The father, however, denied the accusation, stating he had not been near her home for a month. He added that his last visit was to install an air conditioner, noting that a week after the child’s disappearance, the woman and her mother were spotted at a bar drinking tequila shots.