In a truly bizarre and creepy case, a Maryland mother was found in a park pushing her dead baby on a park swing for two days straight!
It happened in 2016. The woman, Romechia Simms, literally pushed her young son “to death.” Simms, 25 at the time, was found pushing her son Ji’Aire Lee’s corpse on a swing upon which he died of exposure and dehydration. The seriously unstable woman had apparently been pushing the 3-year old on the swing for nearly 48 hours!
According to the Charles County Sheriff’s office, when she was found in the park, she was undergoing a “psychotic episode.” She said she had heard voices when she started pushing him, telling her not to stop because “somebody will come.”
Simms, whose family said she suffered from depression and bipolar disorder, was hospitalized for four days after police found her and the dead child on the swing.
Simms’ mother said she suffered a psychotic episode between May 20 and May 22 and did not know that her grandchild died in between the two days. Simms’s mother said that her daughter’s mental illness was sudden; however, they tried to get help before this incident happened.
Soon after her arrest, Simms told authorities that she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but that she had stopped taking her medication for a couple of days before her son’s death.
Just two months before the tragic death, the boy’s father, James (Donnell) Lee, was seeking custody of his son after concerns about Simms’ mental health.
She was indicted for manslaughter and child abuse; however, a Judge found that Simms was not “criminally responsible” for the boy’s horrific death. Simms entered what is known as an “Alford plea” on Count 2 of manslaughter. An Alford plea is an acknowledgment that the State has enough evidence for a conviction but is not an admission of guilt. She was heard crying in court as events were recounted.
Officials at the time said the court-appointed psychologist ruled that the 25-year-old mother is schizophrenic and is not a danger. In addition, the psychologist ruled that Simms does not understand that her actions were criminal.
In light of the plea and the psych eval, the Judge set her free under a five-year conditional release order, stating she must see a psychiatrist and take her medication.
Today, Simms attends therapy twice a week and has joined a support group – but she told the Washington Post she would never get over losing her son.
“Sometimes I find myself doing weird things like I will grab his socks and just hold onto his socks,” Simms told the newspaper.
“Or I will grab one of his toy balls and hold onto his ball – anything that helps me to feel close – that I know was his.”
Simms lives in Waldorf, Maryland, with her mother – in a home where she keeps photos of Ji’Aire on the walls and his toys in boxes.
‘I hate the way things happened,’ she told the Washington Post. ‘But there is nothing I can do to change that. I will always keep [Ji’Aire] close to my heart.
‘Even though he is not here physically, I still feel him spiritually. I just know I will see him again one day.’
She sometimes visits the little boy’s grave with her mother, Vontasha, at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton, Maryland.
Another example of the system failing. Does the fact that this woman being a schizophrenic really absolve her of guilt? She was deemed responsible enough to take her medication and take care of an innocent child yet here we are with little signs of responsibility on anyone’s part. What possible reason could there be to deny the father custody when the woman was a known and diagnosed schizophrenic? Much too often do we see truly innocent children being the victim because of some ridiculous bureaucratic nonsense. With everyone more concerned about hurting the mentally ill party’s feelings than the safety of an innocent child’s safety and well-being. How many schizophrenics actually successfully raise normal well adjusted children that don’t suffer throughout their childhood on having to deal with the mental illness of the parent? I’ve known relatively normal people who have lived through mental illness in the home and they suffer greatly. Embarrassed to have friends over, having to witness psychotic breaks and so much more. We are so focused on the rights of mentally ill people we don’t even consider the general public who are unsuspecting and subject to their erratic and often violent behavior. We hear about murderers who are mentally ill and that somehow we need to accept them walking the streets with a very good chance the same thing will happen again. Prisons are full of mentally ill people but I contend that to be a killer you are ill and therefore prison is far better than subjecting innocent people to their ill acting behavior. Surely keeping them in an environment more conducive to their needs is a better solution but turning them loose on society is completely wrong and almost always assures more anti social behavior. When you are more likely to spend time in a prison for saying something that is determined to be unacceptable than a person who has shown the ability to kill without remorse I have to question the logic. If politicians want the mentally ill out of prison then create laws and funding to keep them in hospital rather than just put them back on the streets assuming they will take their medications. Truly stupid and criminal to do otherwise
Non
People with mental disorders are not dependable unless there is an adult monitoring them and their medication.
The Court have awarded the child to the father!
cialis ocupa receta medica
Mental orders are not dependable? What the?
So if I am understanding y’all correctly, you are stating, and believe, that all people with a mental illness should be in a state or federally funded mental health facility? What about those that voluntarily served this country, YOU!, and come back with PTSD, and/or Traumatic Brain Injury, to save us that chose not to protect our country. What about those of us that are/were human trafficked for years!, beat and molested by a parent, friends of parents, siblings!? Do we belong in a mental facility too? We also suffer from PTSD, DID, Anxiety, yet we have never harmed another person. I totally understand that those that are redoing single for some other person(s) death that they should be required to be committed to a MHF. But forever? Most all are rehabilitated and don’t need medication. And if you think by taking all mentally I’ll people “off the street” is going to stop crimes-murder, manslaughter, and a whole list of other crimes, then you are ignorantly wrong! However if those suffering g/struggling with a mental DISABILITY, then there wouldn’t be anyone living “on the street”. As EVERY single person suffers from some sort of mental illness regardless of what they think. So….you should think before making such STUPID comments.