Mom charged with murder 11 years after 4-year-old son found dead in Coral Springs

A South Florida mother has been charged with murder more than a decade after her child was found dead in their Coral Springs apartment.

Destene Simmons, 34, was booked into the Broward jail Friday on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.

Her son, 4-year-old Antwan Hope, was found dead in the apartment at 9022 Northwest 28th Drive back on June 10, 2013, after Simmons called 911 several times, according to police.

Hope's father had custody of him at the time of his death, police said. He filed two lawsuits with several allegations including Simmons attempting to suffocate Hope with a pillow two years before he died.

Broward Sheriff's Office

One lawsuit alleges that Hope was either murdered by Simmons during an unsupervised visit, or that he died as a result of severe neglect due to Simmons' mental incapacity to properly care for her son.

His father's lawsuits were both dismissed, court records show.

Jail records show Simmons was arrested in St. Lucie County on Aug. 2nd and extradited to Broward County on Friday. Authorities have not confirmed the charges are related to Hope's death.

"Eleven years but it seems like just yesterday," Hope's grandmother, Sharon Walker, told NBC6 on Sunday. "All these years I kept saying, trying to figure out why, why he had to be taken from us like this at a young age."

A pair of 911 calls made by Simmons the day of Hope's death were released a few weeks later.

In the first call, made on June 10 at 11:25 a.m., Simmons asks the dispatcher to have someone come to her address. However, when the dispatcher asks what’s happening, she hangs up.

Her call couldn't be traced to an address because she used a cell phone. But 16 minutes later, she called again.

This time, Simmons gave an address, but still refused to say what was going on, and again hung up.

Officers said they arrived at the address and called Simmons, but she didn't answer. Then, 30 minutes after her initial 911 call, Simmons called back, one final time. When the dispatcher tried to get more information, she hung up the phone again.

Officers found the 4-year-old boy dead when they went inside their apartment, police said. Simmons was questioned but later released.

Simmons was arrested on an unrelated charge, driving with a suspended license, following her son's death. 

She faced a judge this weekend, who gave her no bond on the murder charge and $25,000 bail on the aggravated child abuse charge. The judge also ordered a mental health screening for Simmons.

"If she’s found guilty and she has to sleep behind bars, her family can come see her, they can visit her," Walker said. "But the thing with us, only thing we can do is go to the graveyard, look at the grass, dirt, and my grandbaby headstone. That’s all we got."