Mother of 4-year-old boy who died over 11 years ago in Broward stands accused of murder

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Antwan “AJ” Hope, Jr. was four when he died over 11 years ago in Broward County. His maternal grandmother, Shaunte Rivers, and his paternal grandmother, Sharon Walker, both reported his mother, Destene Simmons, had tried to smother him with a pillow years before he died.

Rivers reported Simmons had suffered from schizophrenia and depression. Simmons, now 34, was facing new charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse, but it remained unclear Sunday if these were related to Antwan’s death.

Simmons appeared before Broward County Circuit Judge Joseph Murphy III on Saturday. Attorney Devika Carr, a public defender, asked Murphy for a mental health order. Murphy ordered a screening. Assistant State Attorney David Steinberg asked about her defense. Murphy appointed a public defender.

“The court at this time advises the defendant that you are not supposed to speak to anyone about this case without the presence of your attorney,” Murphy told Simmons in court.

According to St. Lucie County Sheriff’s inmate records, the Port St. Lucie Police Department arrested Simmons and corrections booked her on Aug. 2 for the two charges out of Broward County. Broward Sheriff’s Office inmate records show correctional deputies booked her Friday at the main jail in Fort Lauderdale and she was at the North Broward Bureau on Sunday in Pompano Beach.

Simmons’s bond court appearance on Saturday lasted about a minute and 12 seconds. Simmons did not say a word. On Sunday afternoon, Simmons’ court record still included the 2011 child support case that prosecutors dropped ― but not the new murder case.

Murphy denied Simmons’s bond for the murder charge and set her bond to $25,000 for the aggravated child abuse charge. Local 10 News did not have a copy of the new arrest warrant but did report extensively on Antwan’s death in 2013.

Antwan had just completed pre-kindergarten when Simmons, then 23, called 911 several times and hung up before finally asking for police officers to respond to her home on June 10, 2013, in Coral Springs. The police officers who responded found Antwan dead.

Before the tragedy, the Florida Department of Children and Families had investigated Simmons for alleged child abuse. DCF removed Antwan from the home in 2011 and temporarily placed him with his paternal aunt Deborah Jackson.

While the investigation was ongoing, Antwan’s father, Antwan Hope Sr., then 28, blamed DCF and ChildNet, a DCF contractor, for allowing his son to be alone with Simmons. Jackson and Walker told The Miami Herald they agreed.

“They put him in the hands of death,” Jackson told The Miami Herald after the boy’s first unsupervised visit with his mother since she had tried to kill him in 2011 turned deadly.

This is a developing story. Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Joyce Grace Ortega and Planning Editor Frine Gomez contributed to this report.

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Archives (2013)

• Woman’s calls to 911 released after son’s death
• Visitation held for boy found dead in apartment
• Judge blasts DCF over boy’s death
• Father talks about 4-year-old son’s death
• Police reports shed light on mother’s, boy’s past
• Medical examiner to determine cause of child’s death