Weeks before pushing her dead son on a swing, she told court she was fine

She insisted she was fine — that her breakdown was behind her and that she was taking good care of her 3-year-old son. 

Just weeks before sheriff’s deputies found Romechia Simms pushing her dead preschooler on a park swing in Southern Maryland, she argued in D.C. Superior Court documents obtained by The Washington Post that she was a better, more capable parent than her former boyfriend, James “Donnell” Lee, who’d filed for full custody of Ji’Aire.

Lee, 29, told the court he was concerned about Simms’s mental stability after episodes of erratic behavior, including jumping from a moving cab, led to her hospitalization.

“I do not believe she can safely care for our son,” he wrote in his March custody petition. “I am concerned about my child’s safety and well being. 

I want to make sure that our son is safe.”
In her response, Simms, 24, who was living with her homeless mother in a motel in LaPlata, Md., attributed her breakdown to “an extreme amount of stress weighing heavy on me,” but she said she’d recovered.

“I am now in a much better productive space,” she wrote in April. She also stated, “I have done everything in my power since moving from D.C. to ensure that my son has the best life that he can have.”
On May 22 — 11 days after Lee reluctantly agreed in court to limit his custody of his son to weekends — the chubby-cheeked boy nicknamed “Sumo” was found dead at Wills Memorial Park at 7 a.m. The Charles County Sheriff’s Office said his mother had been pushing him in a swing for hours, possibly since the previous afternoon. 

The temperature had fallen to about 51 degrees overnight, according to National Weather Service data.
Ji’Aire’s cause of death is unknown, but his body showed no signs of trauma, authorities said. No charges have been filed.