South Georgia man pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter in death of Macon infant

A south Georgia man pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter in the Macon shooting death of a 1-year-old boy in 2021.

John Demetrius Simmons, 30, of Garden City, which is near Savannah, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Macon-Bibb Superior Court Tuesday on charges of involuntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in the death of infant Monterrious Brown.

Simmons had a 9 mm pistol the night of Feb. 14, 2021 when he visited his girlfriend’s sister-in-law to do laundry at Chambers Cove Apartments near Eisenhower Parkway and Interstate 475 in Macon, attorneys said.

When Simmons and his girlfriend, Brown’s aunt, left a room in the apartment, Simmons left the pistol behind unattended, according to court testimony. Attorneys said the Brown fired the gun into his own abdomen.

Brown’s mother, TyCeanna Brown, heard the gunshot and returned to the room to find Monterrious wounded. She rushed him to a local hospital, where he later died.

Simmons was initially charged with felony murder before pleading down to involuntary manslaughter Tuesday. He also faced an aggravated assault charge that was dropped in magistrate court in 2021.

Simmons was released from prison in 2019 and was not supposed to have a gun after he and others were convicted in 2014 for organizing a bank robbery in Garden City in 2013, attorneys said.

Simmons expressed some displeasure at the potential sentence of 20 years during the plea.

“It’s a yes or no question, did you participate in this bank robbery?” asked Judge Howard Simms in reference to Simmons’s 2013 bank heist.

Simmons, after hesitating, gave a reluctant yes.

“Then you weren’t supposed to have this gun,” Simms said. “You either didn’t understand that or you ignored it. This is on you.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2023 at 5:00 AM.