The boy’s mother pleaded guilty after prosecutors said she concealed repeated abuse and continued allowing her boyfriend into the home.

DETROIT, Mich. — A jury convicted Michael Yharbrough of felony murder, torture and first-degree child abuse after prosecutors said he repeatedly beat his girlfriend’s 3-year-old son and inflicted the injuries that led to the boy’s death in March 2025.

The verdict resolved the most serious criminal case arising from the child’s death but left unanswered questions about the months before it. Prosecutors said the boy suffered broken bones, visited at least five medical facilities and was removed from his mother’s care more than once. He was later returned to the home where authorities said the abuse continued. His mother, Brianna Simmons, pleaded guilty to second-degree child abuse and testified against Yharbrough.

Prosecutors presented the case as a prolonged pattern of violence rather than a single fatal assault. Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Brittany Johnson said Simmons allowed Yharbrough to move into her Detroit home and remain there as her son accumulated new injuries. Johnson told a court that child-protection workers removed the boy repeatedly, only for him to return with additional broken bones after he went back to Simmons. The prosecution argued that Yharbrough had continuing access to the child during that period. Public accounts have not provided the exact date of each injury, the number of times the child was removed or the conditions imposed when he returned home. Those missing details have made it difficult to reconstruct how long the alleged abuse continued before the final episode.

The child died March 1, 2025, after an alleged assault at the Rutherford Street home where Simmons and Yharbrough lived on Detroit’s west side. Authorities have not released a complete public account of the fatal injuries or the boy’s autopsy findings. Prosecutors nevertheless persuaded jurors that Yharbrough caused the death while committing first-degree child abuse. That finding supported the felony-murder charge. The torture count required jurors to consider whether he intentionally caused extreme physical or mental suffering. The first-degree child-abuse count focused on the intentional infliction of serious harm. The convictions on all three charges showed that jurors accepted the state’s account of sustained and deliberate violence.

Simmons initially faced charges as serious as those filed against Yharbrough. Prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder, torture and first-degree child abuse, arguing that her conduct went beyond failing to recognize warning signs. Johnson said Simmons knew that her son was being injured and took steps to hide the source of those injuries. “She aided and abetted her co-defendant, and it led to this child’s ultimate death,” Johnson said during Simmons’ arraignment. A court entered a not-guilty plea for Simmons at that stage and ordered her held without bond. She was also prohibited from contacting her older children because prosecutors considered them potential witnesses.

The prosecution said Simmons took the boy to at least five medical facilities as his injuries mounted. Authorities alleged that using different providers helped prevent any single facility from seeing the full history. The public record does not identify the facilities or state whether their computer systems shared information. It is also unknown what explanations Simmons gave, whether doctors requested earlier records or how many visits resulted in reports to child-protection authorities. No public finding has accused an individual doctor or nurse of knowingly ignoring abuse. The medical visits instead became evidence of what prosecutors described as Simmons’ awareness of the child’s condition and her effort to conceal who was responsible.

The case moved slowly after the boy’s death. Simmons was arraigned in June 2025, about three months after her son died. Yharbrough was not immediately in custody when the charges became public. Later jail information indicated that police arrested him in August 2025. The publicly available reports do not fully explain the delay. Fatal child-abuse investigations can require autopsy findings, specialist reviews, interviews, medical records and analysis of previous child-welfare contacts. In this case, investigators also had to examine a history spread across several facilities and multiple contacts with Children’s Protective Services.

Simmons changed her plea on May 8, 2026. She admitted second-degree child abuse under an agreement that dismissed the murder, torture and first-degree child-abuse charges against her. She also agreed to testify at Yharbrough’s trial. Prosecutors recommended that she receive one year in jail followed by three years of probation. The agreement sharply reduced her possible punishment, but it gave the prosecution testimony from an adult who lived inside the home. Complete transcripts of her testimony were not available in the public accounts of the trial, leaving unclear which events she described and how the defense challenged her credibility.

Jurors heard evidence for about two weeks before returning guilty verdicts against Yharbrough on each count. A cooperating witness can give prosecutors direct evidence about events that occurred in private, but that testimony can also be attacked because the witness received a benefit. Jurors would have been responsible for weighing Simmons’ agreement against any medical evidence, photographs, communications and testimony from other witnesses. The final verdict indicates that the jury found the overall prosecution case sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt. Public reports have not detailed Yharbrough’s defense or identified every piece of evidence introduced in court.

The convictions expose Yharbrough to severe punishment. Felony murder in Michigan can carry life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Torture and first-degree child abuse also carry substantial prison terms. Simmons faced sentencing on the reduced offense under the terms of her plea agreement. Her sentencing had been scheduled for June 23, while Yharbrough’s hearing was set for June 26 in Wayne County’s Third Circuit Court. Publicly accessible news reports reviewed for this account did not provide verified results from those hearings.

The criminal proceedings did not resolve why the child was returned to Simmons after earlier removals. Johnson’s courtroom statements established that Children’s Protective Services had intervened repeatedly, but the agency’s case records are generally confidential. Public reports do not identify who approved the returns, what safety conditions were established or whether officials knew Yharbrough still had access to the home. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has not released a detailed public review explaining the decisions described by prosecutors.

Those unanswered questions matter because the child’s injuries reportedly appeared over time. Each medical visit and protective removal offered another opportunity for adults outside the home to assess what was happening. At the same time, the information may have been divided among hospitals, caseworkers, police officers, relatives and courts. Prosecutors alleged that Simmons deliberately exploited those divisions. A provider treating one injury might not have known about earlier fractures, while a caseworker visiting the home might not have received every medical record.

The involvement of Simmons’ older children suggests that investigators also sought eyewitness accounts from inside the household. Prosecutors identified them as potential witnesses when asking the court to prohibit contact with their mother. Their ages, statements and eventual roles in the trial have not been publicly disclosed. The restrictions surrounding their information protect minors but also limit the public’s ability to understand what investigators learned about the home before and after the 3-year-old died.

A criminal verdict determines whether prosecutors proved the charges against a defendant. It does not automatically establish that a hospital, child-welfare employee or court violated policy. Any review of institutional decisions would require a separate examination of the records and the information available at the time. No completed public investigation assigning responsibility to a medical facility or government worker has been identified in connection with the case.

Yharbrough’s convictions and Simmons’ guilty plea now provide formal findings against both adults in the home. The remaining milestones include verified sentencing records and any public explanation of the decisions that repeatedly returned the child to his mother before his death.

Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.