Pattern of Harm

Detroit, MI — A 3-year-old boy is dead, his mother and her boyfriend have been charged with murder and torture, and Michigan’s child welfare system is once again under intense scrutiny for allowing a vulnerable child to remain in a dangerous home, despite multiple warnings and removals.

Brianna Simmons, 35, appeared in a Detroit courtroom this week, charged with felony murder, torture, and first-degree child abuse following the March 1, 2025 death of her son. Her boyfriend, Michael Yharbrough, 24, has also been charged with the same offenses, though he remains at large.

According to prosecutors, Simmons’s son had been in and out of the care of Child Protective Services (CPS) for months. Beginning in mid-2024, the child was removed several times from Simmons’s custody after sustaining serious injuries, including multiple broken bones. Despite the documented abuse, CPS repeatedly returned the child to his mother, even after she allowed Yharbrough to move into the home.

Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Brittany Johnson described the pattern during Simmons’s bond hearing: “Her three-year-old child died in March 2025 after multiple removals by CPS, and the child was returned to his mother, Brianna Simmons, and the co-defendant, Michael Yharbrough, in this case,” Johnson said. “That boy would be removed again and again, each time with additional broken bones, which are only alleged to have happened after Simmons allowed this individual to move into her home and stay in her home and continue assaulting her child.”

Authorities say the fatal assault occurred at the family’s home on Rutherford Street, on Detroit’s west side. After the child sustained critical injuries, Simmons allegedly delayed seeking help. Instead of calling 911, she took her son to five different medical facilities in a reported attempt to obscure the source of his injuries. According to prosecutors, this pattern of concealment spanned months, as Simmons consistently ignored the ongoing abuse and took active steps to protect her boyfriend rather than her son.

“She aided and abetted her co-defendant, and it led to this child’s ultimate death,” Johnson said.

Simmons was ordered held without bond. Yharbrough, identified as the person who allegedly inflicted the fatal injuries, has not yet been apprehended. Police are urging anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact the Detroit Police Department.

Court documents indicate that Simmons’s older children were present during multiple incidents of abuse and will be called as witnesses during the proceedings. The presiding magistrate called the allegations “the most extreme dereliction of parental duty” he had seen in years.

Beyond the criminal charges, the case is raising urgent questions about the role of Child Protective Services. Despite repeated signs of physical harm, doctors’ concerns, and a known history of household instability, the child was repeatedly returned to the same environment. State prosecutors expressed deep concern about CPS’s handling of the case.

“These are the people who are entrusted and tasked with protecting the most vulnerable children, many of whom are already abused and neglected,” Johnson said. “This is not the type of job where you can just phone it in, because when you do, people get hurt and people can die.”

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CPS, declined to comment, citing privacy laws related to child welfare cases. However, lawmakers have indicated that legislative hearings will be requested to examine CPS oversight and procedural failures in the case.

But the failures didn’t stop with the mother and the state. On social media, just one day after the child’s death, Michael Yharbrough’s own father was seen publicly defending his son and threatening anyone who posted about the incident.

In this case, everyone failed the child, his mother, the system meant to protect him, and even the family of the man accused of taking his life.

If convicted, both Simmons and Yharbrough face mandatory life sentences.

For now, one child is dead, and the system designed to protect him is being asked to explain how it failed… again.