Boy, 7, dies from strangling self in car window as mom did drugs, police say
He was in the back seat of his mother’s car, with his younger sisters on each side. And that’s where 7-year-old Mazi Simmons stayed for hours, according to police.
Their mother, Kandice Grace, had driven to a friend’s house in southwest Atlanta late the previous night in April. Authorities said she then did illegal narcotics and passed out, apparently while still in the car with the children.
The next morning, little Mazi was found unconscious, his head trapped in the car’s window. The boy had strangled himself while his mother was asleep, her warrants state.
Grace, 32, of Milledgeville, was booked last week into the Fulton County Jail, charged with second-degree murder and cruelty to children.
Toxicology tests, performed on Grace after her son’s death, confirmed that it wasn’t an accident, according to Atlanta police.
“Ms. Grace was high while driving with her children, then passed out with the three children in the back seat,” her warrant states. “Ms. Grace’s state of unconsciousness did not allow her to watch her children actively. Her negligence and failure to supervise her children caused her son to remain in the window for some time, resulting in his death.”
Grace wasn’t initially charged with her son’s April 6 death. Her family believed Mazi died in a tragic accident, according to a GoFundMe page created by a woman who says she was the boy’s godmother.
“Mazi was truly one of a kind,” the fundraising page states. “Whether he was dancing, striking his signature peace sign or just being his silly, playful self, he always found a way to make everyone around him feel joy. He loved life and he loved deeply.”
He was a healthy boy, but had autism, according to Mazi’s autopsy report, which included information from the family. But the car window had compressed Mazi’s neck, leading to his death, the autopsy states.
The morning after his mother had left her car parked, the man Grace had visited walked outside his Scott Street home and saw Mazi hanging from the window, he told investigators. He began banging on the front window to wake up Grace. Her two young daughters were still in the back seat.
When officers arrived, Grace was at a neighbor’s home, holding one of her daughters, according to police.
“Investigators attempted to speak with Ms. Grace, but she kept passing out while sitting up and holding her child,” he warrant states.
Mazi was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding, but did not survive. Urine and blood samples were taken from Grace and sent to the GBI for testing, and those results, revealing drugs, were returned to Atlanta police in August, police said.
On April 18, the funeral was held for Mazi, a graveside service near Macon, according to his obituary.
For Grace, it wasn’t the first time losing as a child. She was pregnant in 2012 when she was in the car with her boyfriend, who crashed when he drifted into oncoming traffic on Powder Springs Road near Marietta. Jordan Irby, 21, died in the wreck; Grace was critically injured.
Then in 2015, Grace had a run-in with law enforcement. Cobb County court records show she was indicted for stealing a rental car and having narcotics. On Sept. 3, 2015, she was sentenced to a month in jail and three years on probation in a plea deal, records show.
Grace was sentenced as a first offender and the case was closed in August 2018, court records show.
In the recent case involving the death of her son, Grace was denied bond at her first court appearance Tuesday. Her next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22.
