What to Know
Michael Yharbrough beat his girlfriend, Brianna Simmons’ 3-year-old son, repeatedly causing him significant injuries. Concerned that child protective services might take him away, the 35-year-old took her son to different doctors for treatment.
Authorities removed the toddler from Yharbrough and Simmons’ care more than once, but he always wound up back with them. He died on March 1, 2025. The case left many wondering how the pair regained custody in the first place.
The little boy faced months of torture.
Fox 2 reported prosecutors charged Simmons and Yharborough in the little boy’s death in June 2025 after months of investigation. Court records revealed Simmons took the child, identified online as Breycen Dwyane Alexander, to five separate medical facilities for care, attempting to hide the cause of his injuries.
“Her three-year-old child died in March of this year after multiple removals by CPS, and the child was returned to his mother, Miss Simmons, and the co-defendant, Mr. Michael Yharbrough, in this case,” Wayne County prosecutor Brittany Johnson said in court, per Fox 2. “That boy would be removed again and again, each time with additional broken bones, which are only alleged to have happened after Miss Simmons allowed this individual to move into her home and stay in her home and continue assaulting her child.”
Simmons apparently ignored the abuse.
Fox 2 reported Simmons did not stop Yharbrough from hurting Breycen, and other children in the home witnessed the abuse.
“She aided and abetted her co-defendant, and it led to this child’s ultimate death,” Johnson said in court.
CPS removed the child on multiple occasions but returned him to Simmons and Yharbrough.
Johnathan Marko, who sued CPS on behalf of another family, told Fox 2 this never should have happened.
“These are the people who are entrusted and tasked with protecting the most vulnerable children, many who are abused and neglected,” Marko 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.”
Simmons accepted a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Yharbrough.
Law & Crime reported that a court reduced Simmons’ charges of first-degree murder, first-degree child abuse, and torture to second-degree child abuse. According to online jail records, police in Michigan arrested 25-year-old Yharbrough on August 9, 2025, on child abuse, torture, and felony murder charges in Breycen’s death. A court convicted him of all three charges.
Yharbrough’s family adamantly denies that he hurt the child.
Yharbrough’s father, also named Michael Yharbrough, expressed hope for his son’s freedom before appearing in court.
“Woke up this morning head heavy heart heavy soul heavy feeling like I got butterflies like everything is falling praying that God keep me and walk in this court room with me today and bless us me and my son to walk out in come home today with a not guilty verdict lord we need you please bring him home set him free thank you Jesus I believe in you you are my hero we put all trust in you,” he wrote on Facebook on June 8.
He followed up that post with a curse-laden message condemning the court for finding his son guilty.
If convicted, Yharbrough faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole per Michigan law.
Simmons will be sentenced on June 23, 2026, and Yharbrough on June 26, 2026.
