Remembering Joy Deleston

Metro Atlanta

Remembering Joy Deleston

Joy Deleston was a loving mom with a no-nonsense attitude and magnetic personality that helped her win over nearly everyone she met. But that charm could not save the 39-year-old mother from an awful fate on Feb. 28.

Joy Deleston was a loving mom with a no-nonsense attitude and magnetic personality that helped her win over nearly everyone she met. But that charm could not save the 39-year-old mother from an awful fate on Feb. 28.

That's when Deleston, a Gwinnett County Sheriff's deputy, and her two daughters (seen here) Micaiah, 11 and Jelani, 4, were allegedly gunned down by Deleston's oldest son Anthony Tyrone Terrell (left), 17.

Friends say Terrell was a momma's boy and a protective big brother. His grandmother, Geraldine Terrell, of Ashburn, Ga. is skeptical about her grandson's alleged confession. "We really don't know if he did it or not."

A memorial remains in the middle-class Madison Chase subdivision where Deleston lived with her children. "That is the part that is getting all of us, especially those of us that are parents," said Cpl. Segerick Clemon, a Gwinnett deputy and friend of Deleston. "To be angry with a parent is one thing, but to retaliate upon your siblings? That is the variable no one knows."

Deleston and her two daughters, each in a gleaming white casket were laid to rest last weekend on her childhood home of James Island, S.C. outside of Charleston.

Deleston started her career in law enforcement at the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office in Valdosta, continuing to pursue a master's degree in sociology and criminal justice. "You know how people say big things come in small packages? That's how she was," Lane said. "She don't play and she would challenge a guy in a minute."

Deleston with director Robinson Vil who said he was immediately drawn to Deleston when she auditioned for a role in 2004. The fledging filmaker couldn't afford to pay the actors but Vil said he promised Deleston "where this goes, you're coming with me." Since then, Deleston had small supporting roles in three of his independent films.

" I think her ultimate goal was to act, and probably make it in movies," said Rover "Iron E" Singleton, another Atlanta screenwriter, actor, and director who befriended Deleston while acting opposite her in several movies.

During her funeral, Joy's oldest brother, Nathaniel Deleston, wept openly as he spoke about his only sister and his nieces --"three beautiful angels" now watching over him from heaven.

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Joy Deleston was a loving mom with a no-nonsense attitude and magnetic personality that helped her win over nearly everyone she met. But that charm could not save the 39-year-old mother from an awful fate on Feb. 28.

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