March 03, 2008

Juvenile 'Shocked And Devastated' By Daughter's Death, Manager Says

By Jem Aswad, with additional reporting by Jayson Rodriguez (MTV.com)

Rapper Juvenile is "shocked and devastated" by the shooting deaths of his 4-year-old daughter, the girl's mother and another child, his manager, Aubrey Francis, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

The bodies of Juvenile's daughter Jelani; her mother, Joy Deleston, 39; and Deleston's daughter Micaiah, 11, were found Thursday night in their home in Lawrenceville, Georgia, which is near Atlanta. Deleston's 17-year-old son, Anthony Tyrone Terrell Jr., is being charged with the murders. He was arrested Friday.

"It really shocked him and devastated him to the point where I've never seen him before," Francis said of the rapper, according to the AP. "Right now he is relaxing and trying to grasp everything of what has happened."

Deleston, 39, was an actress who appeared in locally produced films, as well as a seven-and-a-half-year veteran of the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Police have not announced a motive in the killings.

Terrell waived his first court hearing, where he would have been formally notified of the charges against him, on Friday, a Gwinnett County Magistrate Court clerk told the AJC. Defense attorney Lyle Porter, who could not be reached Friday, has been assigned to represent him.

Because of his age, prosecutors cannot seek the death penalty against Terrell. A preliminary hearing will be set next week in Gwinnett County Superior Court, prosecutor Danny Porter told the AP.

Deleston brought a paternity lawsuit in 2004, claiming that Juvenile (real name: Terius Gray) was Jelani's father. Attorney Randy Kessler, who represented Juvenile in the proceedings, told the AP that the case was resolved peacefully by consent order in 2006, with both parties agreeing that Juvenile was the father. Juvenile had been making regular child support payments, Francis told the AP.