Son charged in death of assistant principal, wife

February 04, 2008

DAVID A. MARKIEWICZ

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Daryll Spearman spoke, one of his fellow administrators at Stone Mountain Middle School remembered, the subject often was his family  either his wife, Cherri, or his son Josh.

"He talked about him a lot," recalled Reagan Jennings, an eighth-grade counselor who worked for four years with Spearman.

"He loved that boy," she said of Josh Spearman, who had been adopted at an early age from Romania. "Everything he said about him was positive. There was nothing negative. He adored him."

Jennings and others who knew the Loganville family said they were shocked when they heard that Daryll and Cherri Spearman had been killed in their house, and that Josh Spearman is charged with their murder.

Josh Spearman, 18, a freshman at Gwinnett Technical College in Lawrenceville, is in jail in Walton County and is being held without bond after being arrested early Saturday.

The victims' bodies were discovered by the brother of Cherri Spearman at about 8:30 a.m. Friday, said Bruce Wright, chief deputy for the Walton County Sheriff's Department.

Wright said the cause and time of the couple's deaths would not be revealed until after autopsies are completed, either Sunday or Monday.

Wright said he was unaware of Spearman having any prior criminal record.

He said Spearman lived at home with his parents.

Daryll Spearman was an assistant principal of discipline and a counselor at Stone Mountain Middle School.

Co-workers and friends called him, "likable," "a great guy," and "a gentleman."

Jennings said Spearman's "main job was discipline, and he was very good at it. He was always calm and he smiled a lot. The children respected him and everybody else did, too."

Verdia Montgomery got to know Spearman while she served as president of the school's parent-teacher group.

"He was a good person, and a good man," Montgomery said. "His discipline was fair and not heavy-handed."

Jennings said school staff got news of the Spearmans' deaths on Friday.

"It was like we were hit with a bombshell," she said.