Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
Jasmine’s 8-year-old son Quinton Delgadillo and fiancé Jamie Persons, 38, were killed “by an intoxicated motorcyclist driving recklessly in the Town of Lake George,” as Warren County describes it.
Jasmine was honored at the County’s annual Crime Victims Ceremony last week, for her help in the prosecution of Anthony Futia, who was sentenced in February to 15 years to life in prison for aggravated vehicular homicide, and for her efforts in safeguarding her infant son.
“We had like a countdown going,” to reveal the surprise Disney trip, Jasmine told The Chronicle. They were taking the kids on long outings, “to get them used to walking through Disney,” she said.
She recounts the accident: “All the kids were on bikes. We went to the bike trail. And I had Jasper in a stroller, my baby,” at 11 months old.
“We’re pushing him and we’re just walking along the bike path.” Daughter Lilly, then 7, didn’t want to ride her bike, so they set it by the path to pick up, “And then I was pushing the stroller and she was pushing me.”
The boys, Jadrian, 11, and Quinton, “raced to the top of the hill. I told them, when they got to the top, sit down on the wall,” near what used to be Magic Forest, “and we’re gonna have snacks and a drink, and then come back.”
When she caught up to them, “I looked at my right to make sure no cars are coming. Then I looked back straight, and all of a sudden, I see this motorcycle flying past this red car.
He was veering off the road. She wondered if he was going to try to get into the parking lot.
With the baby in the stroller, “I’m thinking, oh my gosh, don’t push him too hard. I don’t want to tip him over in his stroller. So I decided to push him into the parking lot.
“I swear I thought I got out of the way. Clearly I didn’t, because me hit me. I fell on the ground and I tried to get up because the baby wasn’t crying and the stroller was upside down.
“I tried to stand up to get to him and I instantly fell back down.”
She recalls in minute detail where the children and her fiancé were, how her right calf was so badly cut open she had to hold it together, someone applying a tournequit to her leg, all while “I’m screaming, make sure my baby’s okay,” until seeing “a gentleman” holding him.
“My daughter’s best friend lives over on Bloody Pond Road, a couple minutes down the street so I was giving them all her information.”
She was taken by ambulance to Lake George Elementary School, then by helicopter to Albany Med. “They told me there was another helicopter behind with someone else. That was Anthony,” she says, the driver of the motorcycle.
It wasn’t until late that night when her mother Tanya came to the hospital that they told her what had happened.
“It was horrible,” Jasmine says. “The next day was my birthday. Everyone’s like, Oh, happy birthday, obviously before they read my chart.”
After much physical therapy, she says, she still walks with a limp and suffers from drop foot.
Well beyond the serious physical impact, of course, is the loss of her loved ones.
“It’s hard,” Jasmine says simply. “But I have three other kids and I keep pushing through. Some days are okay and some days I just cry.”
She tried leaving Lake George, lived in Jacksonville, Florida, near family for six months. “But it just wasn’t home,” she says. “My kids missed their school and their friends.”
She says, “The community’s been a godsend, even people I don’t know come up to me, they knew Quinton or Jamie, or they just want to apologize.
“Caldwell Church is our church and Ally, the pastor, she’s been amazing. We went last Sunday for the first time since Quinton’s service there, so it was really hard. The next Thursday, they wanted to bring us a meal for dinner. They brought a smorgasbord, Dino nuggets for Jasper.”
Jasmine grew up in Lake George, graduated from Hudson Falls High School. She and the children live in the Lake George house her mother grew up in, since age 5 when the family came here from Arkansas.
The baby is almost three now, daughter Lilly is in elementary school, Jadrian at the high school. Jasper has attachment issues, Jasmine believes from losing her so abrubtly after the accident, while he was still a nursing infant.
As clearly as she remembers the accident, Jasmine says, “I really can’t remember” much of the courtroom.
“I flew back from Florida for every court day. Even people we didn’t know from the community were always there to support.”
She had to give her testimony twice because the court stenographer the first time suffered a stroke and couldn’t do the transcription.
The hardest, she said, was to speak about Jamie and Quinton at sentencing. “I told myself it’s gonna be something, getting justice for them. And I got up there and I couldn’t even barely talk.”
She said Manon Affinito, director of the DA’s Victim Assistance program helped. “They were all so great. It felt like we finally got some justice, even though he had been in jail the whole time.”
Remembering Quinton, Jasmine says he was a joker, always asking, “Mom, are you okay?”
“He had so much life in him. He was always happy. Oh, clumsy he was, too.
“He wanted to play football. I didn’t know if he was gonna be able to do it. All summer long Jamie would be out there throwing the ball to them down the street. Even Lilly got in line to play.”
She says, “Jamie loved his video games. I know right now this would be the time that he would love love being around Jasper,” the baby. “He loves sports just like Jamie does. Stuff Jasper does reminds me so much of Jamie. He’d drive me crazy sometimes, but I miss him so much.”
“Everyone’s been so considerate. I wish I could thank every single person. That [Crime Victims] ceremony was just so beautiful. Everything’s happening so fast you don’t realize how many people were involved.”
Jasmine says, not the first time through tears, “They didn’t deserve it. We were just walking. There’s so much regret because it was my idea to go.”
She says her mom had lost a son also, Jasmine’s brother, also at age 8.
“She told me, our children are all God’s angels and God’s babies, and when you need them back for bigger better missions than being on earth, He takes them. We’re just borrowing them until He needs them back.”
“Just pray for us,” she says. “We definiately felt that love. You don’t realize it’s there until something bad happens.”
Her daughter, she says, every day before she goes to bed, and when she leaves for school, says, “Bye, Mom, I love you.”
“Why do you say bye?” Jasmine says she asked. “I see you every day.”
“Mom, you never know what can happen in a day,” she quotes her daughter, agreeing, “That’s so true.”
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