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Trooper earned Owens' trust

Former first lady praises Hemphill for his service

Chris Barge And Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 17, 2007 at midnight

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Trooper Jay Hemphill is the kind of man people trust with their lives.

For eight years, he ferried about former first lady Frances Owens and her family.

On Monday, he talked a gunman out of Gov. Bill Ritter's office. When the man refused to drop his weapon, Hemphill shot him.

"Jay was wonderful," Owens said Monday. "I'd trust my life with this guy."

Family, friends and neighbors echoed Owens' sentiments, calling Hemphill a friendly, loyal man, full of integrity.

Even so, the news gnawed at his mother's heart.

"I'm just scared to death for him," Carole Anne Hemphill said at her Arvada home Monday upon hearing about the shooting. "I just want everything to go well for him. This is terrible."

Hemphill, 35, realized he was meant for law enforcement at an early age. Inspired by his uncle, a Castle Rock detective, he dropped out of college at Metro State College of Denver about 11 years ago and joined the Colorado State Patrol. His first assignment: the Eisenhower Tunnel.

His mother keeps a framed picture of him from that first winter. In it, he is standing on the deck of his apartment in Frisco, smiling in his new uniform as the snow falls around him.

When Gov. Bill Owens took office in 1999, Hemphill's bosses tapped him to drive the first family, including three children: Monica, Mark and Brett.

"My friends love him. My family loves him. I can't say enough about him," Frances Owens said.

Hemphill had been driving the family for about four years when a light abruptly changed to red one day.

"Anybody else would have gone through the light, but Jay was very conscientious," Frances Owens said. "He stopped and we kind of flew forward. I didn't say a word but, Monica eventually said, 'Jay! My goodness,' and we all laughed so hard.

"It was kind of an inside joke after that. 'Jay! My goodness! But boy, he wasn't going to run a red light."

Hemphill, who is single, enjoys reading, bowling and taking care of his yard, his mother said.

"He's just a big old quiet Teddy bear," she said.

Hemphill drove the Owens family around until the end of Owens' term in January, when Hemphill was reassigned to the Capitol security detail.

The news that Hemphill shot and killed a man outside Gov. Ritter's office stunned Frances Owens.

"I'm sure Jay did what he was taught to do. He was never rash. I would never, ever second-guess Jay," she said.

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