2017 ARCHIVE

HIAWASSEE, Ga. – Forty-three years ago, during the early morning hours of Dec. 8, 1974, Towns County suffered the traumatic loss of one of its finest. Sheriff Jay Vernon Chastain Sr. was slain in the line of duty, shot in the chest, during a traffic stop near the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 288 in Hiawassee, Georgia. Sheriff Chastain served six years in office prior to his untimely death at the age of 47. He left behind a wife, a 5-year-old son, and a community devastated by his senseless death.

A retired Towns County deputy, who once served under Sheriff Chastain, reached out to FetchYourNews (FYN) in late September 2017. “No one has ever told a true remembrance of the sheriff that was killed, and I think that you can,” Danny Garland wrote. “Please help me to help others see the values he served.”

Sheriff Chastain’s now-grown son, Jay Chastain Jr, offered his blessing. and many intriguing interviews took place between Garland and FYN’s reporter over the course of several months.

Sheriff Jay Chastain Sr.

“I met Jay when I was 16 or 17 years old. Dad knew him, they were friends,” Garland explained. “Jay was working at Lockheed with him at the time. He was always talking to everyone, especially the youth and seniors. Jay began mentioning running for sheriff, as Towns County needed a real sheriff, and he felt a call to serve his community. After much prayer and thought, he decided to do just that. Dad supported him until Jay ran on the Republican ticket. My dad was a diehard Democrat.

“I begged dad to support Jay. It became a pretty hot and heated race, and when my dad did at last support him, dad was nearly fired from a state law enforcement job because the state was held by Democrats. Jay was elected though and devoted much time, spending long hours with the county’s youth, positive time at the high school, going above and beyond in helping others with their needs,” the retired captain recalled.

“Just before I turned 18, I enrolled in a new college program which gave me a jump start on my criminal justice degree. An internship had to be completed so I asked Jay if he could help me. The next week, I was riding in a patrol car, soon in uniform, toting a gun with a badge. The sheriff bought the badge out of his own pocket. I still have it.”

Garland’s treasured badge, a gift from Sheriff Chastain.

Dorothy Puett, the widow of Edwin Puett who also served as one of Chastain’s first deputies, remembered the late sheriff fondly as well.  “When he was elected, they handed him the keys to the jail and a cigar box full of warrants. That’s it. He was offered bribes but never would take them. The first person he ever arrested, in fact, was his daddy-in-law,” Puett laughed.

“Jay would stop by the house each night for milk and cornbread,” Puett continued in a somber tone. “He was a good friend of ours. He dropped by at midnight on the night he was killed, just a couple of hours before it happened. He told us on that very night that they had done everything they could to get him out of office, that the only thing left was to kill him. He was a fine man who was trying to clean up Towns County.”

FYN inquired into who “they” were, but Puett understandably declined to go on record.

In a separate interview, retired Captain Garland also spoke of the late sheriff’s ominous premonitions: “When Jay was killed, there was much in action to help needy families with food or money. There were only two of us who knew the plan. Jay told me once while we were riding, ‘If something happens to me, you know where the list is and who gets what.’ Today, it is eerie when I think about it. Even after his death, he gave many gifts and helped dreams come true. His goal was compliance without arrest, if possible. Many times he’d mediate issues between people, leaving all satisfied. Sheriff Chastain was the mark of a dedicated servant of God and the people.”

Lynn Garland, the younger sibling of Danny Garland, reminisced on the sheriff’s legacy.

“I remember when some people wanted to have a recall and another election,” Lynn Garland began, “but the sheriff had more support than those who wanted him out. I don’t remember all of the details about the incident that started that ball rolling, but it was resolved in his favor. I was at the courthouse with my family, playing on the steps while they were in a meeting. Sheriff Jay came walking out, and I was so excited to see him. He said, ‘I don’t think I’ve got to hug you since everything turned out alright.’ He picked me up, hugged and kissed me, said, ‘Always remember how much I love you!’ That was the last time I saw him alive. I loved that man so much. I would get so excited to see him. I would jump up and down and run to him. The night I was told that he had died, that he had been shot and killed, there was a part of me that died too. He was killed 6 days before my 10th birthday. I went to his funeral and there were so many people from the community, law enforcement from all over. I think some were from out of state. I had never seen so many people or flowers in my life. Everyone was crying or looked like they were still in shock. It’s been 43 years, but it might as well be today. The hurt is so deep still. That’s how much I still love and miss him.”

Sheriff Chastain’s final resting place at Burch Cemetery.

At a later date, Danny Garland shared more memories.

“Many times, and not even with law enforcement issues, he was a true friend. Sheriff Chastain proved that so many times. He gave me money to take to people and told me not to tell them where it came from – family deaths, homes that burned, and especially at Christmas time,” Danny Garland said.

“The sheriff inherited a department that had one worn out patrol car, one mobile radio and an office with a base radio,” Garland continued. “There was such disarray. As I remember, he bought a second patrol car and equipped it, along with a base radio for his home. His wife answered the emergency phone and dispatched from their home at night while raising their young son. Jay recruited some great men as deputies, many of them part-time and most never paid, strictly volunteers. They were as regular as clockwork though.  He had leadership ability and community devotion that made people happy to help him meet his goals for the county he loved.

“Jay and I once took food upstairs in the old jail to a man required to serve time or to pay a $200 fine. I remember it was cold up there that day. The man offered to sell Jay a .357 revolver for two hundred dollars. Jay told the inmate he couldn’t go to his house and get it. The man said you don’t have to.  I’ve got it here in my coat and handed it to Jay through the bars. Good ole weak-kneed Jay agreed to buy the gun. Jay was the only real-life sheriff  I’ve ever known that had regulars waiting in their cars or on the porch of the Old Rock Jail, waiting for Jay to lock them up and so they could get sober. If there were no prisoners and the door was unlocked, we’d find them upstairs laying on a cot.

“Jay built a respectful department from nothing. He was always happy. He did like to argue in a fun way though. Most of all he loved God. He was a very giving person. In the spring, summer, and fall we would hoe gardens, string beans, and shuck corn to help the older folks in the community.

“If I remember correctly, on the night Jay was killed, his wife was dispatching and there was a power failure, lightning struck, and it kept the news from being heard at home. I think God honored Jay and his family that night. The call was picked up by Union County and help was dispatched from there. At the hospital, I saw a heartbroken mother and child being walked in by officers. My thoughts were that the shooter got justice, fair and swiftly,” Garland recalled.

(The man who shot Chastain was killed on the scene by a deputy.)

“Jay instilled a prayer of service, and I still pray this prayer, even retired, every day. ‘Ask God to direct you to help another, if it ain’t in God’s plans for helping one at least, let me bring a laugh or smile to at least one person, that might change a person forever,'” Garland expressed. “He’d say never miss a chance to bring a smile. Jay walked the Thin Blue Line before it was ever painted.”

There is no doubt that the sheriff was what legends are made of, throughout his life and thereafter.

Eternal respect and gratitude for your service, Sir.

(Featured Photo provided by Jay Chastain Jr.)

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