Socialite Jasmine Hartin tonight pleaded guilty to the ‘accidental’ shooting of a Belizean police chief, telling media she wants his family ‘to have peace now’.
The estranged partner of Lord Ashcroft’s son broke down in tears as she entered her plea at Supreme Court in Belize City where she was due to go on trial for manslaughter by negligence today.
The court adjourned for sentencing hearing which is expected to take place on May 31.
Outside court, Hartin said: ‘I just want Henry’s family to have peace now and I want this whole thing to be behind all of us so we can heal.’
At today’s hearing, prosecutors presented Judge Ricardo Sandcroft with a file of evidence which was to have been revealed if the trial were to go ahead.
Canadian socialite Jasmine Hartin pictured outside the Belize City Supreme Court today after being accused of manslaughter after shooting a ‘police officer friend dead’
Hartin has admitted she shot Superintendent Henry Jemmott (pictured) when his gun went off by accident while she handled it as they had a late-night drink together on a pier in May 2021
Pictured are Lord Ashcroft’s son Andrew, 44, (left) and his former partner Jasmine Hartin (right) who is standing trial for manslaughter in Belize
Hartin said before the incident occurred, Supt Jemmott asked her to rub his shoulder as it was sore after his day’s fishing.
In an interview with Piers Morgan in 2022, the mother-of-two claimed that Supt Jemmott had invited her and partner Andrew, 44, the son of the former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, for a drink.
But she went alone to meet up with him after Andrew opted for an early night in their apartment in San Pedro on the holiday island of Ambergris Caye off Belize.
She emphatically denied rumours that she was having an affair with Supt Jemmott, and insisted their relationship was one of friendship.
At the time of the incident 7 news Belize reported that Hartin was giving Supt Jemmott a shoulder massage when the Glock pistol accidentally went off.
After hearing shots, Belizean police officers rushed to the scene, where they found Hartin covered in blood.
In waters close by Supt Jemmott’s body was found with a single gunshot wound in his skull.
Hartin said that there was a ‘loud bang’ and then ‘Henry fell back on top of me… I could see blood and feel the blood’.
She added: ‘I tried to wiggle out from under him.
‘And that’s when he started slipping into the water and I tried to catch him and of course he was a lot bigger than me so I couldn’t hold him up.’
Pictured is Belize Police Superintendent Henry Jemmott, who was shot dead in 2021
Hartin pictured under a blanket leaving Hattieville Prison in Belize last June
She claimed that after pushing his lifeless body off of her, he fell from the pier into the water.
In August last year the socialite claimed vengeful officers plotted to murder her and disguise her death as a botched jail break.
She said at the time that ‘corrupt’ police in Belize City unlocked her cell in the middle of the night and motioned her towards a back door – insisting she was free to go.
Hartin sensed it was a trap and refused to run, telling officers: ‘I know you will shoot me in the back.’
The alleged incident happened when Hartin was detained on May 19 2022 for supposedly arranging ‘hits’ on Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams and a family court magistrate.
She was cleared this week by Williams who conceded there was never any credible threat to either himself or Dale Cayetano, who oversaw Hartin’s child custody battle with ex-partner Andrew Ashcroft, the son of Britain’s Lord Ashcroft.
‘They came to me and said, you’re free to go. I went to walk out the front door and they said, no, no, no, go out the back door,’ she told the Mail.
‘I knew exactly what that meant. The police are notorious in Belize and it’s a trick they use. They typically either shoot you dead or arrest you again and hit you with more charges for trying to escape.
Hartin and ex-husband Andrew, 44, became long-term partners and had five-year-old twins, Charlie and Elle together before opening the sprawling Alaia in May 2021
‘I said, not a chance in hell. I know exactly what you’re up to, you guys will shoot me in the back. They started laughing at me and said, you’re smart Hartin.
‘They also wouldn’t give me food or water and they made me clean out the toilet with my bare hands, it was disgusting.’
In Belize Hartin met Andrew Ashcroft, whose billionaire father Lord Ashcroft holds dual British and Belizean nationalities and has represented Belize at the United Nations.
The manslaughter case brought about the end of their relationship after Ashcroft allegedly barred her from their apartment and limited access to their five-year-old twins, Charlie and Elle.
Hartin filed for custody in the family court but the case ended abruptly after Commissioner Williams announced that an unnamed woman had allegedly hired a Belize City street gang to take out himself and Cayetano.
On May 26, 2022 – six days after Hartin was taken in for questioning – Cayetano handed legal custody of the kids to Ashcroft.
And on June 13, 2022 Ashcroft announced that he and the children had left Belize and moved to the Turks and Caicos Islands to launch a new hotel.
Source : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12013645/Socialite-Jasmine-Hartin-pleads-GUILTY-manslaughter-shooting-Belize-police-officer-dead.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490&rand=1270
