THE daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Ashcroft has been transferred to a notorious scorpion-infested prison in Belize – as she remains behind bars for “accidentally” shooting a top cop.
Jasmine Hartin, 32, is facing manslaughter by negligence charges after the body of Henry Jemmott was found floating in the sea near San Pedro on Friday.
Read our Jasmine Hartin Live Blog here
The mother-of-two insists she shot Jemmott by accident. She said she had been giving him a massage on a pier after a night of drinking when she attempted to hand his service pistol back to him and it suddenly fired.
Family members of the slain cop have slammed law enforcement’s decision to charge the Candian-born socialite with manslaughter rather than murder, insisting “this is not justice.”
Hartin, after being deemed a flight risk, was denied bail on Monday and had spent the last four days cramped in a tiny concrete cell inside the magistrate’s court complex in San Pedro.
The owner of the swanky local hotel Alaia, which she operates with her husband, Andrew Ashcroft, Hartin has now been transferred to one of Central America’s toughest prisons.
Wearing a pink hoodie and a face mask, Hartin, was escorted by a policewoman out of the station and put onto the back of a golf cart.
She hid her handcuffs under a plastic bag as she was taken past a memorial erected outside by police to Supt Jemmott, The Times reports.
The Belize Central Prison in Hattieville is the small country’s only prison and featured on the Netflix doc Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons.
Known as the “Hattieville Ramada”, the facility currently houses 1,041 prisoners in small concrete cell blocks who are subject to strict religious instruction.
Inmates are held at the facility for months and sometimes even years on end while they await trial.
And given it’s the country’s only prison, inmates held for petty crimes have to rub shoulders with notorious murderers.
A prisoner who sued the prison two years ago claimed her was kept in a bare, rancid cell infested with scorpions, tarantulas, millipedes and cockroaches, according to a US State Department human rights report
Virgillio Murillo, CEO of the Kolbe Foundation, a nonprofit that runs the notorious facility, told the Daily Mail that Hartin wouldn’t be given any special treatment if she was transferred there.
“Thus far she stands accused and will be dealt with just like any other untried prisoner. And I will leave it at that,” he said.
After her failed bid to secure bail, Hartin was transferred to the Belizean maintain from San Pedro by boat on Tuesday – and will begin settling into prison life.
Her attorney, former attorney general of Belize Godfrey Smith, meanwhile, will fight to appeal the judge’s decision.
As she was charged with manslaughter by negligence, rather than fully-fledged manslaughter or murder, Hartin is currently facing a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.
However, she could also escape prison with just a fine of around US$10,000, local reports say.
Sister of the slain cop Cherry Jemmott, who is also an assistant superintendent in the Belize Police, voiced outrage over the socialite’s charges.
“It’s not right. It’s not right. The family will feel really bad. This is not justice,” she told the Daily Mail.
“My brother will have a state funeral on June 12. He gave 24 years to the police. And this is the value they put on his life?”
Cherry added that she believes Hartin should have been charged with murder and then taken to trial, where a jury could decide whether or not the killing was manslaughter.
“Within seven working days she will get bail, I predict it. She can afford it,” she continued. “The people can see what is going on here, they are already saying it.
“I can’t say too much because of my position but it’s not fair. Something is not right.
“He was our only boy. She took his life. She deprived him of his family. She deprived us of his love.”
Hartin was initially uncooperative with investigators after her arrest on Friday, however, she started talking after officers threatened to charge her with cocaine possession, 7 News Belize reported.
Police sources claim the mother-of-two was found to have 0.4 grams of the drug on her person, which is punishable by up to two years in prison and carries a maximum fine of $36,000.
She then reportedly provided a “statement under caution” in which she told police she had been giving Jemmott a massage on a pier near the shuttered Mata Rocks hotel.
The cop allegedly placed his gun to the side of him on the ground while she carried out the massage.
Afterward, she claims he then asked her to hand him his gun back to him when suddenly it went off in her hand, with a single bullet striking him in the head.
Police said Jemmott then fell on top of her. In a state of panic, Hartin tried to push to cop off of her causing his body to fall into the water. His corpse was later discovered by someone on a passing boat.
Hartin was reportedly “hysterical” when she was found at the scene of the shooting.
Police in Belize said that a single gunshot was heard – and officers then found the woman on the pier with “blood on her arms and her clothing.”
Police have refused to publicly comment on whether the gun was fired accidentally.
In her statement to police, Hartin claims she invited Jemmott to her apartment where the pair drank alcohol and discussed her private security.
She told cops the pair then walked a short distance to the wooden pier by the Mata Rocks hotel where the shooting later unfolded.
Friends and family of the victim have insisted there was no romantic relationship between Hartin and Jemmott, saying the cop was good friends with the whole Ashcroft family.
However, Jemmott’s family has raised doubt over Hartin’s version of events, with one of his sisters saying he “had a gunshot behind his ear like an assassination.”
Sources have claimed to 7 News Belize that Jemmott’s Glock had a trigger safety mechanism which made it “impossible” for it to be fired accidentally.
Police sources also told the Times of London that investigators are probing whether Hartin was playing a drinking game with Jemmott when he was shot dead.
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Her partner Andrew, who is described as her husband on the website of their hotel, is the youngest of Lord Ashcroft’s three children from his first marriage and is a citizen of Belize.
Family members said that Jemmott was a father of five and that he was heading for a promotion to senior superintendent with Belize Police.
Lord Ashcroft, who lives in Belize but remains active in British politics, has not yet commented on the incident.
Belize police chief says Lord Ashcroft’s daughter-in-law will remain in custody
This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
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