After killing a police chief in Belize’s tropical paradise, the former lover of wealthy Lord Ashcroft’s son has declared she is ‘absolutely not a killer.’
Superintendent Henry Jemmott was shot by Jasmine Hartin, 33, after his gun went off by accident as she was handling it while they were having a late-night drink together on a dock in May of last year.
The Canadian-born socialite claimed she ‘doesn’t recall touching the weapon’s trigger’ and speculated that the rifle may have gone off due to corrosion.
‘I don’t recall touching the weapon’s trigger, but I was holding it when it went off,’ Hartin, who is accused with manslaughter by carelessness, said.
‘I’m not sure if the weapon was defective or not.’ I honestly have no idea how that went off.’
Even though her relationship with Lord Ashcroft’s son Andrew was collapsing at the time and they were’sleeping separately,’ Hartin said she and Supt Jemmott were merely friends rather than lovers in a stunning TalkTV interview with Piers Morgan, slated to air later today.
She claimed that the Belizean police chief had previously shown her his Glock 17 pistol and advised her to purchase a gun to defend herself because he ‘believed she required protection.’
She alleged he urged her to ‘practice emptying and reloading’ the firearm and to ‘become acquainted with it.’
‘I believed it was empty,’ Hartin said. The only time I touched the weapon was when Henry asked me to transfer it to him at the end.’
The mother-of-two alleged that Supt Jemmott had invited her and her partner Andrew, 44, the son of the former Conservative Party Deputy Chairman, to a drink.
But she went alone to see him when Andrew chose to sleep in their apartment in San Pedro, Belize’s holiday island of Ambergris Caye.
‘Andrew was supposed to come with us and join us for a beverage that night,’ she explained. He opted to remain in and not join us at the last minute. So we weren’t intended to be alone.’
Supt Jemmott had asked Hartin to treat his hurting shoulder after his day of fishing, according to Hartin.
She categorically denied having an affair with Supt Jemmott and said their relationship was one of friendship.
Hartin claims he was’sitting a foot, or two, to her left’ when the rifle went off, adding, ‘It was a tremendous noise.’ My ears started ringing, and I was in shock.
‘Henry landed on top of me. I could both see and feel blood. I then tried to get out from under him. He began to sink into the sea. I attempted to apprehend him. I couldn’t hold him up because he was much bigger than me.
‘It was a terrible night that ruined everyone’s life,’ says the narrator. That is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.’
‘I’m thought to be this wild cocaine junkie party girl,’ she added, addressing other wild rumors circulating around Belize. ‘It’s simply not true.’
During the conversation, Piers also talked about an old footage of Hartin shooting a watermelon on a beach.
‘I’ve never possessed a gun in my life,’ she continued. I’ve never had a gun before. I’ve shot them a few times, but I’m not an expert on the subject.’ That video doesn’t show you the ten times I tried and failed to hit that watermelon, and that footage was recorded by my ex.’
Hartin, a former dental assistant, was reared by a single mother in rural Canada before moving to Belize in 2014 when a long-term relationship ended, and she settled on Ambergris Caye, a popular tourist destination.
She worked as an estate agent in San Pedro, the island’s principal town, where she met Andrew Ashcroft, whose father owned the Belize Bank.
Hartin had previously stated that she was ready to return to Canada, but she was seduced by Andrew’s wit and decided to make Belize her home.
The pair welcomed twins in 2017, but they never married, despite referring to each other as husband and wife in public.
She is now estranged from Andrew, and she and he are fighting over custody of their twins. He claims she is unsuited to be a mother.