The Canadian socialite who was accused of “accidentally” killing a senior Belizean police officer now alleges vindictive police conspired to kill her and pass off her demise as a failed jailbreak.
Jasmine Hartin, 33, claims ‘corrupt’ cops in Belize City opened her cell door in the middle of the night and told her she was free to go.
Hartin realised it was a trap and refused to flee, telling the officers: “I know you will shoot me in the rear.” Hartin is on trial for the manslaughter of Superintendent Henry Jemmott and is awaiting trial.
When Hartin was arrested on May 19 for allegedly planning “hits” on the family court judge and Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams, the aforementioned event allegedly took place.
Williams, who acknowledged there was never any genuine danger to him or to Dale Cayetano, who supervised Hartin’s child custody dispute with her ex-partner Andrew Ashcroft, the son of Britain’s Lord Ashcroft, freed her this week.
The Belizean police will be sued by Hartin for holding him unlawfully.
“You are free to leave,” they remarked as they approached me. They advised me to go by the back door when I tried to exit through the front entrance, the mother of two told DailyMail.com.
“I was well aware of what that signified. In Belize, the police have a bad reputation, therefore they utilise this tactic. Usually, they either shoot you to death or re-arrest you and charge you with additional crimes for attempting to flee.
Not a chance in hell, I replied. I know what you’re doing, and you guys are going to shoot me in the back. You’re clever Hartin, they added as they began to laugh at me.
They also refused to give me food or drink, forcing me to clean the bathroom with just my bare hands.
The newest plot twist in the Hartin soap drama occurs as she is ready to go on trial later this year for the inexplicable shooting murder of father-of-five Jemmott with his own service weapon.
In Hartin’s account, the pistol accidentally went off while Jemmott was showing her how to reload it as the two were drinking and “socialising” at the opulent Alaia hotel, which she ran with Ashcroft up until the shooting.
After Ashcroft reportedly prohibited her from their apartment and restricted her access to their five-year-old twins Charlie and Elle, the lawsuit led to the breakdown of their relationship.
In the family court, Hartin requested custody, but the case came to a sudden end when Commissioner Williams revealed that an anonymous lady had reportedly hired a street gang in Belize City to kill him and Cayetano.
Six days after Hartin was detained for questioning, on May 26, Cayetano granted Ashcroft formal custody of the children.
On June 13, Ashcroft also said that he and the kids had relocated from Belize to the Turks and Caicos Islands in order to open a new hotel.
Hartin filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Belize, claiming that Cayetano’s failure to remove himself from the contentious matter in light of the alleged threats to his life is “absurd.”
When Williams informed reporters on Monday that “we did not come up with anything credible to prove that the threat was really made or whether the threat was genuine,” she was declared innocent.
Police refused to comment on the plan, but it seemed that a statement made by Hartin’s former security guard Lionel Neal, who claimed to have overheard Hartin stating she wished “these a**holes would all die,” was a major factor in the accusation.
After Hartin called the police about Neal entering her bedroom and attempting to rape her, he was charged with burglary and attempted rape.
“There was never a murderous plot.” It was an outright fabrication and slander. According to Hartin, they entirely made it up and used it as evidence against me in the custody dispute.
If there is one bright spot in all of this, it is that it has brought to light Belize’s pervasive corruption.
“They’ll just make anything up if they want to attack you. Even while it seems absurd, it is exactly what occurs.
Belize, a Caribbean country on Central America’s northeastern coast, has come under fire from human rights organisations for its government’s corruption and police violence.
Inhumane treatment of suspects and senseless executions were among the “serious human challenges” mentioned in a 2021 report from the US State Department.
Recent instances include the shooting death in July 2021 of 14-year-old Laddie Gillett, who was mistaken for a trespasser at a beach resort and resulted in nationwide protests.
Gay fashion designer Ulysease Roca, 25, passed away from an illness after being detained by police in April 2020 for violating Covid protocol and being physically assaulted while in detention.
Derrick Uh, 20, died last week from heat stroke after being detained inside a police vehicle for 20 hours, according to the authorities. Six cops are presently under investigation in connection with his death.
Around ten years ago, Hartin moved from Kingston, Ontario, where she lived on her family’s farm, to Belize, where she met Ashcroft, whose millionaire father has both British and Belizean citizenship and has represented Belize at the UN.
Before constructing the huge Alaia in May 2021, the most opulent hotel on Ambergris Caye, a tropical island destination for affluent expats off the eastern coast of Belize, she and Andrew, 44, were longtime companions and had two children together.
As the hotel’s “Director of Lifestyle & Experience,” Hartin mixed with wealthy foreigners and influential Belizean leaders. However, his glamorous life came to an abrupt end in the wee hours of May 28 when Jemmott was shot in the right ear by a 9mm bullet fired from his own Glock 17 service handgun.
At 12.45 am, a security officer heard a “loud boom,” and when police came, they discovered Jemmott floating dead on his back 30 feet from the coast and Hartin “covered in crimson fluid like that of blood.”
After spending the weekend in jail, Hartin released a statement in which she claimed the off-duty police had been teaching her how to handle a gun while they were out drinking and hanging out.
Because of her witness testimony stating it was an accident, prosecutors decided between charging her with murder or full-fledged manslaughter and instead chose to charge her with manslaughter by carelessness.
Hartin will return to court next month after entering a not guilty plea to the charge, which carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail or a fine of almost $10,000 Belizean dollars ($5,000 in US currency).