UK billionaire’s daughter-in-law charged in shooting death of top Belize cop
By Tamar Lapin and Lee Brown
New York Post
The daughter-in-law of a British billionaire was charged Monday with manslaughter by negligence in the shooting death of a top police officer in Belize, according to reports.
Jasmine Hartin, 32, who is married to the son of politically connected businessman Lord Michael Ashcroft, was denied bail at her arraignment Monday night, The Daily Mail reported.
She has been held in a tiny concrete cell at the police and court complex in San Pedro that a local described as “hell on earth,” the report said.
The charges came three days after Hartin was initially detained for questioning in the Friday morning death of San Pedro Superintendent Henry Jemmott.
The two were defying a COVID-19 curfew and drinking and socializing on a pier before Jemmott’s body was found floating in the water with a bullet wound to the head, police said.
The 42-year-old cop was shot behind the ear with his own revolver, according to cops.
Hartin, a mom of two, was reportedly covered in blood and “deeply distressed and shaking” when first responders arrived.
After initially being uncooperative, she allegedly confessed to accidentally shooting the officer after being threatened with cocaine-possession charges, according to local reports.
The socialite told detectives that she was giving the officer a massage when he asked her to hand over his service Glock pistol — and the gun accidentally went off, according to local reports.
Hartin, a Canadian, lives in Belize with her husband, Andrew Ashcroft, the youngest son of Lord Ashcroft. She is the director of lifestyle and experience at the Alaia Belize, a luxury resort developed by her hubby.
The cop — a father of five — was thought to have been staying at the resort during a break from work on “personal matters” because of relationship woes, the Mail said.
He was friends with the whole Ashcroft family, according to his family, who denied any romantic connection with Hartin, the outlet said. Both were fully clothed at the time, sources told The Times of London.
Hartin’s father-in-law is Belize’s former ambassador to the United Nations and his lawyer, the country’s former attorney general, reportedly visited Hartin in jail Saturday.
The punishment for manslaughter in Belize can be up to 25 years in prison, but for Hartin is a maximum of five years, the Mail reported, citing sources.
It’s also possible she could get off with just a fine of $10,000, according to the outlet.
Jemmott’s family has insisted that the officer — who was due to be promoted to Senior Superintendent this year — was too “skillful” to have been shot dead in an accident.
“He had a gunshot behind his ear like an assassination,” one sister, Assistant Superintendent Cherry Jemmott, 48, previously said.
“He was a top cop. I don’t know how he let down his guard to be shot with his own gun,” she insisted.
His niece, Renisha Martinez, insisted in a Facebook post that “he was murdered and we need justice.”
“That man loved his job so much that he wouldn’t even take days off!”
However, a police source insisted to the UK Times that the investigation was operating on the belief that Hartin and Jemmott had been playing with his pistol under the influence of alcohol.
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https://nypost.com/2021/05/31/uk-billionaires-daughter-in-law-charged-in-death-of-top-belize-cop/