Socialite admits manslaughter after police officer friend shot dead in Belize
A Canadian socialite has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by negligence after the shooting of a police superintendent.
Jasmine Hartin, former partner of Lord Ashcroft’s son Andrew, appeared at Supreme Court in Belize City yesterday.
She entered a plea following the death of 42-year-old Henry Jemmott.
At the time, police said the pair had been drinking alone on a pier in the town of San Pedro where the 42-year-old officer was found dead on May 28, 2021.
Reporting from outside the Supreme Court yesterday, Channel 5 Belize quoted Hartin as saying: ‘I just want Henry’s family to have peace now and I want this whole thing behind all of us so we can heal.’
According to the broadcaster, the socialite was told by a judge she could be handed a non-custodial sentence such as a fine.
The court will next sit for a sentencing hearing which is expected to take place on May 31.
Hartin had been arrested in 2021 after Mr Jemmott, a father of five, was killed with his pistol.
She was charged with manslaughter by negligence and remanded in Belize Central jail, which once appeared on the ‘World’s Toughest Prisons’ documentary series and is said to be plagued by scorpions and gang tensions.
MailOnline reports the pair had been enjoying a late night drink near a hotel owned by Mr Ashcroft on the island of Ambergris Caye.
Days earlier, Mr Jemmott is said to have suggested Hartin get a gun after a man became aggressive towards her at a party.
He reportedly first gave her his pistol to practice unloading and reloading the bullets as he drove her home after the incident.
Mr Jemmott was found in the water on May 28 with a single bullet wound to the head
Hartin was found nearby with what appeared to be blood on her arms and clothes, Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams had told a news conference.
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