Jasmine Hartin is spotted at a fruit stand two days before being sentenced for shooting
Canadian socialite Jasmine Hartin was spotted at a fruit stand in Belize days before she is sentenced to death for shooting a local police chief.
Hartin, 34, pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month for the accidental shooting of Belizean police officer Henry Jemmott in 2021.
She was seen on May 24 wearing a black dress, wearing a straw hat and carrying a plastic bag of apples and bananas, awaiting sentencing this Thursday.
Hartin is the estranged partner of Andrew Ashcroft – the son of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft – with whom she ran a resort in the Central American country.
She has said she was sitting on a pier drinking with Jemmott in May 2021 when he pulled out his Glock 17 and handed it to her. Hartin said she illuminated the gun with moonlight to see it properly when it fired a bullet into his head.
Jasmine Hartin, 34, was seen on May 24 wearing a black dress, a straw hat and a plastic bag of apples and bananas.
Pictured is Hartin shopping for fruit on May 24, a week before she must return to a court in Belize City for sentencing
Hartin was spotted buying fresh produce in Belize on May 24, where she pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge last month for the murder of a local police chief
Hartin pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month after accidentally shooting Belize’s police chief Henry Jemmott (pictured) in 2021. He was 42 when he died
The Belize Courthouse heard at trial that the legal priority of a guilty plea for the crime in question was not a custodial sentence, but rather a fine.
The judge said it was unlikely he would “deviate” from precedent, but had warned Hartin in an earlier hearing that he was “not bound by it.”
Her appearance on Thursday comes after the judge received a socio-economic report on Hartin, which will be used to determine the size of the fine.
Hartin’s voice trembled as she stood on the small wooden wharf last month to make her last-minute plea in a packed courtroom.
Out of court, Hartin said, “I just want Henry’s family to be at peace now and I want this whole thing behind all of us so we can heal.”
Also present at court were the dead officer’s sisters and his daughter, who have stoically attended the trial since he was killed nearly two years ago and insisted they do not believe the shooting was an accident.
His sister, Cherry Jemmott, told CBS’s 48 Hours that her brother would never treat his gun so haughtily.
“He’s so skilled and he’s so careful,” she said.
A judge told Hartin that she was unlikely to receive a custodial sentence and that she was more likely to be fined
Before she appears in court on Thursday, the judge is expected to review a report on her economic status so that an appropriate fine can be imposed.
While out on bail for the trial, Hartin gave several TV interviews in which she insisted the shooting was an accident and that Jemmott was a trusted friend who showed her how to use the gun for protection after being at a party attacked.
But she said the gun went off when she tried to hand him the magazine and a single bullet hit him in the head, causing his body to fall on top of her.
She said she struggled under his weight and couldn’t keep his body from sliding into the water. His body was found in the water off San Pedro, Belize, with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Hartin has always maintained that while she had a few drinks, she was not drunk the night Jemmott was killed.
But her ex-partner Andrew Ashcroft β Ashcroft’s youngest son β claimed his children’s mother was “drinking heavily” before the May 2021 shooting.
In a statement submitted to the court, he claimed she had as many as eight wines and some shots at a party the night of the incident.
Her attorney Hubert Elrington said she has paid damages to Jemmott’s common-law wife and five children, who are between the ages of seven and 18.
Ashcroft, 45, (left, with Hartin) said in his statement that the two attended a party at the Sunset Lounge until about 11pm on May 28, 2021.
Hartin’s former partner Andrew Ashcroft (pictured) is Lord Ashcroft’s youngest son. He claimed his children’s mother was “drinking heavily” before the May 2021 shooting
Last August, she claimed vengeful cops conspired to kill her and cover up her death as a failed prison escape.
She said at the time that “corrupt” police in Belize City unlocked her cell in the middle of the night and motioned her to a back door – insisting she was free to go.
Sensing it was a trap, Hartin refused to run, telling officers, “I know you’ll shoot me in the back.”
The alleged incident occurred when Hartin was detained on May 19, 2022 for allegedly arranging “hits” on Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams and a family court magistrate.
She was cleared this week by Williams, who admitted there was never any credible threat to himself or Dale Cayetano, who oversaw Hartin’s custody battle with ex-partner Andrew Ashcroft, Lord Ashcroft’s son.
βThey came to me and said, you are free to go. I walked out the front door and they said, no, no, no, go out the back door,” she told the Daily Mail.
βI knew exactly what that meant. The police are notorious in Belize and it’s a trick they use. Most of the time they shoot you or re-arrest you and charge you even more for trying to escape.β
Hartin leaves court in tears last month after pleading guilty to negligent homicide at the Belize City Supreme Court
Pictured is Belize Superintendent of Police Henry Jemmott, who was shot dead in 2021. She said he had known him for years and was friends with her ex-partner Andrew Ashcroft
Hartin and ex-partner Andrew, 44, had five-year-old twins Charlie and Elle together
‘I said, not a chance. I know exactly what you’re up to, you’re shooting me in the back. They started laughing at me and saying, you’re smart, Hartin.
“They wouldn’t give me food or water either and they made me clean the toilet with my bare hands. It was disgusting.”
Hartin met Ashcroft in Belize the year she arrived in 2014.
In 2016, they got engaged and had two children – in the same year she met Jemmott, she told 48 hours.
The manslaughter case ended her relationship with Ashcroft after he allegedly denied her access to their apartment and restricted access to their five-year-old twins, Charlie and Elle.
Hartin filed for custody in family court, but the case ended abruptly after Commissioner Williams announced that an unnamed woman allegedly hired a Belize City street gang to take herself and Cayetano out.
On May 26, 2022 β six days after Hartin was taken in for questioning β Cayetano transferred legal custody of the children to their father, who soon left Belize and moved to the Turks and Caicos Islands to open a new hotel.