Jasmine Hartin moved to one of the ‘toughest jails in world’ in Belize as ‘slain’ cop’s family slam manslaughter charge.
TheSun Uk– The daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Ashcroft has beentransferred to one of the “toughest prisons in the world” – as she remains behind bars for “accidentally” shooting a top cop in Belize.
Jasmine Hartin, 32, is facing manslaughter by negligence charges after the body of Henry Jemmott was found floating in the sea near San Pedro on Friday.
The mother-of-two insists she shot Jemmott by accident. She said she had been giving him a massage on a pier after a night of drinking when she attempted to hand his service pistol back to him and it suddenly fired.
Family members of the slain cop have slammed law enforcement’s decision to charge the Candian-born socialite with manslaughter rather than murder, insisting “this is not justice.”
Hartin, after being deemed a flight risk, was denied bail on Monday and had spent the last four days cramped in a tiny concrete cell inside the magistrate’s court complex in San Pedro.
The owner of the swanky local hotel Alaia, which she operates with her husband, Andrew Ashcroft, Hartin has now been transferred to one of Central America’s toughest jails.
The Belize Central Prison in Hattieville is the small country’s only prison and featured on the Netflix doc Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons.
Known as the “Hattieville Ramada”, the facility currently houses 1,041 prisoners in small concrete cell blocks who are subject to strict religious instruction.
Inmates are held at the facility for months and sometimes even years on end while they await trial.
According to the Daily Mail, the prison has only one Caucasian inmate to date.
Virgillio Murillo, CEO of the Kolbe Foundation, a nonprofit that runs the notorious facility, told the outlet that Hartin wouldn’t be given any special treatment if she was transferred there.
“Thus far she stands accused and will be dealt with just like any other untried prisoner. And I will leave it at that,” he said.
After her failed bid to secure bail, Hartin was transferred to the Belizean maintain from San Pedro by boat on Tuesday – and will begin settling into prison life.
Her attorney, former attorney general of Belize Godfrey Smith, meanwhile, will fight to appeal the judge’s decision.
As she was charged with manslaughter by negligence, rather than fully-fledged manslaughter or murder, Hartin is currently facing a maximum sentence of five years behind bars.
However, she could also escape prison with just a fine of around US$10,000, local reports say.
Sister of the slain cop Cherry Jemmott, who is also an assistant superintendent in the Belize Police, voiced outrage over the socialite’s charges.
“It’s not right. It’s not right. The family will feel really bad. This is not justice,” she told the Daily Mail.
“My brother will have a state funeral on June 12. He gave 24 years to the police. And this is the value they put on his life?”
Cherry added that she believes Hartin should have been charged with murder and then taken to trial, where a jury could decide whether or not the killing was manslaughter.
“Within seven working days she will get bail, I predict it. She can afford it,” she continued. “The people can see what is going on here, they are already saying it.
“I can’t say too much because of my position but it’s not fair. Something is not right.
“He was our only boy. She took his life. She deprived him of his family. She deprived us of his love.”
Hartin was initially uncooperative with investigators after her arrest on Friday, however, she started talking after officers threatened to charge her with cocaine possession, 7 News Belize reported.
