[This story originally aired on October 2, 2021. It was updated on July 30, 2022.]
It was once a shooting that made headlines world wide. In May, a rich socialite and a senior police respectable have been on a moonlit pier in paradise. A unmarried fatal gunshot rings out. Was his dying an coincidence, was once it a homicide or was once it one thing else? “48 Hours” correspondent Peter Van Sant went to Belize in Central America to talk solely with the lady on the middle of a media firestorm.
Jasmine Hartin: I feel a lot of other folks misjudge me… they do not see my healthy facet.
Her title is Jasmine Hartin, observed via many as one of essentially the most rich and debatable other folks in a single of essentially the most alluring puts on earth.
Jasmine Hartin: When I determined to come back to Belize, I assumed that I used to be transferring from the chilly north into a paradise.
CBS News
Belize is a tiny Central American vacationer mecca that is additionally a haven for the super-rich, the place jet setters and beachcombers rub elbows each day. And it is the place Jasmine, 32, was once elevating twins along with her spouse Andrew Ashcroft, a actual property developer, and son of a British billionaire.
NEWS REPORT | CHANNEL 7, BELIZE: A girl, with one of essentially the most outstanding names at the island is on the police station …
Cherisse Halsall: I’ve by no means had a tale like this sooner than.
Cherisse Halsall is a news reporter and anchor at Channel 7 in Belize, and a CBS News advisor. She’s been masking the case because it broke on May 28, 2021.
Authorities detained Jasmine Hartin after discovering her dazed and sopping wet in blood on a abandoned pier close to her unique beachfront lodge house.
NEWS REPORT: CHANNEL 7, BELIZE: It’s a thriller for which the intrigue is escalating.
In the water was once police superintendent Henry Jemmott with a fatal gunshot wound in the back of his proper ear. He was once a guy liked via his 5 kids and, says his sister Cherry, via the rustic he’d spent his lifestyles serving.
Cherry Jemmott: He had accomplished a nice activity for the rustic of Belize.
CBS News/Facebook
With a revered police officer lifeless and a rich tough lady in a concrete prison mobile, there have been rampant rumors about Jasmine Hartin and Henry Jemmott: Were medicine or infidelity concerned? The hypothesis was once fueled via studies that Jasmine’s account of that night time had modified. According to Channel 7, the primary account she instructed was once the fatal shot can have come from a passing boat.
Cherisse Halsall: Why would she have ever instructed such a wild tale about a boat?
After a jailhouse talk over with with a legal professional, Hartin admitted she fired the fatal shot by accident.
Hartin was once charged with manslaughter via negligence and ultimately launched on bail.
Jasmine Hartin: The issues which are at stake presently is my courting with my kids, my freedom, my industry, my cash, my personality, my popularity and my lifestyles is at stake.
Jasmine Hartin is telling her facet of the tale – a tale that starts in her youth. She insists she was once by no means a spoiled wealthy child.
Jasmine Hartin: I feel as a result of I grew up the way in which I did … all of that has ready me for what I’ve simply continued.
She says she grew up deficient in Canada, as one of 9 siblings in a small farming group.
Peter Van Sant: Do you take note being hungry as a kid?
Jasmine Hartin: Of path, yeah, time and again.
Jasmine’s mom, Candace Castiglione, says meals was once in such quick provide, she’d trick a native donut store to offer her stale pastries to feed her children.
Candace Castiglione: I went in and instructed them I used to be a pig farmer. I wished the doughnuts for my pigs … the children … concept it was once superior.
She went to highschool in a hardscrabble community of Kingston, Ontario, and set her attractions on a occupation in dentistry — hoping to assist the needy.
Jasmine Hartin: I began to do dental missions.
Peter Van Sant: And Belize?
Jasmine Hartin: I noticed a chance to come back down and do a undertaking right here for dentistry.
She arrived in Belize in 2014. She arrange store on an unique island referred to as Ambergris Caye, and made a splash at the social scene, obtaining a popularity as a celebration woman.
And in 2015, she met somebody who would exchange her lifestyles. By then, she was once operating as a realtor and he was once a doable shopper.
Jasmine Hartin: There was once … one thing intriguing about his stage of self belief.
It was once Andrew Ashcroft.
Jasmine Hartin: I assumed he was once very artful, very humorous, very witty.
Andrew is a son of Lord Michael Ashcroft, a well known conservative political determine in his local Great Britain, who’d constructed a billion-dollar industry empire with intensive holdings in Belize. They reportedly have incorporated possession stakes within the telephone corporate, two of the most important banks, a TV station —even the primary the port.
Peter Van Sant: Once you discovered that Andrew Ashcroft is the son of a billionaire, how did that have an effect on you for your courting?
Jasmine Hartin: Well … I used to be fascinated by it.
Peter Van Sant: Were you in anyway drawn to his pockets?
Jasmine Hartin: No
Peter Van Sant: But the prospective?
Jasmine Hartin: I sought after to construct one thing in combination. I sought after us to be companions.
They were given engaged in 2016, and the following yr that they had twins, Charlie and Ella. It was once simply months previous at a brunch, that Jasmine had met the opposite guy who would change into a central determine in her long run – a top rating police respectable at the island, Henry Jemmott.
Jasmine Hartin: Henry was once a lot of amusing … we’d get in combination, regularly with teams.
Jasmine says he was once at the island for approximately any other yr sooner than being transferred, they usually were given to understand each and every different smartly.
Jasmine Hartin: He … beloved his meals [laughs]. Loved my cooking, regularly got here to ho — the home for dinner.
She says Andrew Ashcroft already knew Henry. So Jemmott’s title was once at the invite record in May 2021, when the couple reduce the ribbon on their skilled dream, a Marriott-branded lodge price tens of millions. It was once simply weeks sooner than the shooting.
ANDREW ASHCROFT [at ribbon cutting]: For Jasmine and I, it marks the achievement of a dream to create the Alaia Resort.
Jasmine Hartin gave the impression to have all of it: opulent way of life, pretty circle of relatives and hyperlinks to a tough dynasty. Her lifestyles can have regarded absolute best, however she says via then, in the back of the curtains of the five-bedroom beachfront apartment she shared with Andrew and the youngsters — there was once hassle.
Jasmine Hartin: Andrew and I’ve had a very rocky street.
They attempted to make it paintings, says Jasmine, even though they by no means formally married.
Jasmine Hartin: We were not even slumbering in the similar rooms.
And she says they have been necessarily main separate lives. So, on a darkish night time in May 2021, when Jasmine Hartin unexpectedly discovered herself in hassle at a celebration, she referred to as her good friend Henry Jemmott.
Jasmine Hartin: I stated, “Please come pick me up. This is bad …”
A RELATIONSHIP UNDER SCRUTINY
Peter Van Sant: Set the scene for us. … This is a very particular position for you.
Jasmine Hartin: Yeah, it was a very particular position. But now it brings again a lot of unhappy, unhappy recollections. … This is Grand Colony — in order that construction within the again is the place I lived.
CBS News
At the glittering middle of Jasmine Hartin’s international was once a myth — the sumptuous beachfront lodges of the Ashcroft empire in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye, Belize.
Cherisse Halsall: San Pedro is the place all that cash is available in, rolls in and rolls out.
Here, lodging can opt for upwards of $1,000 a night time. It is simply a few barefoot steps around the sand, however a international clear of on a regular basis lifestyles on this Central American country the place the common wage is round $800 a month.
Cherisse Halsall: There’s a component of race in that expats don’t generally tend to socialise inside the Black group.
But reporter Cherisse Halsall says Jasmine Hartin and Henry Jemmott’s lifestyles trips reduce a trail that straddled each worlds.
Cherisse Halsall: Henry Jemmott is pals with a wide variety of Belizean society.
As comfy with the Ashcrofts and their monumental wealth, as he was once with the working-class other folks he grew up with.
Peter Van Sant: You referred to as him King.
Cherry Jemmott: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: He’s the king.
Cherry Jemmott: Yes, he is the king. … My oldsters title him “King,” as a result of he is one and simplest boy within the circle of relatives.
A “king” who adopted within the footsteps of his sister, Cherry.
Cherry Jemmott: Yes, we’re each police officials.
Peter Van Sant: And was once your brother a just right cop?
Cherry Jemmott: An excellent cop, very strict.
Cherisse Halsall: Henry Jemmott is an upstanding officer.
A senior police respectable, and a circle of relatives guy… devoted father to 4 ladies and a boy. A son, brother, and good friend to many — like Gene Lopez.
Gene Lopez: He was once a large fella, however, uh, he was once pleasant, however stern.
Peter Van Sant: Tell me concerning the Henry you knew.
Gene Lopez: He would lend a hand anyone in the event that they wanted help.
Cherry Jemmott: He is a superb guy, beloved via many. He have prolonged his love past the circle of relatives limits.
Peter Van Sant: Did you change into just right pals?
Jasmine Hartin: Well, sure. … The extra I were given to understand him, we had a lot in commonplace.
Peter Van Sant: There has been a lot of communicate round Belize that you just and Henry Jemmott have been greater than pals, that you will have been fans.
Jasmine Hartin [Shaking her head]: That’s now not true. That’s now not true in any respect.
Peter Van Sant: You guys by no means had a sexual courting?
Jasmine Hartin [Shaking her head]: No.
Still the character of their courting would change into the center of this tale.
Cherisse Halsall: The query — is: what was once such a outstanding guy, outstanding sure, however operating category, center category, doing on a pier with somebody who is from the 0.01 p.c of rich expats? It simply gave the impression of a mashup and a friendship that virtually should not exist.
Whatever their courting, it was once Jasmine’s reliance at the guy referred to as “King,” that set in movement the general days of Henry Jemmott’s lifestyles. It was once May 22, 2021. Jasmine says she was once at a celebration, some 70 miles from house.
Jasmine Hartin: A person adopted me into the room and was once slightly competitive with me.
Peter Van Sant: Verbally? Physically?
Jasmine Hartin: Physically—umm, in a sexual means. … So, in that second, I fought him off me. … I referred to as Jemmott immediately.
The guy Jasmine calls her “protector” did not hesitate.
Jasmine Hartin: He drove an hour to come back select me up. … And he saved pronouncing … we wish to actually paintings on getting your firearms license.
She says Henry Jemmott sought after her to have a gun for defense.
Peter Van Sant: And you agreed to that?
Jasmine Hartin: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: And when he had that dialog did he show you his Glock pistol?
Jasmine Hartin: Yes. … He sought after me to deal with it, to get a really feel for it.
Peter Van Sant: When you were given house did you percentage what took place to you with Andrew?
Jasmine Hartin: No … we were not actually sharing a lot with each and every different in any respect.
And Henry Jemmott posted on Facebook that he was once now unmarried.
Jasmine Hartin: … he posted one thing about being unmarried like “after 14 years.”
And so, some 3 days later, it was once Jasmine’s flip to assist her good friend.
Jasmine Hartin: The subsequent factor I do know I am getting a textual content message from Henry pronouncing, “Hey, can you hook me up at Grand Colony? I need to come out there for a couple of days and just blow off some steam.”
Peter Van Sant: He checked in on Wednesday May 26.
Jasmine Hartin: Correct.
The subsequent day, Henry went fishing along with his best possible good friend Francisco “Panny” Arceo.
Panny Arceo: He was once glad as glad. … I says, “So, what’s up tonight?” He stated, “Well, I have a date.” I stated “Who?” … He stated, “That one, I’m taking it to my grave.” But he was once smiling when he instructed me that.
Peter Van Sant: Were you that date?
Jasmine Hartin: That’s onerous to mention. If he referred to as me a date, he might simply were pulling their leg or exaggerating reality. So, I’m now not certain. But I’m no doubt now not a date.
She says Andrew was once meant to sign up for them. But as a complete moon settled over the tropical Caribbean night time, Jasmine met Henry on my own.
Cherisse Halsall: I had a police document that Superintendent Jemmott … were killed on a pier in San Pedro.
Just offshore from this pier, floating at nighttime Caribbean Sea, Henry Jemmott was once shot lifeless.
Jasmine Hartin: Next factor I do know the police are there.
She had referred to as the police herself. They took her into custody, the place Jasmine reportedly spun her first model of how Henry Jemmott died.
Cherisse Halsall: Her tale is that a passing boat shot Jemmott.
Peter Van Sant: And that tale is from Jasmine herself?
Cherisse Halsall [nodding to affirm]: From Jasmine herself.
Jasmine Hartin: I do not take note pronouncing that. Like, it was once such a blur. Umm, you already know, and I feel I used to be in surprise –
Peter Van Sant: Were you deliberately looking to lie to police at that second?
Jasmine Hartin: No.
Peter Van Sant: To give protection to your self?
Jasmine Hartin: No, on no account.
Later on, the day of the shooting, Henry Jemmott’s frame was once introduced around the shimmering waters and residential, via his best possible good friend Panny, in the similar boat they would been fishing in simply a day sooner than.
Panny Arceo: And I stated “Can’t be. Cannot be” … I’m nonetheless harm, nonetheless bothers, nonetheless very harm.
Peter Van Sant: You have been crying.
Panny Arceo: Yes, of path, sure.
The King was once lifeless. The lady with connections to a rich, tough circle of relatives sat in a mobile on the police station. And then reportedly, that tale she instructed concerning the bullet fired from the boat, started to switch.
There are simplest two individuals who know what took place on that pier on Ambergris Caye. One is perpetually silenced: 42-year-old Superintendent of Police Henry Jemmott, allegedly shot along with his personal gun – a Glock 17.
More than two days after being taken into police custody, the opposite particular person on this twisted drama, Jasmine Hartin, made a startling admission.
Peter Van Sant: You have admitted shooting and killing Henry Jemmott.
Jasmine Hartin: Yes, so …
Peter Van Sant: But let me end the query. … was once it an coincidence or was once it homicide?
Jasmine Hartin: It was once completely now not homicide. Henry was once my good friend. … That day modified everybody’s lives.
Documents from law enforcement, courts and forensic professionals in Jasmine Hartin’s case have now not been made public. So, a lot of her account of that night time can’t be independently corroborated. She is telling her tale intimately for the primary time on TV to “48 Hours.”
Peter Van Sant: How did you and Henry Jemmott finally end up on that pier?
Jasmine Hartin: We have been sitting at the balcony of Unit 1, which is oceanfront.
She says they have been ingesting.
Jasmine Hartin: Cinnamon whiskey, yeah … He took his like a shot. You know, I used to be sipping mine. Then, we went — it was once a complete moon. The stars have been beautiful. … So, we determined, let’s cross down, sit down at the pier. … We have been sitting at the edge, our legs type of dangling — simply speaking.”
Belize Channel 7
As he’d accomplished after rescuing her from that celebration, Jasmine says Henry Jemmott once more pulled out his 9mm Glock 17 and passed it to her.
Jasmine Hartin: It’s not that i am knowledgeable with 9 millimeters in any respect.
So, Jasmine says Henry started instructing her how you can eject and reload the mag clip and bullets.
Jasmine Hartin: He stated, “Let’s see if you can do, you know, unload the clip, reload it.” … So, he helped me get the clip out. I used to be unloading it. Then he took the bullets and put them beside him. … I used to be beneath the influence that the gun was once totally empty on the time.
Peter Van Sant: It does not make sense to other folks. Why are you doing this within the darkness?
Jasmine Hartin: It simply type of took place in that second.
Jasmine claims Henry was once a little under the influence of alcohol, however says she wasn’t.
Jasmine Hartin: I had had a few beverages. Yeah. I wasn’t under the influence of alcohol.
CBS News
Peter Van Sant: It’s previous nighttime now. We’re coming near 12:45 a.m.
Jasmine Hartin: Uh-huh.
Peter Van Sant: What occurs? What unfolds?
Jasmine Hartin: We’re sitting at the finish of the pier in combination. … He makes a remark about how his shoulder’s actually stiff. And he is like, “Just rub my shoulder.” … So, I type of scooched again in the back of him.
Jasmine says she agreed to offer Henry Jemmott a shoulder therapeutic massage. And then …
Jasmine Hartin: “Let’s head inside,” he stated. So, I stated, “OK.” So, he has the bullets to his left. He requested me at hand him the clip from the gun. That’s once I picked it up. I’m nonetheless type of in the back of him a little bit.
Peter Van Sant: Who’s keeping the gun at that time?
Jasmine Hartin: Me.
Jasmine Hartin: So, I achieve for the gun to take the mag or the clip out, as a result of he was once going to reload it. He had the bullets there. … And all of a unexpected, it went off. And — [sighs] It’s onerous to speak about it nonetheless.
Peter Van Sant: Take me via that, second via second.
CBS News
Jasmine Hartin: So … I lean over. I select up the gun. And I’m looking to click on out the mag and it is not operating. So, I’m keeping it like this [motions with her hands] and I’m making an attempt to make use of the moonlight or no matter to look if I’m clicking the best button.
Jasmine says the barrel of the gun was once pointed to the left, the place Henry was once sitting.
Jasmine Hartin: Next factor I do know, the gun went off.
Peter Van Sant: And did you could have a finger across the cause?
Jasmine Hartin: Not that I assumed.
Peter Van Sant: Somehow you will have to have pulled the cause.
Jasmine Hartin: I’d — I’m — I do not know. I — I — I imply, it was once an coincidence, or the gun misfired. But consciously did I pull the cause? No.
She says Henry Jemmott by no means made a sound.
Jasmine Hartin: So, the shot went off and he fell on most sensible of me. And all I may just really feel was once heat. And I later then discovered — he was once bleeding on me.
Jasmine says after the shot, she struggled to get out from beneath Henry.
Jasmine Hartin: I used to be shaking him. … I did not know what to do. … As I’m looking to wiggle my approach loose to render help, his frame was once slipping into the water from the dock.
Jasmine Hartin: I did not know what to do. I did not know if he was once lifeless.
She says it took time to make sense of what had took place.
Jasmine Hartin: It was once a terrible coincidence.
Taking Jasmine into custody, government found out she was once wearing a small quantity of cocaine. They did not rate her with ownership that night time as it hadn’t been examined but.
Peter Van Sant: Had you used cocaine that night time?
Jasmine Hartin: No.
Peter Van Sant: Do you employ cocaine? … Do you could have a drug drawback?
Jasmine Hartin: I no doubt wouldn’t have a drug drawback in any respect. And I can say that the substance that they discovered was once now not mine.
Peter Van Sant: Whose was once it then?
Jasmine Hartin: I do not believe I will say that.
Peter Van Sant: She stated it wasn’t hers.
Cherry Jemmott: It’s in her handbag.
Cherry Jemmott, the police officer who impressed her more youthful brother “King” to get his badge, is not purchasing any of it.
Peter Van Sant: Do you imagine that your brother, on a darkened night time, on the finish of a pier, at 12:45 within the morning, was once if truth be told appearing her how you can use his Glock 9mm pistol?
Cherry Jemmott: My brother would by no means do a factor like that relating to a firearm.
Cherry Jemmott: He is so skillful, and he’s so cautious.
Peter Van Sant: You do not imagine in any conceivable approach this can have been an coincidence?
Cherry Jemmott: I can’t imagine that.
CBS News
Cherry is hopeful that after the ballistic document is published, it is going to lead prosecutors to improve the rate.
Cherry Jemmott: Jasmine Hartin will have to be charged for homicide and now not manslaughter.
Either approach, Jasmine Hartin was once about to run into a international of hassle — a lot nearer to house.
A FUNERAL FIT FOR A KING
From the swaying fingers, to the silent roads, journalist Cherisse Halsall and Peter Van Sant went on the lookout for Henry Jemmott’s place of birth roots.
Cherisse Halsall: Peter, that is the Hummingbird Highway in Belize, and it is the street to the tradition capital, which is Dangriga, that is the place Henry Jemmott grew up, and the place his circle of relatives nonetheless lives.
We adopted the dusty, colourful streets of Dangriga and have been ended in Henry Jemmott’s nephew, Edel. He is apparent on how his uncle died.
Edel: Murder …
Peter Van Sant: And the entire circle of relatives feels that approach?
Edel: Everybody feels that approach.
But government charged Jasmine Hartin with manslaughter, now not homicide. And publicly, investigators have by no means recommended any purpose for her to have deliberately killed Henry.
Jasmine Hartin: I had no purpose to try this to my good friend.
But Henry’s circle of relatives believes in actual fact published in how and the place he was once shot.
Cherry Jemmott: My brother was once shot in the back of the ear … Execution taste.
That shot echoed via a the town well-known for its song and drums — the beat Henry Jemmott beloved … the heritage he was once passing directly to his kids.
Cherisse Halsall: We’re getting as regards to the church the place Henry Jemmott’s funeral was once held.
Paulino’s Funeral Home
As he had in lifestyles, the 42-year-old public servant united the folk of Belize.
But how you can convenience sisters who misplaced the brother they lovingly referred to as King? And how to reply to 6-year-old Henry III’s query?
Cherry Jemmott: How comes my dad have not name(ed) me?
While Henry Jemmott was once mourned via a country, Jasmine Hartin was once getting a other type of consideration. And, in line with a jail respectable:
NEWS REPORT: CHERISSE BELIZE CHANNEL 7: The 32-year-old, who can be handled like every other untried prisoner, will change into the one Caucasian amongst 1,041 inmates.
Still, the folk of Belize could not assist however ponder whether Jasmine’s race, stature and wealth could gain advantage her. Then Jasmine was once locked up for 13 days.
Jasmine Hartin: My mobile … was once infested with cockroaches.
When she after all made bail, more or less $15,000 U.S. bucks, it was once paid for via an worker of the Ashcrofts. But Jasmine was once already getting the sensation that her spouse Andrew sought after her out of sight.
Belize Channel 7
Jasmine Hartin: The day I were given out … I used to be anticipating to be reunited with my kids at house, however as a substitute I used to be despatched to a area within the center of nowhere alone, with out my kids, with out a telephone.
Andrew organized for the home, and for the twins to talk over with, however Jasmine claims he simplest allowed them to look her one time. Andrew claims Jasmine left the home sooner than he may just prepare any other talk over with.
Peter Van Sant: And being with the exception of your kids, what has that been like for you?
Jasmine Hartin: That’s one that can get me to cry.
Two weeks after making bail, Jasmine attempted to talk over with the twins herself on the Grand Colony, the place she had lived with Andrew Ashcroft. It was once then that chaos broke out. This is a component of the video Jasmine shot: Jasmine captured the scene on her mobile phone:
JASMINE HARTIN [cell phone video]: Andrew’s operating, so I will’t see my kids. … Security is actually preventing me from seeing my kids presently.
In a remark, Andrew later wrote that Jasmine was once shouting and cursing and “behaving aggressively” towards the resort workforce.
JASMINE HARTIN [cell phone video]: You’ve been recommended via Andrew to forestall me from seeing my kids? That’s proper?
JASMINE HARTIN [cell phone video]: He’s inside of hiding … Why would possibly not you let me see the youngsters?
She is startled two days later when she’s arrested once more — this time for assaulting a resort workforce member that day.
JASMINE HARTIN [at police station, Channel 7 news report]: All I did was once attempt to acquire my non-public assets and notice my kids.
And government upload a rate for cocaine ownership from the night time of the Henry Jemmott shooting. Her bail is then revoked, and he or she’s locked up once more. But now not for lengthy.
Jasmine was once out once more after 4 nights in the back of bars. Her bail restrictions mandated she test in with police — each day. A four-hour round-trip force throughout Belize from the place she is staying. [is this correct?
Peter Van Sant: And so, when you go in, what do you say?
Jasmine Hartin: They ask me a series of questions, where I’m staying, my date of birth.
But this day’s check-in, just two weeks after the confrontation at the hotel would prove anything but routine.
Authorities hand her an order to appear at a custody hearing, reciting Andrew’s allegations.
Jasmine Hartin [reading from document]: “For reason that the mother of the children hardly spends anytime with the children.” First of all, I used to be in prison.
Andrew Ashcroft seeks complete custody of his kids, as a result of Jasmine is charged with “causing the death of a police officer by negligence,” in addition to the attack of that resort worker. And claims —
Jasmine Hartin [reading from document]: “She is addicted to non-prescription and illegal drugs and a habitual drunkard.”
It’s all a vividly other description of the lady Andrew as soon as welcomed into his rarified international.
Jasmine Hartin: In my opinion, that is completely battle. … This is basically gloves are off.
The “war” could be concerning the custody of the youngsters, a tough circle of relatives and a construction world scandal.
Jasmine Hartin: Money, energy, symbol and popularity imply completely the whole lot to that circle of relatives.
Next up within the battle of the Ashcrofts: cash. According to Jasmine, she’s been bring to an end financially.
Peter Van Sant: You did not have a checking account, a believe fund, not anything that you need to draw upon?
Jasmine Hartin: Not in any respect.
Andrew Ashcroft declined to talk with “48 Hours” and his legal professional says with prison complaints underway, it could be “quite ill-advised” to grant an interview.
The wheels had come off Jasmine Hartin’s lifestyles in paradise. And she was once operating scared.
Jasmine Hartin: I’ve been via what I might imagine hell on earth.
But the Jemmott circle of relatives says they are those going via hell as they proceed to mourn the sort, conscientious guy they imagine Jasmine murdered.
Cherry Jemmott: She gave such a lot of tales, so who is aware of when she’s telling the reality?
Central to Jasmine’s tale is that she knew little or no about handguns, and that Henry Jemmott sought after to show her. But not too long ago, pictures have gave the impression of Jasmine, in Belize, with a shotgun.
Peter Van Sant: What does that video let you know?
Cherry Jemmott: The video inform me that Jasmine is easily versed, have broad wisdom of larger firearms.
Peter Van Sant [referencing video]: This is you with a semi-automatic rifle.
Jasmine Hartin: Yes.
Peter Van Sant: It has a mag, a clip. So, I’m guessing you understand how to take out a mag and reinsert it into a weapon?
Jasmine Hartin: That image was once from 2012 when I used to be at a Las Vegas shooting vary. … They do not permit you to load your firearms.
Belize Channel 7
Jasmine Hartin: What the video does not show is that it was once actually, almost definitely, my tenth strive on the watermelon. I’m now not superb with [laughs] firearms.
Jasmine says she knew subsequent to not anything about handguns.
Jasmine Hartin: I have no idea how you can deal with a 9 millimeter correctly in any respect. As we will inform.
It would come right down to this: was once the gun used to kill Henry Jemmott fired unintentionally?
“48 Hours” requested knowledgeable.
TESTING THE ACCIDENT THEORY
There’s a lot driving on Jasmine Hartin’s account of Henry Jemmott’s shooting. So “48 Hours” sought after knowledgeable opinion about whether or not her tale strains up.
Peter Van Sant: What are you keeping for your hand?
David Katz: This is a Glock 17 9-millimeter pistol. It’s the similar kind of weapon that was once used within the shooting incident that took place in Belize.
David Katz is a former DEA agent, and a veteran firearms trainer, who taught on the FBI/DEA Academy in Quantico.
Peter Van Sant: If used correctly, how protected is a Glock 17?
David Katz: These are a particularly protected.
Katz says Glock handguns are designed to resist virtually any quantity of jostling with out accidently firing.
David Katz: I may just bang it. I may just drop it. … it is not going to move off.
But Katz says there may be one notable exception – a doable key to working out what took place on that pier. We confirmed him parts of Van Sant’s interview with Jasmine.
Jasmine Hartin: I’m looking to get the mag out.
As observed from Jasmine’s gestures, she says she was once fumbling round to liberate the gun’s mag.
David Katz: If her finger was once at the cause, and the cause moved to the rear with … 5 kilos of power, the gun’s gonna cross, “Bang …”
Pulling the cause on Glock pistols can also be more straightforward than on another handguns, says Katz.
And unintentional cause pulls may just occur to any individual.
Peter Van Sant: Let me get a sense of how a lot drive it is going to take to fireplace this weapon. [Gun clicks] that feels lovely gentle to me.
David Katz: Yeah, its 5.5 kilos
Jasmine Hartin: Consciously did I pull the cause? No.
Even even though Jasmine says she does not take note.
Peter Van Sant: She needed to have pulled the cause?
David Katz: There’s indubitably about it, she pulled the cause.
Katz says cause injuries may end up from one thing referred to as “sympathetic contraction” by which contracting one hand muscle, triggers others too.
CBS News
David Katz: Let’s think you set your finger at the cause on this place … You squeeze the ground arms … Your cause finger is gonna in a similar way squeeze as smartly.
Another conceivable issue? Alcohol. Jasmine says each she and Henry Jemmott were ingesting that night time.
David Katz: There is … no higher method to get your self harm than via messin’ with firearms when you find yourself impaired.
Jasmine Hartin: I used to be beneath the influence that the gun was once totally empty on the time.
One or each of them can have unloaded the mag, says Katz, forgetting there was once a bullet in a position to fireplace within the chamber.
Peter Van Sant: Based on what you have got heard her say, and what you already know concerning the Glock 17 … may just this were an unintentional shooting?
David Katz: Yeah, it coulda been … it is a troubling tale from such a lot of sides, beginning with why — why, you already know, why she’s practising … at nighttime. But then when she talks about the place her hand was once when the around went off … may just it were an unintentional discharge? Absolutely, sure.
We do not know what forensics, ballistics or different exams government have carried out. Prosecutors are not pronouncing.
Jasmine Hartin: I do not know the proof they have got towards me as a result of they have not launched any of it but.
But Jasmine says Henry’s sister, Cherry Jemmott, faced her when the 2 girls met unintentionally in July.
Cherry Jemmott: I stated, “Jasmine, why did you kill my brother?” Her reaction was once, “I’m sorry, it was an accident.” … I instructed her, “Jasmine, you don’t know what you have done to my family.”
Peter Van Sant: Do you imagine you deserve any type of prison punishment for what took place on that pier?
Jasmine Hartin: I imagine that … it is an, it was once an coincidence. And I do settle for any punishment that comes my approach.
Under Belizean law, she may just get up to 5 years for negligent manslaughter, but in addition as low as a advantageous with out any longer prison time.
Cherry Jemmott: It could be an injustice to the circle of relatives.
Ever since his funeral, Henry Jemmott has watched over his circle of relatives from a portrait at the wall.
Marie Tzul | Henry’s sister: The kids would sit down within the settee they usually play with him up there [cries].
Jasmine misplaced custody of her kids in 2022 and isn’t allowed to talk over with them anymore.
And given the iconic thriller of precisely what took place that night time, Jasmine Hartin might perpetually are living beneath a cloud of suspicion.
Jasmine Hartin: It’s haunting me. I take into accounts how his deficient children will have to really feel being with out their dad … And I want I may just take it again.
Jasmine Hartin is interesting the verdict in her custody case.
Produced via Josh Yager and James Stolz. Lauren A. White and Iris Carreras are box manufacturers. Addison Briley is the affiliate manufacturer. The editors are Greg Kaplan, Mike Baluzy, Diana Modica and Kevin Dean. Peter Schweitzer is the senior manufacturer. Nancy Kramer is the manager tale editor. Judy Tygard is the manager manufacturer.