Authorities arrested the daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft on Monday for allegedly shooting a police officer in Belize while giving him a massage.
Jasmine Hartin was taken into custody Friday after the body of Police Superintendent Henry Jemmoth was found off of a pier in San Pedro with a gunshot wound “behind his right ear,” Belize Police Commissioner Chester Williams told reporters. Local outlets reported that Hartin said she was giving him a massage at the time and accidentally shot him, according to the New York Post.
A gunshot was heard at the pier around 12:30 a.m. and police found “a female” at the same location covered in blood, Williams told reporters Friday. The gun belonged to the officer killed, according to the Telegraph. “She had what appeared to be blood on her arms and on her clothing. And inside the waters, right near the pier, police recovered the lifeless body of Mr. Jemmoth with one apparent gunshot wound behind his right ear,” Williams said. (RELATED: Police Catch Man Who Allegedly Shot, Killed Mississippi Police Officer)
“The charge is manslaughter by negligence,” her lawyer Godfrey Smith said outside the court Monday, the Telegraph reported. “Bail has been denied. We appeal to the Supreme Court, as is normal.”
Authorities told local outlets she claimed Jemmoth had been killed by someone in a passing boat but began to cooperate when they told her she could be charged with possession of cocaine, according to the Post.
Lord Ashcroft’s daughter-in-law has been arrested in Belize after a police chief she was socializing with on a pier was found dead in the sea with a bullet to the head.
Jasmine Hartin, an American, has hired Belize’s former attorney general as her lawyer.https://t.co/H0kRuto4pA— Harriet Alexander (@h_alexander) May 29, 2021
“It seems rather personal and not an attack on law enforcement,” Williams said at the briefing. “Our investigation in respect to the matter will continue. We owe it to him to ensure that we investigate properly, and bring that person, or those persons, to justice.”
Williams also said the two were friends and “from what we have been made to understand they were drinking,” CNN reported.
Hartin is the partner of Andrew Ashcroft, who served in Britain’s Conservative Party and as a United Nations representative, the Telegraph reported.