FREEDOM AND A FINE

Socialite Jasmine Hartin Gets No Jail Time for Killing Belize Cop

She claimed it was an accident and pleaded guilty to manslaughter by negligence.

Socialite Jasmine Hartin was sentenced to no jail time for killing a high-ranking police official in Belize in what she claimed was an accidental shooting.

Hartin—who had two children with the son of Britain’s Lord Ashcroft and is now locked in a custody battle—was fined $75,000 for the crime of manslaughter by negligence, local media reported.

Hartin’s life of beachfront luxury came crumbling down a year ago when she was found on a blood-spattered dock, with Superintendent Henry Jemmott floating in the water with a gunshot behind his ear.

The two had been drinking and socializing after curfew, and Hartin later told police that Jemmott was showing her how to use a gun for her own protection when it unexpectedly went off.

Jemmott’s family does not accept her explanation, and there were complaints that Hartin, a Canadian citizen, was getting special treatment because of her family connections and wealth.

Meanwhile, Hartin lost custody of her children to her estranged partner, hotelier Andrew Ashcroft—and a bitter feud erupted that saw her jailed for several days after one of his employees withdrew a bail guarantee.

Last month, Hartin pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge, which rarely carries jail time. The fine amount is said to be the largest ever imposed for the charge—though she could end up paying far more in civil penalties to Jemmott’s family.

As she was ushered out of the courthouse on Wednesday, she declined to speak. But after her guilty plea in April, she told reporters, “I just want Henry’s family to have peace now and I want this whole thing to be behind all of us so we can heal.”

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Tracy Connor

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