Authorities in Belize have arrested and charged the wife of the son of a well-known British billionaire in the fatal shooting of a superintendent on the Caribbean nation’s police force.
According to CNN, Jasmine Hartin, the wife of Andrew Ashcroft, was charged with manslaughter by negligence in the shooting death of Belize Police superintendent Henry Jemmott on Friday. Hartin’s husband Andrew is the son of British billionaire businessman Michael Ashcroft. Hartin was been denied bail, her lawyer, Godfrey Smith, told reporters on Monday.
She was transferred to a prison on the Caribbean island after being initially detained at a police station after her arrest, Sky News reported. And though Hartin’s lawyers raced against time to get the Supreme Court to release her on bail before she got to the prison, their efforts proved futile. Hartin, 32, was reportedly denied bail by a local magistrate on the grounds that she posed a great flight risk.
Speaking to the press on Friday, Police Commissioner Chester C Williams said Jemmott’s body was found on a pier in the Belizean town of San Pedro with Hartin nearby. Williams disclosed people around the scene of the killing heard a gunshot “and upon investigating, police found the female on a pier, and she had what appeared to be blood on her arms and on her clothing.”
“A firearm was also seen on the pier that has been retrieved and we have learned that the firearm belonged to the police and was assigned to Mr Jemmott,” Williams added, according to Sky News.
Williams also said the shooting appeared to be “personal and not an attack.” “From what we know is that they are friends. From what we have been made to understand they were drinking. From investigation, they were alone on the pier and yes they were both fully clothed.”
Describing Hartin’s demeanor after the shooting, Williams said she “was somewhat in an emotional state walking herself on the pier”, adding: “We believe that she is to some extent affected by it.”
Hartin’s husband, Andrew, is a popular businessman in Belize, CNN reported. He is the owner of the recently-opened Alaia Belize, Autograph Collection hotel. His billionaire father Michael Ashcroft is a major Conservative Party donor and once served as the party’s deputy chairman. He also holds a Belizean passport and once served as the Caribbean country’s ambassador to the United Nations.
