The sister of a Belize police chief shot dead by Canadian socialite Jasmine Hartin said the family still has “no peace” after her last-minute guilty plea — and they will continue their civil lawsuit against their relative’s killer.
Hartin, 34, told reporters after pleading guilty to manslaughter by negligence that she wanted the family of Superintendent Henry Jemmott “to have peace” and for “this whole thing to be behind all of us so we can heal.”
But the top cop’s sister Cherry Jemmott, 50, an assistant superintendent on the police force, told the Daily Mail that “there is no peace” despite the guilty plea.
She told the outlet that the family would continue its civil wrongful-death claim against Hartin.
“It’s far from over for us…it’s very rough for us, my brother is gone, his life was taken,” she told the news outlet.
“On the 28th of May it will be two years since my only brother was killed. That’s my only brother. We think about him every day. He was only 42.”
Hartin’s legal team has requested a stay in the family’s civil case as the criminal one proceeded, according to the Daily Mail.
The ex-wife of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft’s son Andrew broke down in tears when she entered the plea right as the trial in the sensational case was about to begin.
The socialite fatally shot Jemmott in the head with his Glock 17 in May 2021 while the two were having a drink near Ashcroft’s hotel on the island of Ambergris Caye.
She said the police chief allowed her to handle his handgun to practice loading and unloading it when it “just went off.”
“I don’t remember ever touching that trigger on the gun so I don’t know what happened, to be honest,” Hartin said in June 2022.
“I was trying to get the clip out and it just went off — I don’t remember ever touching the trigger.”
She added: “So I’m not sure if it was a faulty weapon or not. I really can’t tell you how it went off.”
The slain police chief’s family is expected to resume its civil claim after Hartin is sentenced on May 31, the Mail reported.
Judge Ricardo Sandcroft said he was unlikely to “veer away” from a precedent that calls for a non-custodial sentence and a fine for a guilty plea to manslaughter by negligence.
However, during an earlier hearing, he told her that he was “not bound” to it.
Andrew Ashcroft has been granted custody of the couple’s two children.
