SOCIALITE Jasmine Hartin was reportedly "roughed up" by Belize cops after she was arrested last Friday for allegedly accidentally killing a police officer.
The daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Ashcroft is facing manslaughter by negligence charges after the body of Henry Jemmott was found floating in the sea near San Pedro last week.
The 38-year-old reportedly shot Jemmott, 42, in the head with his own gun when it accidentally went off while they were drinking.
She was arrested on Friday night after she was found "hysterical" at the Mata Rocks Hotel pier close to where the superintendent's body was discovered.
A cellmate named only as Jose told local media that he was asleep when the mother-of-two was initially brought into the San Pedro prison.
He described her as "lost" and claimed that her clothes were "full of blood" as she argued with officers.
"I noticed that she was really ****ed up. So I can't say if she was doing drugs or what but she was really, she was lost that night," Jose told Channel 7.
"To be real with you what I saw in the morning, in the night that they brought her, really they were roughing her up because it was a cop that died. So to be real with you, what I saw it wasn't nice."
He added that Hartin was swearing at cops as she was brought in and demanding her medication and a cigarette.
"So the cops took her inside and I don't know if they gave her her medication or what but five minutes after they took her to the bathroom and a female police officer took off her clothes and put it in a bag, and they gave her some clothes," Jose said.
"She went to the bathroom to bathe, change off, and she came out and they locked her beside me and that's when we started talking."
He claimed that she told him she was brought in for murder.
"I was sleeping and the noise, so when I got up I saw them bring her in and they were speaking to her about the ballistics and that they're going to take her fingerprint and everything but her clothes were full of blood so I told her somebody beat you or something and she said no they brought me for murder," Jose claimed.
"So I asked her did you do it? And she said no, someone shot her friend and he dropped on top of her and that's why her blood, her clothes have blood."
Hartin has been charged with manslaughter by negligence, her lawyer, Godfrey Smith confirmed on Monday.
It's reported the punishment could be a fine of around $10,000 as the charge rarely results in a prison sentence in the country.
She has been transferred to one of Central America's toughest prisons.
Known as the "Hattieville Ramada", the facility currently houses 1,041 prisoners in small concrete cell blocks who are subject to strict religious instruction.
The socialite is being held in a Covid quarantine cell for 14 days before she's allowed to interact with other prisoners.
Inmates are held at the facility for months and sometimes even years on end while they await trial.
It is the country's only jail meaning prisoners held for petty crimes have to rub shoulders with notorious murderers.
Hartin was initially uncooperative with investigators after her arrest on Friday, but she started talking after officers threatened to charge her with cocaine possession, 7 News Belize reported.
Police sources claim the mother-of-two was found to have 0.4 grams of the drug on her person, which is punishable by up to two years in prison and carries a maximum fine of $36,000.
She then reportedly provided a "statement under caution" in which she told cops she had been giving Jemmott a massage on a pier near the shuttered Mata Rocks hotel.
The cop allegedly placed his gun to the side of him on the ground while she carried out the massage.
Afterward, she claims he asked her to hand him his gun back to him when suddenly it went off in her hand, with a single bullet striking him in the head.
Cops said Jemmott then fell on top of her and, in a state of panic, Hartin tried to push to cop off of her causing his body to fall into the water.
His corpse was later discovered by someone on a passing boat.
Police in Belize said that a single gunshot was heard – and officers then found the woman on the pier with "blood on her arms and her clothing."
Hartin's attorney, Godfrey Smith, told reporters after she was charged that her bail had been denied.
"The charge is manslaughter by negligence. Bail has been denied. We appeal to the Supreme Court as is normal," he said.
Hartin and Jemmott were supposedly friends, police said.
The socialite left a hotel she operates with her husband, Alaia, late Thursday night and met up with Jemmott on the jetty, according to cops.
The pair were also apparently breaking the island's 10pm to 5am Covid curfew.
Hartin and husband Andrew head a luxury hotel company in Belize.
Andrew, 43, is the youngest of Lord Ashcroft's three children from his first marriage and is a citizen of Belize, where he lives and works with Hartin.
Lord Ashcroft, who also lives in Belize but remains active in British politics, is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, having served between 2005 and 2010.
He sat on the benches of the House of Lords as a life peer until 2015.
Family members said that Jemmott was a father of five and that he was heading for a promotion to senior superintendent with Belize Police.
They are adamant that he was not having an affair with Hartin.
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