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June 20, 2022 - Uncensored - Piers Morgan
46:04
20220620_piers-morgan-uncensored-death-on-the-dock
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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The Death on the Dock 00:03:38
Tonight, a special edition of Piers Morgan Uncensored.
It's the late night shooting that scandalised a country and made headlines across the world.
She's the stunning property developer, daughter-in-law of a billionaire British lord.
He was the police chief in Belize, married with five children.
What were they doing alone on the dock at midnight?
How and why did she end up shooting him dead?
This is the extraordinary story of Jasmine Hartin and the death on the dock.
It was a loud bang.
My ears were ringing.
I could see blood and feel the blood.
And that's when he started slipping into the water.
It seems an odd thing to be doing on a starry night with just the two of you.
You are familiar with guns, aren't you?
You know how to use them and fire them.
I'm perceived to be this wild cocaine addict party girl.
I still believe that she should still be charged for murder.
I'm definitely not a murderer, and I am being set up.
It was a horrible night that changed everyone's lives.
Tonight, a special edition of the show and a story that simply has everything.
A police chief shot dead, sensational claims of a murder hit on a cop and a judge, a powerful billionaire family, and at the center of it all, a mother separated from her children facing trial, Jasmine Hartin and the death on the dock.
Jasmine Hartin is the mother of two children to Andrew Ashcroft, a property mogul in the Caribbean paradise of Belize.
He's the son of Lord Michael Ashcroft, a British billionaire, former deputy chairman of the British Conservative Party, and the most powerful man in Belize.
The super rich family was already known by almost everybody in the country.
But what happened on the night of May 27th last year has turned that fame into infamy.
Jasmine Hartin broke a COVID curfew to drink on the dock beside her home with a mutual friend, Henry Gemmet, the police superintendent.
Gemmet was then shot dead.
Jasmine Hartin was holding the gun.
So why were they alone on the moonlit waterfront?
And what really happened before the death on the dock?
Tonight, Jasmine Hartin breaks her silence and gives her first television interview as she waits trial in Belize for manslaughter by negligence.
Beset by claims of an ever-changing story, she's made global headlines and sparked scandalous rumours across her adopted country.
To some, she's a cocaine-using party girl embroiled in an affair with a cop she shot dead.
To others, a mother caught in a tragic accident, now fighting one of the most powerful families in the world.
What's very clear is that just weeks before the shooting, she and Andrew Ashcroft at the opening of their brand new luxury hotel appeared to have it all.
Today is a special day in many regards.
Personally, for Jasmine and I, it marks the fulfillment of a dream to create the Eliha Resort in Belize and the official opening day today.
Nothing was quite as it seemed and their lives were all about to change forever as one man's life was about to end.
So I suppose my question for you is to take you back to before you get to this little jetty where you had this late night drink with Henry Gemmet.
I want to take you to life before this incident.
What was your life like in Belize at the time?
Before this accident, it was exciting.
Excitement Before the Accident 00:02:27
I had my children.
Andrew and I had just opened Elia Hotel.
It had only been open for a few weeks.
We were still ironing out the wrinkles of the hotel.
It was an exciting time.
We were looking forward to the future.
I've read varying reports about the status of your relationship with Andrew Ashcroft.
Can you clarify whether it was happy at the time or whether you'd had problems?
Andrew and I had a lot of issues in our relationship, specifically the last year and a half.
We were sleeping separately.
We were keeping appearances together.
Andrew's family thought that we were still very much an item.
My children didn't know that we were sleeping separately.
We kept it very hidden from them as well.
You see, just listening to what you've just said in response to two questions, there's an immediate contradiction which maybe you can clear up.
But when I asked you what life was like, you painted a fairly idyllic picture of a very happy existence with your family and your kids and so on.
And when I asked you directly about the status of your relationship, you painted a very different picture.
And so people who are your critics, as you know, they keep leaping on what they see as apparent inconsistencies in your public statements.
I can clarify that very easily.
I was very excited to split up from Andrew.
I was excited that Alaya had opened.
I was happy to be with my children, happy for the future, like I said.
I had already been emotionally done with Andrew for a long time, a year and a half, almost two years.
So the prospect of being able to move on with my life and stop pretending to be in a relationship with him, that was exciting to me.
So Alaya had just opened.
We were about to come out to the family that we weren't together and I was actually going to get my freedom.
So when I say it was happy, positive times, it was.
I was excited to have my freedom and to be able to move on with my life apart from Andrew.
The reason I've asked about relationship is simply, as you know, Belize has been agog with rumours that you were having some kind of other relationship with Henry Gemot.
That's why you were out on this jetty late at night by the ocean.
Denying Rumors of an Affair 00:03:10
That's why you were partying together.
What do you say to those rumors?
Well, first of all, I met Henry through Andrew.
Andrew was friends with Henry.
So Andrew was meant to come with us and join us for a cocktail that night.
Last minute, he decided to stay in and not join us.
It was also supposed to be another friend joining us as well.
Henry had his friends staying at the same unit.
So we weren't meant to be by ourselves.
That just happened to be that way.
We also weren't partying.
I grabbed a glass or a bottle of wine that had been opened before and I brought that with me.
I had maybe two glasses of wine.
So it wasn't a party.
And yeah, the rumors of Henry and I, that's completely false.
We were friends.
I knew him through Andrew.
And it's just a small country with a rumor mill and they like to make something of a story that it's not.
I mean, part of the narrative, as you know, from people who clearly don't like you, but they've painted, again, a picture of quite a wild socialite party girl.
There are videos of you sort of dancing on the rafters of restaurants and so on, that you were heavily into cocaine abuse and drinking heavily.
I know you've refuted those, but why are people going around saying this kind of stuff?
I've wondered the same thing.
The only thing I can come to think of is who would benefit from such rumors.
Obviously, it would benefit in the custody course.
It would benefit in many ways if I'm perceived to be this wild cocaine addict party girl.
It's just not true.
Uncensored next, a private drink on a moonlit dock, a shoulder rub and a fatal gunshot.
I could see blood and feel the blood.
So then I tried to wiggle out from under him and that's when he started slipping into the water.
Welcome back to a special edition of Piers Morgan Uncensored.
This is the story of Jasmine Hartin, daughter-in-law of British billionaire Lord Ashcroft, and the night she killed police chief Henry Gemmot.
She just revealed how her relationship with Andrew Ashcroft had broken down, but flatly denies sensational rumours of an affair with the man that she shot dead.
The rumours of Henry and I, that's completely false.
We were friends.
I knew him through Andrew.
And it's just a small country with a rumor mill and they like to make something of a story that it's not.
Well, just after midnight on the 28th of May last year, Belizeum Police found Jasmine Hartin on the bloodstained pier next to the apartment she shared with her husband Andrew Ashcroft.
Beside the dock, their mutual friend, the police superintendent Henry Gemmot, was floating dead in the Caribbean Sea.
Why He Brought the Gun 00:07:18
So how did he get there and why?
You don't dispute that you fired the gun that killed Henry Gemmot.
No, it was a very tragic accident.
I don't ever remember touching the trigger of the weapon, but I was holding it when it went off.
That's correct.
On the night in question, you said that you were Andrew was going to come with you and he didn't.
And you end up on this little jetty with Henry Gemmott.
He's a police chief.
He's married with five children.
You've got a bottle of wine.
What are you talking about?
You've known him a long time.
What kind of conversation were you having?
We were listening to music.
I had my little speaker with me.
He was talking a bit about his relationship, about the day he had.
Henry was my friend, but he didn't often talk about his personal things.
But that night he did, I think, talk to you in more detail than normal about the breakup of his relationship.
All he did was mention that he was single after, I think he said 14 or 15 years, he was single and that he had taken a medical leave or a personal leave from work rather.
But that's the extent of what he really said about that.
So you're on the jetty, it's late night now, we're heading towards 10.30, 11 o'clock.
You're having some drinks and you're talking about quite intimate stuff.
He's opening his heart to you.
And then he's got a gun, a Glock gun.
So just explain to me why he has the gun on him.
I was curious as to why he brought the gun onto the dock as well.
We were sitting on the balcony and it was a full moon.
It was beautiful.
So we said, oh, let's go sit on the dock.
And he said before we went that he wanted to go get his gun from inside.
And I thought that was strange.
I remember making a joke with him saying, well, we're literally going to the front yard.
And he said he always brings it everywhere with him.
So he went and got it from the kitchen counter and brought it out to the dock.
Right, so he goes and gets his gun and he brings it to the end of the dock.
And then you start to play some sort of game with the magazine, with the bullets.
What were you doing with him?
Henry thought that it was important for me to get my firearms license because he thought I needed protection.
So this is the second time he's had me handle his firearm.
The first time was a few days prior to that when I called for help.
I was in an uncomfortable situation and he had me handle his firearm that night.
He said, get familiar with it.
You should get your license.
So then that night on the dock, he brought it out.
He handed me the clip of the gun and wanted me to practice unloading it, reloading it, just get comfortable just playing with the magazine and the ammunition.
I'm just listening to this, obviously, Cole, from you, but it seems an odd thing to be doing at that time of night on the end of a dock on a starry night.
It's just the two of you to be handling guns with live ammunition.
I thought it was empty.
And I agree, it was a weird thing to do at that time, but I hadn't seen Henry during the day.
If I did, he probably would have had me practice earlier in the day.
So Jasmine, you were playing around with the magazine and the bullets, but you yourself were not handling the gun, is that right?
I was practicing unloading and reloading just the magazine.
The only time I handled the weapon was at the very end when Henry asked me to pass it to him.
So he wanted me to pass him the clip, and at that point the clip was already back into the weapon.
So I was struggling to remove the clip from the gun.
Again, I wasn't handling the gun earlier, so I'm not familiar with the mechanisms, how to remove it.
I didn't know if I was pressing the right button or not, because earlier he had handed me the clip, so I hadn't had to take it out before.
So I was struggling with it, and that's when the gun went off.
I'll come to when the gun goes off in a moment, but before that, he'd said to you that his shoulder was hurting and asked you to rub his shoulders.
Yes, yes, he asked me to rub his shoulder, which was weird because he's never asked me to do anything like that.
But I don't think it was a sexual thing.
I did it for him because I didn't think it was a big deal.
For me, it's like therapeutic.
It's not something sexual if someone's shoulder hurts.
Right, but by your own admission, it's a bit weird, isn't it, to be, I mean, this guy's a married man, albeit he said he's separated.
You're effectively married.
You have a common law marriage.
He doesn't know there's anything wrong with it from what you've told me.
Just seems a bit odd for you to be out there, you know, nearing midnight on a dock and there's this big police chief asking you to massage his back.
I could see how people would take it that way for sure.
But you have to understand, Andrew was supposed to be there with us.
So for me, it was not a sexual thing at all, at all.
And I don't believe that was his intention either.
If you were prosecuted, I'm sure you will hear this when you get to the court.
I'm sure they'll try and paint this picture and say that you were whatever, you'd been drinking.
He perhaps made some unfortunate move on you.
You'd had the incident the week before, which you'd even reported to him, of fearing something might happen.
You yourself say it's a bit weird that he's asked for this back rub and the next thing he's dead.
So you can see that if you want to see you as somebody malevolent in this story, then there's quite a lot of evidence there to point to a scenario where you might feel that you wanted to defend yourself.
There has been many, many different stories that I've heard.
I've heard that I executed him.
I've heard that it was an attempted rape and I was defending myself.
I've heard that I lured him there and it was Andrew that shot him.
I've heard so many different stories.
The truth of the matter is, it's none of that.
He's my friend.
He was my friend.
He did not make a pass at me.
I considered Henry like a protector.
So as much as the rumor mill will go crazy over this situation, it really isn't what they're saying.
It was a friend.
We weren't meant to be alone.
Andrew was supposed to be there.
Where physically was Henry at the moment he was shot dead?
I mean, how far away from you was he?
He was sitting to my left, slightly on an angle.
I had my left leg bent behind him.
and my right leg was straight so I'd say I guess a foot or two away.
Your left leg was behind him.
When you realized the gun had gone off what were your feelings?
It was a loud bang.
Then my ears were ringing.
Shock at the Police Station 00:15:42
I just was in shock.
Henry fell back on top of me.
At that point, I realized one of us was hurt.
I could see blood and feel the blood.
So then I tried to wiggle out from under him and that's when he started slipping into the water and I tried to catch him.
Of course he was a lot bigger than me so I couldn't hold him up.
So no, it's still very difficult to talk about it.
I don't like to talk about it.
It was a horrible night that changed everyone's lives and ended some.
So I have to live with that for the rest of my life.
Unsensitive next shocking leaked footage casts doubt on Jasmine Hartin's story.
That story is about to change.
I don't remember saying that.
I shouldn't have said it if I said it, but I really don't remember saying that at all.
I really don't.
Welcome back to this special edition of Piers Morgan Uncensored, my exclusive interview with Jasmine Hartin, daughter-in-law of the billionaire Lord Ashcroft.
She's just described the night she killed police chief Henry Gemmot in Belize.
You don't dispute that you fired the gun that killed Henry Gemmot?
No, it was a very tragic accident.
I don't ever remember touching the trigger of the weapon, but I was holding it when it went off.
That's correct.
So Jasmine doesn't deny that she was holding the gun that killed Henry Gemmott.
She insists it was a tragic accident, that it went off in her hand while she was practicing on loading the magazine.
That's what she told Henry's police colleagues.
And three days after his death, they charged her with manslaughter by negligence.
Weeks later, Jaw dropping footage of her head on local television, confirming beyond any doubt that her ill-fated handling of Henry Gemmott's nine millimetre Glock was not her first experience with a firearm.
My experience watching that footage was that Jasmine Hartin had clearly handled a gun before and was proficient in handling guns.
So I put that to her.
You are familiar with guns, aren't you?
You know how to use them and fire them.
I'm not familiar with nine millimeters, no.
Right, but I mean, I've seen videos, which I know you will have seen too, of you expertly shooting a watermelon, for example, on the beach, firing at a range.
And you're certainly, it seems to me, a proficient shooter.
You know what you're doing with a gun.
I greatly disagree with you.
I've never owned a gun in my life.
I've never owned a firearm.
I grew up on a farm where, you know, I had six brothers and a father, and they had shotguns.
So I've seen shotguns.
I've never owned one.
I've fired them, you know, a few times, but I'm not an expert.
And what that video doesn't show you is the 10 times I tried to hit that watermelon and missed.
And that video was shot by my ex.
Right, I suppose the point I would make is if I don't know if that's true or not, I've got no reason to doubt you.
I'm just saying that in the video clip, you look very proficient with a gun.
I mean, you look like you know what you're doing with the gun that you're using to fire the watermelon, as you do at the range.
And I suppose the reason I'm asking that is that when this gun goes off, you claim you don't even remember firing the trigger.
But even the most basic person using a gun with the most basic knowledge knows that to fire a gun, you have to fire the trigger.
Right.
And I don't remember ever touching that trigger on the gun.
So I don't know what happened.
To be honest, I just was trying to get the clip out and it just went off.
I don't remember ever touching the trigger.
So I'm not sure if it was a faulty weapon or not.
I really can't tell you how it went off.
Right, but I mean, it couldn't have fired itself, right?
I mean, you know that from your own use of guns.
Somebody has to pull a trigger on a handgun for it to fire a bullet.
I've heard many different things that there's, you know, if it's a faulty weapon, then sometimes it could go off.
If it's rusty, if it's, I've heard many things, but it would be, yeah, I'm not sure how much I can talk about this because I'm still in trial for this matter, but I definitely don't remember touching that trigger at all.
Well, my doubt it would have been rusty or faulty because it was his current service Glock pistol magazine and he's the chief of police.
So I would assume it was up to date and perfectly serviceable.
You would assume that.
However, the reports I received are different.
Well, the reports you received are different.
And we're about to discover that the reports she gave have differed too.
Jasmine Harton's the only known witness to the death of Henry Jemmop.
Her version of events is at this stage the only version of events that's led to those closest to Henry casting doubt on her story, not least as we'll see in a moment, because her story has changed.
His sister, Cherry Gemmot, is also a police officer in Belize.
She spoke to Piers Morgan uncensored about his death.
With him not being here, it is very sad.
You can see many days that the children, they're worrying.
Little Henry would say, Mom, how comes that it takes so long to call me?
He usually calls me on my phone.
So little Henry is still waiting for that call from his dad.
Thinking about Jasmine Hartin, I don't know when she is telling the truth.
She changed her stories so much.
So I don't know which one of the story that she's given is what actually transpired on the pier that night.
My brother is so skillful and careful with his firearm.
He would never ever hand over his firearm to anyone.
How could she don't remember pulling the trigger?
And she claims that the firearm was in her hand.
It seems to be a very close range shot that my brother received to the back of his head.
something that he didn't expect would actually happen.
So with the closeness from the back of his head, his execution style.
That is to kill someone instant.
So some of what she's saying, I don't believe.
I still believe that she should still be charged for murder.
She have committed the crime.
And our family want justice for the death of my brother.
Well, Jasmine Hartin is aware of the claims made against her by members of Henry Gemmel's family.
I asked her directly about them.
His sister has said that I lured Henry there for someone else to kill him.
His other sister thinks that I, execution style, murdered him.
His mother thinks something else.
I mean, everyone's thinking their own story.
You're saying that this is all a complete accident.
Others, including his family, are saying it was murder, that you meant to kill him for whatever reason.
What is curious to me is that your first story when you were asked about it was that he'd been shot by somebody from a boat that was nearby.
Why did you say that?
I don't remember saying that I shouldn't have said it if I said it, but I really don't remember saying that at all.
I really don't.
And I've been told I've said it and I don't remember saying it.
So I'm trying to rationalize if I did, I must have been in shock.
I must have been scared.
I'm not sure.
But I don't remember saying it.
But you accept that if you did say that, that was a complete lie because you knew you'd shot him.
Correct.
I mean, from the moment I was at the police station and I gave my caution statement, my story has been exactly what happened.
It was an accident.
From the very beginning at the police station, I told them it was an accident.
I told them I was trying to get the magazine out.
The gun went off.
I thought the gun was empty.
So that's never been different.
What this story is about the passing of the boat, that's, in my opinion, a complete made-up rumor.
And like I said, I don't remember saying that.
And I'm trying to rationalize why that would even be going around.
Well, senior police superintendent Henry Gemmont was a popular and well-known man in Belize, six feet two inches tall and nicknamed the king by his family.
He had five of his own children and friends in all parts of Belizean society.
One of his closest friends was Sean Quillam, now a successful chef, who knew him from the age of six.
He spoke to one sense about the mysterious death of his best friend.
I consider him one of my best friends.
And we grew up from, for my was like age six, right on to the time of his death, which was around 14 or 42.
And he was destined to become the commissioner of police because that was his goal, that was his dream.
He, at the time of his death, he was a superintendent of police and he just rose the ranks so fast, you know.
He was a protector for his family.
He was a dad.
He was a brother, loving, I mean, his sisters.
It was just in his DNA to be protective.
I think because of all his surroundings, family of all girls, he was always a protector.
He did it to a fault and he was a no-nonsense guy.
And this was at home with his children, his family.
Me personally, as a great friend and a good friend, I've never touched that gun.
I don't think any of his children, they knew he had it on him.
And that was off limits by anyone at all times.
I mean, at times she's probably being treated very lenient because of who she is.
To pull a trigger in a man's head and kill him, I would probably, I would not be on the streets walking with visitation rights or my children living and sleeping in an air conditioned room every evening.
So I don't understand what is going on.
It's just like a novel, it's a movie, and we don't know what the conclusion will be.
We don't know where it would go.
And remember, we only have one side to this story.
The other person is dead.
So has Jasmine Harton attempted to speak to the friends or family of the man that she shot dead?
Have you reached out at all to the family of Henry Jemmett, the man that you killed?
No.
So at first, I wanted to talk to them.
I actually wanted to set up a fund.
And that's something I explained to Michael and to Andrew, that I wanted to do a fund.
I wanted to reach out and publicly apologize for the accident.
I haven't reached out to them because I've been advised not to.
They're actively against me right now.
Whether they believe it was an accident, a murder, or a hit, I mean, either way, I've been advised by my lawyer not to speak to them because it could only create more issues right now.
But I definitely want to.
I think it would be good for everyone one day for closure.
If you were able to speak to them, what would you say?
I would really just say how horribly sorry I am for this accident.
I would tell them that not a day goes by that I don't feel for them, for their loss, for the children.
I wish I could take it back.
I just wish I could take it back.
I wish he didn't bring his gun out.
Not a day that goes by, I don't think about the family and pray for them.
And I just want this behind all of us.
I want us all to get some kind of closure.
And I know that it will never be the same for them.
And it will never be the same for me.
Do your own family believe you?
Does your father believe you, for example?
I don't actually speak to my father, but my mother's been here with me from day one.
She definitely knows what happened.
She's been with me while I'm crying.
She comes to the police station every day while I check in.
I'm having PTSD.
She's there for my nightmares.
So yeah, my mom knows what's going on and she believes me.
But during this whole process, I've really just taken a step back from friends and family because I just need to fight and survive and get through this.
So I don't really speak to them anymore.
When did you stop talking to your father?
I stopped talking to my father almost right away after the incident.
He wasn't really understanding what I was going through.
He said, as long as my mother's with me, he won't send a dime.
And he's been true to his word.
He hasn't helped me whatsoever.
Well, now estrange from both her father and her powerful in-laws, Jasmine Hartin remains on police bail awaiting trial.
She's required to report daily to her local police station.
As she attempted to do that late last month, almost exactly a year on from Hemi Gemmet's death, her story took another shocking turn.
Reporting for bail, she was stamped in handcuffs and taken by boat to Belize City, facing explosive new allegations.
Several weeks ago, you were rearrested because there were claims that you had ordered a hit, a murder hit, on the chief of police, Belize Police, Commissioner Chester Williams, and the magistrate involved in your custody battle.
You were then later released, but was there any merit to the suggestion that you were making such threats or organising some kind of hit?
I'm actually very glad you brought this up because that was very recently, sorry, very recent that I was re-arrested.
I have been detained and arrested for ridiculous bogus charges and false allegations.
Is it true as Police Commissioner Chester Williams has now stated publicly that you sent him a series of disturbing messages which he said were threatening?
That's not true at all.
So I have sent Chester messages and I'm more than happy to share each and every one of the messages where I'm asking him to please stop his attacks on me.
Ridiculous Bogus Charges 00:07:26
Out of interest, why are you text messaging the police commissioner at all?
That's completely inappropriate, isn't it, for somebody under charges like you?
No, I don't feel it's inappropriate.
I met Chester because he was a friend of mine and a friend of Andrew's.
So Chester gave me his phone number.
It might not be standard to write the commissioner, but keep in mind he was also my friend and he has been writing me back over the last year.
And yeah, the shock that I experienced reading the disclosure, knowing what they were doing, I don't think it's very wrong for me to ask the commissioner of police to do a lawful investigation to follow his oath and to be ethical.
I don't believe that's wrong for me to ask that of him.
Unsays the next, Jasmine Hartin opens up on being separated from her children and sets out her sensational defense.
I'm definitely not a murderer and I am being set up.
I really am.
This is terrifying.
Welcome back to the special program.
So Jasmine Hartin doesn't deny that she was holding the gun that killed Henry Gemmer.
She does deny that sending text messages to the current police commissioner is unusual.
Why are you text messaging the police commissioner at all?
That's completely inappropriate, isn't it, for somebody under charges like you?
No, I don't feel it's inappropriate.
For all the questions about Jasmine Hartin's account of the night she shot Henry Jemmer and the allegations about her conduct since, she maintains that she's not only innocent, but in fact a victim herself.
She feels cut adrift by her estranged in-laws, the Ashcrofts, who are unquestionably among the most powerful people in her adopted home.
Lord Ashcroft owns media outlets and much of the economy in Belize.
Andrew Ashcroft has now gained legal custody of their children and left the country.
The story continues to dominate headlines.
It's taken a heavy personal toll on the woman at the center of this crime mystery.
You've had, obviously, you've been through a total nightmare.
If your version of events is the correct one, it's been a nightmare time for you, not least because you've been separated from your twin five-year-old children.
What has that been like for you as a mother?
The hardest part about this whole thing, it's the fact that I haven't even been able to process what has happened.
That accident happened and it was such a perfect storm and a perfect opportunity for my ex-family to just completely capitalize on a terrible, tragic situation and exile me completely from my children, from my family, my staff, my home, my business.
It's like they just completely swiftly moved so Strategically to exile me and just completely throw me to the wolves.
I didn't even have a fork or a plate to eat off of.
Everything I have now, I've had to build in the middle of this tragic event and trying to rebuild myself, fighting for my children with no money.
Just, it's been horrible.
Absolutely horrible.
Your father-in-law is Lord Ashcroft.
He's a very powerful political figure.
He was the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party here in the UK.
He's a very rich, powerful man with lots of connections.
I mean, I would imagine that he would argue that, given the gravity of the situation that you found yourself in, where you shot somebody dead, that he's acted and the family have acted to protect their family from you.
I would disagree with that.
Michael and that family, they are so powerful in Belize.
They saw me at the end of this horrible accident hanging from the edge of a cliff and they could have simply offered me a helping hand.
I could have gotten out of jail.
I could have gone back to my home with my children and processed what happened and healed and been there with my family.
That's what should have happened and that's what they could have done.
Just but I want to ask you, I mean, if you're convicted here, it could be that you don't see your kids again for a very long time.
Given how young they are and how devoted you were to them, what impact would that have on you?
My kids are very confused.
They don't understand what's going on.
They want to be with me and I don't know where my kids are even right now.
It's been over three weeks since I've spoken to them.
All I know is they got on a private flight.
Andrew has taken them out of Belize and I don't know where they are.
So unfortunately, it's already as if I am in prison because I don't have my children with me.
It's horrible.
I mean, you're holding it together as you talk about this, but I would imagine there have been quite a few tears shed over this.
I cry every day.
I choose not to cry in public.
That's just something I do in private.
And I have to be strong because if I cry and give up, he will win.
He already has the business.
I think, in my opinion, his ultimate goal is to have me behind bars because it would just be so much easier.
There's a very high chance that I don't do any time at all.
With manslaughter by negligence, it's typically a fine.
And I've already done time.
So I don't know what will happen, but we have to leave it to the courts to decide.
There was a piece in a newspaper about the case last week that ended by concluding that you're due for trial later this year.
That will be, the piece said, when we learn just who the real Jasmine Harton is: murderous Jezebel or a woman deeply wronged and set up for a fall by a vengeful dynasty.
Yes, I saw that article.
I'm definitely not a murderer, and I am being set up.
I am, I really am.
This is terrifying.
I've only ever seen things like this happen in movies.
I'm literally trapped in a big unfair game, which is ironic because that's Michael's book, where captive lions are tranquilized and then hunted.
And I strongly can relate to that right now.
It's such a small country.
Everybody's terrified of them.
They own the bank, they own the newspapers, they own the economy of this country.
The commissioner is their best friend.
The prime minister stays at a Laya Hotel in San Pedro.
The problem you have with all this is, I mean, all of that may be true as far as I know.
I have no idea.
Tired of Proving Innocence 00:06:19
What is indisputable is that you fired the gun which killed this man.
That's indisputable, isn't it?
I was holding the firearm when it went off.
Yeah, but I mean, they don't fire themselves, do they?
Like I said, it's dark.
I'm trying to release the magazine.
And just to let you know, so you mentioned a comment about the shotgun.
That's a very different mechanism than a nine millimeter gun, which I'm not familiar with at all.
So if my hand touched the trigger, it wasn't intentional and I didn't know it happened.
My focus was, I wasn't even looking at Henry.
I'm looking at the gun, trying to get the clip out so he could reload it so we could leave.
And I don't remember touching it, so I don't know how else to answer the same question.
You're going to find out your fate soon.
If you are convicted, you may end up doing prison time.
You've already been in prison.
What has that experience been like for you?
You've gone from a life of luxury to a life of the complete opposite, incarcerated.
Trust me, prison in Belize is not fun, not at all.
And a lot of people were saying at first that because of my relationship with the Ashcroft family that I would have special treatment.
That couldn't have been more wrong.
It's almost like because they were trying to overcompensate to make sure that I had the worst treatment.
I was given a male guard, which is unheard of.
I was given a cell with no windows, a toilet that didn't work, that I had to use, a bucket to flush.
I was made to clean public bathrooms with my bare hands.
I was deprived food.
I was deprived of water.
There'll be people listening to you, and depending on their viewpoint, they'll either feel sorry for you because they believe your version of events, or they don't believe your version of events, won't have believed what they've been watching in this interview.
And I'm sure there will be some on both sides.
But there were those who don't believe you who think you deserve all of that and more and should probably not come out of prison for a very long time.
This goes back to, I don't understand what would be fair for an accident as far as justice.
People say some comments are, you know, lock me up, I deserve to spend my life in jail.
But then there's other people with the exact same charge as me that has been maybe driving a car and accidentally caused a fatality.
And those people pay a couple thousand dollars and they don't spend a day in jail.
So it's like, I don't understand why an accident should cause me to have to spend years in jail.
Well, because ultimately it comes down to whether people believe your version of events.
And there's obviously no correlation between a car and somebody firing a gun at point blank range and shooting somebody in the head dead.
I mean there's no comparison.
So it really comes down to whether people can believe you, doesn't it?
Ultimately.
It's your word.
So I think that ultimately what's on my side here, because there are no witnesses, it was myself and Henry on that pier.
My evidence and the forensics, those are my witnesses.
So everything I've said to the police from day one has been collaborated, which is why I'm facing the charge that I have.
Well, we write to Andrew Ashcroft.
His representative denies Jasmine Hartin's claims and says she's received the best legal support available in Belize.
A spokesman said Mr. Ashcroft's sole interest is the welfare and privacy of two young children.
Consistent with that, he's provided information only to the custody court.
Moreover, his very significant financial and other contributions to Ms. Hartin's defense and protection following her arrest put a lie to any claim that Ms. Hartin was thrown to the wolves.
The reverse is true.
Well, there are many remaining questions, aren't there, about the night that Henry Gemmott was shot dead.
Some of them may never be answered.
Really, only Jasmine Hartin knows what happened that night on the dock, why they were there, why they were playing with guns, why the gun went off without her apparently remembering having pulled the trigger.
Maybe a court case will unravel the truth.
But her changing story, the tabloid storm, and her behavior since that tragic night have all led some to cast doubt on her character in the court of public opinion.
Ultimately, of course, it will be a court of law that determines her future.
She's now awaiting trial for manslaughter by negligence later this year.
It'll be a courtroom that she now needs to convince.
Jasmine, as you know, a lot of people just don't believe you.
They think you're lying.
They think that you deliberately shot him dead.
How can you convince them that that's not the case?
I'm almost tired of trying to convince people.
To be honest, it's been a year.
It's been over a year.
I know my truth.
The evidence supports what I said.
It was a horrible accident.
I have no reason to ever want to hurt Henry.
There's no reason at all for that.
So honestly, I know my heart's clean in this situation.
I have to live with a horrible accident.
I have terrible memories of that night that I will never get through.
I'll never be past that.
But I'm tired of trying to convince people of my innocence in this and the fact that it was a terrible accident.
I just need to really live for my children and to fight for my life right now.
I don't have the energy to try to convince people otherwise.
So that was that.
Did she convince you?
You've heard from me.
You've heard a lot from Jasmine Hartin.
But what did you think?
I want to hear from you, the viewers.
You can send me a video response by email, dmpm at talk.tv.
That's all for tonight.
Whatever you're up to, keep it uncensored.
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