Accused socialite Jasmine Hartin shunned high society to carouse with working class cops in Belize at a tropical speakeasy famed for its soundproofed party rooms and marijuana-laced cognac.
The mom-of-two, who faces a manslaughter by negligence charge for killing police Superintendent Henry Jemmott, was a regular patron at the Crazy House Bar n Kitchen in San Pedro, according to owner Gene Lopez.
Lopez told DailyMail.com how care-free Hartin, 32, would buy round after round of drinks while entertaining pals with karaoke renditions of Bob Marley and the smash hit Shaggy song ‘It Wasn’t Me.’
The businessman says he never witnessed the common law wife of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft’s son taking drugs or drinking to excess but had to tell her off on several occasions for climbing on the countertop to perform ‘ass-shaking’ Caribbean dance moves.
In an extraordinary twist, Lopez, who also runs a security firm, was one of the first people to come across Hartin after she ‘accidentally’ shot dead father-of-five Jemmott in the Belizean coastal resort of Ambergris Caye.
Canadian socialite Jasmine Hartin was a regular at a San Pedro speakeasy where she was known to rub elbows with locals and working class police officers, prior to last week’s accident, DailyMail.com has learned
At Crazy House Restaurant, Hartin would buy round after round of drinks while entertaining pals with karaoke renditions and dance on the countertops, according to the owner
Hartin and Andrew Ashcroft, the son of British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, were known for running the gleaming new Alaia beach resort in the swank coastal enclave of Belize’s Ambergris Caye
Lopez raced to the Mata Rocks pier last Friday morning after a guard raised the alarm and was stunned to find his well-heeled regular spattered in blood and facing arrest.
‘Jasmine would come to Crazy House to relax. She was a regular customer for two years. I never had a problem with her,’ he told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.
‘She would exhale as soon as she walked through the door because she could be herself here. She had a luxurious life but she enjoyed being with locals, she felt more alive.
‘She explained that being rich, you have to be high and mighty, respectful, you can’t be yourself. And she enjoyed life, she enjoyed freedom.’
As the common law wife of Lord Ashcroft’s youngest son Andrew, Hartin rubbed shoulder with jet-setting expats and was dubbed the ‘Queen of the Alaia’, a reference to the gleaming new beachfront resort the family recently opened.
But it was in Crazy House, less than a mile down an unpaved road leading into the heart of the island’s working class San Pablo neighborhood, that the Canadian national could truly kick back and have fun, explained Lopez, 48.
Owner Gene Lopez (pictured) said Hartin enjoyed the ‘freedom’ of being at a low-key bar with locals where she could let her hair down and ‘be herself’
Spanning three floors, the homely establishment is made up of dining rooms and cozy lounges separated by soundproofed walls so patrons are free to play their own music and make as much noise as they like
According to Lopez, Hartin was not one to take drugs or drink to excess at the bar, but was known for climbing on the countertop to perform ‘ass- shaking’ Caribbean dance moves
Spanning three floors, the homely establishment comprises dining rooms and cozy lounges separated by soundproofed walls so patrons are free to play their own music and make as much noise as they like.
Lopez stocks 20 kinds of rum, Belize’s popular Belikin beer as well as a legal marijuana-infused liquor blend known as Bitters. There’s a roof deck where customers can laze about in hammocks.
Lopez, who saw Hartin the night of Henry Jemmott’s death, believes the socialite was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’
Getting in can be tough though as the former policeman only lets in a dozen people at a time so he can prevent the place losing its chilled out Caribbean vibe.
‘At Crazy House you’re free to you do as you please as long as it’s within the confines of the law,’ Lopez explained to DailyMail.com.
‘When you get off work, you need to relax and get your medication, which are beers and rum and stuff like that, you need to calm down, this is the place.
‘We are more customer friendly versus wanting the high and mighty dollar. We give you the remote, you play your music at whatever volume you want and you do not disturb the person next to you.
‘The music don’t clash because every room is soundproofed. If we have at least 12 customers within the entire compound we lock the door until somebody leaves. It’s not private, it’s open but protected.’
Lopez said that once a month Hartin would call ahead to say she was heading over.
There could be as many as 50 people in line to get in but Hartin had to wait her turn like everyone else, irrespective of her status and gilded position among the Belizean elite.
A criminal complaint obtained by DailyMail.com Wednesday revealed Hartin’s clothing, which were stained with blood, were recovered as evidence and her hands were swabbed
She has been remanded at the notoriously tough Hattieville prison on the Belizean mainland after she was deemed a flight risk and refused bail
Belize Police Superintendent Henry Jemmott, who had arrived in San Pedro last week and was staying at a downtown hotel, had been fishing and visiting bars with a friend before he was killed
‘At one point in time she would come and stay sometimes until six in the morning. Sometimes she would come alone and get a hammock and she would just relax,’ Lopez said.
‘She would have one or two cocktails. I’ve never seen her drunk, ever. Whatever she did she could always remember it in the morning.
‘A time would come when of course she would bring friends and they got drunk. She was very liberal, she would spend and they would have a good time.
‘A lot of people misinterpreted her kindness, they exploited her. At times the bartender would have to say, hey your bill is 200 dollars and she would say, that’s ok, let them have fun.
‘People were pumping her for drinks, money, whatever they could get their hands on.
‘She would sing and she would dance. It wouldn’t really be considered twerking but it’s Caribbean dancing, you’ve got to move your ass.
‘Her choice of music would be soca and reggae. She could sing the songs from the beginning to the end. Maybe Bob Marley or Shaggy.
‘She was treated like any regular customer and if she ever went beyond the expectations of Crazy House, we would say, hey Jaz, we know you’re at Crazy House but you don’t have to be crazy.
‘A few times she got up on the counter but we told her Jaz people have to eat off there.’
When witnesses arrived at the scene, Hartin was seen ‘covered in blood’ while the officer’s body was floating 30ft off the shore, the criminal complaint revealed
Late on Thursday evening, Hartin left her luxury hotel, Alaia (pictured) and walked a short distance down a beach to a small wooden jetty to meet Jemmott
Lopez said Hartin would be accompanied by both men and women, and often by police officers. On one occasion she was joined by her partner who walked inside but stayed only a few minutes.
Supt. Jemmott was another Crazy House patron from time to time but Lopez didn’t recall seeing them there at the same time.
‘The names I would rather not mention but she does have a lot of friends. It was mostly police officers, some her age, some older. Regular constables. There were no expats,’ Lopez added.
‘For some reason I think she was drawn towards police officers. I think she felt a lot safer being with them. They would dance, they would talk, they would have laughs. They would drive her vehicle, a small Chevy car, drop her home.’
Police are trying to understand how Henry Jemmott ended up dead, shot with his own police service weapon; a single bullet hole piercing the skin behind his right ear
Lopez served in the Belize Police Department for eight years and set up his LAG security firm two decades ago which provides guards for many of the top hotels in Ambergris Caye.
In the five years since he opened Crazy House, he said he never saw Hartin snort cocaine or take any other drug and would not have tolerated her doing so.
She was never in any kind of trouble, as far as he knew, until a female security guard called Lopez out to last week’s shooting and he came across Hartin at the crime scene.
‘Earlier they saw two people at the dock. They appeared to be conversing. Later on she heard a bang,’ Lopez recalled.
‘She walked around to make sure everything was ok, she looked over at Mata Rocks pier and she saw one person. She said the person is pacing to and fro on the pier.’
Lopez advised his employee to call the police and not to confront the stranger. It was only when he got there and the petite figure was led towards him that he recognized his party-loving customer.
‘I saw this white female coming down the pier with blood on the left side of her clothing. She had her hands on her heard. I looked at her, I was stunned and I said, Jasmine?
‘She didn’t answer me. She said, does anybody have a cigarette? It was crazy.’
A criminal complaint obtained by DailyMail.com reveals cops found Jemmott’s Glock 17 on the pier with an empty shell casing lodged in the chamber. Scattered nearby were loose 9mm rounds and a magazine.
The blonde socialite spent four days holed up in a tiny concrete cell at the stiflingly hot police and magistrates court complex in San Pedro, the tropical resort’s only town. She was pictured behind bars by local media on Monday evening
Hartin allegedly threw a temper tantrum because she wanted to smoke a cigarette and access her ‘pills’ in her cell at the San Pedro Police Station, a fellow inmate told DailyMail.com
The law enforcement veteran’s lifeless body was found floating face up 30ft from the shore. He had been shot once, behind the ear.
Hartin told investigators the pair had been talking and socializing and that she had offered Jemmott a massage when he complained of a sore shoulder.
She insists she fired by accident when he asked her to hand him his service weapon which he had placed on the ground.
DailyMail.com revealed this week that Jemmott had boasted to a friend that he had a date on the night of his death but wouldn’t tell him who it was.
He said he would take his secret ‘to the grave’ when the curious pal asked for details of the mystery woman.
Hartin has been remanded at the notoriously tough Hattieville prison on the Belizean mainland after she was deemed a flight risk and refused bail.
Jasmine Hartin is pictured with her partner Andrew Ashcroft at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new resort on May 7
It will be another week until her influential lawyer Godfrey Smith, the country’s former attorney general, can go before a judge and plead for her release.
It’s widely believed that Hartin will ultimately escape with just a fine for killing Jemmott after authorities opted against a murder or full-fledged manslaughter charge, charging her instead with manslaughter by negligence.
The offence is punishable by a fine or a maximum jail term of five years.
The pretty hotelier was also caught with a small amount of cocaine in her purse but has thus far not been charged over it.
With his background in law enforcement, Lopez has plenty of unanswered questions about the mysterious shooting that has intrigued the world.
He also wonders whether the probe was rushed through because of the massive level of publicity.
‘Jasmine is a very nice person. I believe she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She did not flee the scene,’ he said.
‘I think the investigation was a little bit too fast because they wanted closure. But that’s just my point of view.’
Paradise cop’s family in wrongful death lawsuit: Relatives shocked that socialite may just get a fine
From Inderdeep Bains in London and Tom Leonard in San Pedro, Belize
The family of the Belizean police chief allegedly killed by the partner of Lord Ashcroft’s son last night said they would get justice for the officer by bringing a wrongful death lawsuit against the socialite.
Jasmine Hartin, 32, was arraigned on the least serious charge available – manslaughter by negligence – after Superintendent Henry Jemmott, 42, was shot in her company a week ago today.
News of the charge – which can be given to dangerous drivers involved in fatal accidents and can see those convicted receive a fine – has left the victim’s family devastated.
Last night his sister Marie Tzul Jemmott, 55, said the family would do everything in their power to get ‘justice for her little brother’.
‘I can assure you a wrongful death lawsuit is coming and we are holding meetings with my attorney as we speak,’ she said.
The family claim investigators should have brought a murder charge and failed to consult crucial evidence including ballistic and forensic reports, which are yet to be finalised, before making their decision.
Miss Jemmott, who is helping to care for the officer’s five children, was in a string of meetings last night with her lawyers as they prepared to file their case.
‘All the evidence was not presented and that’s why the prosecution decided to charge her with that,’ she said.
Miss Jemmott said that by going with the lesser charge which could see Miss Hartin walk free with a fine of £7,000, the justice system had ‘betrayed’ Mr Jemmott – a policeman for more than 20 years.
‘They have put a dagger in our hearts,’ she said, adding that the family would still be praying for the ‘soul’ of the woman implicated in his death. The lawsuit could see them file claims for the victim’s loss of earnings – he had recently had a promotion.
The devastated sister said Mr Jemmott was also the ‘bread winner’ of the family and the sole provider for his five children.
They could also seek compensation for funeral expenses, loss of service as a father to each of his children and loss of dependency which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr Jemmott’s mysterious death has rocked the tiny Belizean island of Ambergris Caye where Miss Hartin lives with partner Andrew Ashcroft – the Tory billionaire’s youngest son – and their children.
She was said to have been drinking with the off-duty officer – an old friend of the couple – on a pier close to their newly opened luxury resort the Alaia Belize when Mr Jemmott was ‘accidentally shot’.
Miss Hartin who was found hysterical and covered in blood is reported to have told officers his police-issued gun accidentally fired as she handed it to him after giving him a platonic shoulder massage.
A fellow inmate who shared the holding cells with her said she ‘looked lost’ as she was led into the San Pedro police station and that the dead officer’s colleagues had treated her ‘roughly’.
Miss Hartin has been remanded in custody at the notorious Belize Central Prison – dubbed one of the worst in the world – where she is held among the country’s most hardened criminals.
She was denied bail after being deemed a ‘serious flight risk’ but her lawyers launched a last minute bid to get her released from the facility on Wednesday.
Her high profile legal team led by Godfrey Smith, the nation’s former attorney general, secured a hearing before a Supreme Court judge which Miss Hartin watched via video-link.
But with the prosecution attempting to block their appeal against the bail decision it was adjourned for a second hearing scheduled for next Wednesday.
The move has left Mr Jemmott’s devastated family and colleagues fearing the well-connected socialite could be released on bail within the week – which has seen them hasten efforts to launch a private suit.
Audrey Matura, an attorney at law and community activist in Belize, said the civil claim could be filed before the criminal trial commences. She said: ‘The basis of the suit ironically is that his attorney has to prove negligence on her part in causing the death.’
Damages can run into the hundreds of thousands and are calculated using a formula to determine the value of his life in legal terms, and it is based on age, salary, health, expectation of life, nature of death – for example was it instant or did he suffer any long period of pain.
Defending the charges, Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police, pointed out that ballistics testing could take weeks and they only had a small window to hold Miss Hartin. ‘The report could not be done overnight, it requires ballistic testing and if it were that she was to be released from custody without a charge pending that report… Belizeans would have gone in uproar.’
A funeral service is due to be held for the officer who lived on mainland Belize, on Saturday, June 12.