Tonight, Jasmine Hartin, the alleged killer of Superintendent Henry Jemmott, remains a free woman, with all her efforts now focused on gaining access and ultimately custody to her twins Charlie and Elle.
But Hartin's wished for a reunion with the four-year-olds is likely a long ways off.
But while that custody issue may be in limbo, Hartin isn't keeping quiet. Speaking to Cherisse Halsall last night, this time in a sit-down interview about what she says she's faced in the days before and after her latest stint at the Kolbe Foundation.
This is the picture of Jasmine Hartin that is emerging tonight, a woman skilled in the use of high-powered weapons. She is seen here artfully firing a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun at a target 50 ft away and making a perfect bullseye. As the watermelon explodes it sends a chill through anyone who knows what happened that night on the Matarocks pier.
At the end of that masterful shot, Hartin smiles for the camera and kisses the barrel of the shotgun.
This video and these pictures showing her in front of a line of targets started floating around the internet today, no doubt part of an active smear against an alleged accidental killer who is also a mother seeking to get back her kids.
Another video shows her aloft in the rigging of a thatch bar's roof mounting a saddle, for some type of performance.
The images are no doubt meant as a punch in the gut for someone seeking custody of her kids - someone who these images would want to suggest isn't fit for the job. And that's the first thing I asked her yesterday.
Cherisse Halsall
"Now in the Belizean popular imagination there's been a lot said about you, they say you're a wild party girl, they say you're a cocaine addict? How do you respond to that perception of the Jasmine that's been painted in the public?"
Jasmine Hartin - Accused of Manslaughter
"Honestly, I wouldn't say I'm a wild party girl but I like to have fun with my friends, I like to dance, I always like to do dinners, I like to treat people, I like to host events at the house so I am a social person. When it comes to the drugs, yeah, I heard that too and that was a shock to me as well, so people are always talking, it's Belize."
And from there I took a shot at the burning question everyone was to know:
Cherisse Halsall
"The question the public wants me to ask of course, you know what happened on that pier that night? It's such a mystery to everyone?"
Jasmine Hartin
"Yeah, I can't talk about that yet until everything."
Cherisse Halsall
"Gotcha."
What you're not seeing is Jasmine's attorney, off-camera, signalling her about what, at this point, is not a question she would be legally advised to answer. And so, we proceeded.
Cherisse Halsall
"So, Jemmott saves you from this, in your words terrible ordeal, situation now the following week he comes to San Pedro and he's distraught because he's having emotional issues with his marriage and his personal life, does he share any of that with you?"
Jasmine Hartin
"No, no I saw on facebook he posted something on Facebook about I'm single or something and then he said that he wanted to come to San Pedro to blow off some steam, he asked me if I could get him a unit, so I booked him in one at Grand Colony and he said he was coming with a friend and he was just going to, that he had a couple days off. He didn't mention anything about the breakup at that point. I figured if he wanted to talk about it, he would so he didn't and I really didn't see him that much he was gone a lot during the day while I was busy working."
And that was the extent of our conversation about Henry Jemmott, because at this stage what Hartin and her attorney hoped to get across was an account of the last week and how difficult she says her life has been made based - she believes - on the actions of Andrew Ashcroft.
Cherisse Halsall
"What's been the reaction from the Ashcroft family since you've been accused of manslaughter, how has their position towards you shifted, since the accusation of the manslaughter?"
Jasmine Hartin
"Um, from what I've been told from the family they were instructed to distance themselves from me immediately, that they couldn't have bad press associated with their reputation so therefore I didn't have any family come to visit me in jail; I didn't have any family call me; instead, a couple friends came to see me um but never once was I allowed to speak to the children during that time, I didn't speak to their father, I didn't speak to any family members at all. My brother from Canada he did try calling me and then my mother was worried sick, but they we're trying to communicate through Andrew and he was just keeping them at bay telling them I was fine and it was a little bit exaggerated from what my mother I'm sure wants to tell you."
Cherisse Halsall
"And so, this is why she screamed at him that he lied to your family? Based on what your relationship was with Andrew prior to this incident how shocked are you that he has been since then distancing himself to this degree?"
Jasmine Hartin
"I'm like, I'm still shocked because even though, like Andrew and I we've been together seven years and we're not perfect, there have been ups and downs and we definitely have a complicated relationship, it's been hostile, many parts of the seven years, but even with all of that though I can't believe how I've been treated. I just feel like I'm the mother of your children, I'm the mother of his grandchildren um, I don't know how you just pull everything from me and show me no love and support during a time I need it the most right now. And again I don't want to make this about me, I'm in this situation because of a horrible accident from the 28th when I lost my friend Henry and that was terrible. So I'm just saying like. I'm sure his family likes to have the love and support to get through this time. I don't have the love and support to get through it on my side."
No Love, No support, and very little money after Ashcroft's former partner says he sent a backchannel request to get her to give up her stake in their business.
Jasmine Hartin
"Yeah so, the night, it was the Monday the 31st of May I was in the San Pedro police station after a magistrate had denied my bail. I was clearly upset, very stressed out and Andrew had sent a letter with a mutual friend to meet me in the male's bathroom at the front of the police station to sign a one paragraph statement that says, I Jasmine Hartin sign all shares of Kidd Estates Limited which is 10% to Andrew Ashcroft for the sum of one dollar a share meanwhile on that piece of paper it didn't say anything about witness I didn't see his signature, I've never received compensation for that, and under duress I believe that that is now null and void. You can't even use that in a court of law but I'm not the lawyer so."
Cherisse Halsall
"Did you feel threatened at all to sign that?"
Jasmine Hartin
"In the moment I was told that if I don't sign it that Marriott is going to pull the franchise agreement and everything we worked for was going to be taken away, and all I could think about was we built this for our kids, we worked so hard to get this. So, I'm gonna trust that, and I'll sign it over but he'll make sure that I get it back you know that's what I was thinking. So in the moment I was just a little bit in shock, I'm going through this wave of emotion already and I just signed it to appease the situation but it wasn't right to sign it at that time under those pressures."
And what of Hartin's time at the Kolbe foundation? Yesterday she told me that while the women's section is much less intimidating that the men's, she still has a fresh picture in her mind of "the hole" a place they put women who are punished with solitary confinement. Jasmine says she had to walk past it daily in order to reach the laundry room:
Jasmine Hartin
"The first time was harder because I'd never been there and I was getting used to the routine and I was just getting used to being restrained and the whole thing in general. It was a life changing eye-opening experience. Then I got out and even when I get out I'm prevented from seeing my children so the second time going back in it wasn't as hard because I can't see them while I'm out then I might as well do the time and not see them while I'm in."
Cherisse Halsall
"And you said you had custody struggles with Andrew in the past, if you could just briefly touch on that?"
Jasmine Hartin
"So yeah, it was back in 2008. It was a very, very, bad time in our relationship and I didn't feel that the children were safe at the time being around him and so I decided to, well I didn't feel that I was safe or the children were safe at that specific time. It was a really down time for him. So, I decided to take the kids to Canada to visit family and upon being in Canada I decided you know maybe I should stay here for a little while let things cool down um and even then, he wasn't denied visitation. He still came to Canada, saw the kids and then I tried to make it work again with him, so I was only gone for two months, two and a half months and then I came back decided that we owed it to the children to make it work."
And while Hartin chose family in 2018 the shoe is now on the other foot, with Andrew Ashcroft making the decisions about her parental access.
Jasmine Hartin
"I think he has technically already kidnapped them from me, I don't know if I'm allowed to say that but withholding a mother from her children when we have nothing in custody and writing I don't know of another situation where they've done this to a mother, just taken the children and put up a blockade of security guards to keep you from them, on your own property, and then try to put charges on you for trying to see your kids. So, I think you're, to answer that I think It's already kidnapping and at this point I don't question anything that they're capable of, I think they could do whatever they want. This shows how much power they have and when you have that much money and power in a small country like Belize it shows what you're capable of doing, I've spent 19 days in jail and I should not have spent one."
And while she thinks that those who cradle the memories of Henry Jemmott believe that she should spend a lifetime.
And that's the question: is Jasmine Hartin a careless killer, is she a dispossessed mother, or is she a party girl who just didn't know when to stop?
Three Jasmine's, one accusation of manslaughter, and seven young children - 5 of his and two of hers - in the lurch.
7NEWS sought comment via text from Andrew Ashcroft but we have not received a reply.
