Part 8 of the Jasmine Hartin Case:
Is 32 year old Jasmine Suzanne Hartin in more trouble with the law?-
Her surety does not believe she will show up to court on her next adjournment!” Judge Lord hears application to have her bail withdrawn by surety- the request was not for bail revocation said Judge Lord”
Today Hartin picked up two new criminal charges whilst out on bail.
by: Anita Nembhard/Flowers
Channel1Belize.com – The Court Reports
Belize City,
Friday, June 25th. 2021
Tonight 32-year-old Jasmine Suzanna Hartin, the daughter in law of Michael Ashcroft is back in the news. Initially it was the rumor that she was brought to court because her bail was revoked for violation of some conditions of her bail.
But that was just pure rumors, and while Hartin was arraign in the San Pedro Magistrate’s Court on two additional criminal charges of common assault upon Sarah Lee Grisham and another charge for possession of 0.04 grams of crack cocaine. She was offered bail of $1,000 which she could not meet; so she was whisked off the island to Belize City to appear in the Supreme Court.
It is there that Justice Herbert Lord addressed another matter. An application made by 55 year old Frank Habet, a General Manager of a company on San Pedro was Hartin’s only surety; who on June 9, 2021 posted bail for her in the sum of $30,000 in cash.
But Habet has become fearful that Hartin will not show up on her next court appearance hence why he asked the court to grant the application to withdraw as bail surety.
In court, judge Lord heard from the surety as well as her defense attorney, Dickie Bradley and the ‘Crown Counsel’ for the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP), attorney Shanice Lovelle.
But Bradley was annoyed by the ambush he claim his client was met with in court this evening. He submitted that his client was held from Thursday, then moved from one precinct to another then slapped with two criminal charges, and although granted bail detained and flown to San Pedro from Cayo then to Belize City, only to find out in court that her surety was withdrawing from the bail.
Bradley said Hartin was never told of such withdrawal by her surety but told it was for bail revocation since she was slapped with two more charges whilst out on bail.
In the end Justice Lord granted the bail withdrawal application by Habet.
But he also informed Hartin that her old bail he granted to her was still in effect and that anyone who wishes to sign her out on bail can do so still in the sum of $30,000.
But since Hartin was unable to meet bail again before the close of the court, she was handcuff and escorted back to prison at 5pm. in the prison van.
The Belize Central Prison is where she will remain until she can get a new surety for her bail.
In court Hartin appeared to be traumatized, frustrated and consume with the entire procedure.
We asked Bradley to share with us how the new charges came about against his client but he said he had not yet been able to read the facts.
On June 9, after more than a week in jail, Hartin was able to post $30,000 Supreme Court bail. Three days prior to posting bail, 42 year old superintendent Henry Jemmott was laid to rest after funeral services in Dangriga.
Superintendent Jemmott was fatally shot once in the back of the head.
It was the DPP’s directives to charge Hartin with manslaughter by negligence and not murder after she allegedly gave a statement claiming the shooting was an accident.
Superintendent Jemmott’s family have been upset with the charge levied against Hartin.
Of note is possibility that the DPP’s office will make an application to the court to have Hartin’s bail revoke since in the court proceedings today, the prosecution spoke of two new charges, and that Hartin was ordered to be in good behavior as one of her eight court conditions of her original bail.