Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hello, it's Basha Cummings here. I'm an editor at Tortoise, which is the home of Sweet Bobby, Hoaxed and many more award-winning investigative podcasts. I'm here to tell you about Tortoise Investigates, where we curate the best of our chart-topping investigations in one place. Everything from extraordinary tales of deception to a suspicious killing to one mother's decades-long fight with the police. Just search for Tortoise Investigates wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello, it's Tominey from Tortoise. We'll be bringing you a new investigation soon, but in the meantime, we thought you'd enjoy this new show from our friends at Campside Media. It's called White Devil. Late at night in May of 2021, a single gunshot shattered the silence along the beach at the luxurious Elia Resort in Belize.
In White Devil, journalist Josh Dean dives into one of the biggest, splashiest and most perplexing crime stories you've never heard of. The death of renowned cop Henry Gemmott, shot by a Canadian property developer.
Over two years of reporting, the depths of Belize's dark underbelly are brought to the surface. Its quirks, its corruption, and the incredible power of one family in particular. I'm going to play you a clip from the first episode. You can binge the rest of White Devil wherever you get your podcasts.
Police Superintendent Henry Jamont was a father of five and a law enforcement veteran. His friends and family say they are stunned by his sudden death and equally shocked that a police officer could die this way. Police in this Central American country confirmed Jamont did not die in the line of duty, but instead in what they describe as an incident. The details disclosed that
that Jamant and a woman were drinking alone on the pier and both were fully clothed. Details beyond that are scanned. The exact truth of what happened in Belize on May 28th, 2021 isn't knowable in any objective way. There were two people there alone on an isolated pier and only one survived to talk about it. There were no witnesses, no cameras.
And as the saying goes, a dead man tells no tales. So with that in mind, here's what we know. Sometime around 12:30 a.m., a security guard outside of some luxury condos on Ambergus Key, the largest island off the coast of Belize, heard a gunshot. These condos are adjacent to a brand new luxury resort called Elia on the outskirts of the town of San Pedro. If you've been to Belize, you've probably stayed in San Pedro.
It's a party town, which fronts the region's largest coral reef. So it's filled with bachelors and bachelorettes, as well as fishermen and scuba divers. It's noisy and can be crowded, as tourists in golf carts buzz around its narrow dirt lanes, dodging Belizeans selling t-shirts and coconuts. But on this night, it was very quiet. This was pandemic times. When the guards who heard that gunshot got to the pier, they found just one person.
a woman they knew well, a young blonde Canadian who lived in the condos they were protecting. She was in a panicked state, covered in blood, and muttering about an accident. Bobbing in the sea just off the pier was the body of a large black man who turned out to be a cop named Henry Gemat. And not just any cop, either. Henry Gemat was a boss, a superintendent, at one time the second-ranking police officer on the island. And there was no doubt about this part: Henry Gemat was dead.
After seven months of being a murder-free island, San Pedro Town was rocked by the news of the death of its former police commander. This morning, just after one, Superintendent Henry Jamut was fatally shot, reportedly with his own weapon. Questions are swirling this morning. A high-ranking police officer dead, a woman connected to a billionaire family alone on the pier when he died. This morning calls for justice.
Police Commissioner Chester Williams, Belize's highest-ranking police officer, spoke to the press a half day later, on the afternoon of May 29, to update the country on his initial findings in this incredible case of the rich white woman and the dead black cop. Upon investigating, police found the female on a pier. She had what appeared to be blood on her arms and on her clothing.
A firearm was also seen on the pier. That firearm has been retrieved, and we have learned that the firearm belonged to the police. And inside the waters right near the pier, police recovered the lifeless body of Mr. Jamot with one apparent gunshot wound behind the right ear. Behind the right ear. It's exactly where you would put a bullet if you were trying to execute a man.
But the only plausible executioner here was a young woman with no criminal record and a very high profile around town. Her name was Jasmine Harton. Jasmine Harton, a socialite accused of killing a police superintendent in Central America, is behind bars tonight. Jasmine Harton was arrested and charged in connection to this deadly shooting. Jasmine Harton was taken into custody and put in a cell.
It looked bad. But the way things worked in Belize, everybody figured that this rich, well-connected expat would just buy her way out of it. In this case, everybody was wrong. That was a clip from the first episode of White Devil. You can hear the rest of White Devil wherever you get your podcasts.