Witnessed: Devil in the Ditch - White Devil - Power and privilege in a fragile paradise

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

From the creators of the Witnessed feed and host of Fade to Black, this is White Devil. Shootings are not unusual in Belize. Shootings of cops are. When a wealthy woman – married into one of the most powerful families in Belize – is found on a pier late at night, next to a body, it becomes the country’s biggest news story in a generation. Episode are released on a weekly schedule starting today! Find out more about Campside Media at campsidemedia.com and follow us @campside_media. Listen whenever you get your podcasts! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, Witness listeners, it's Josh Dean here, your host of the latest season, Fade to Black, and one of the founders of Campside Media, the company that brings you all these incredible untold mysteries. But today, I want to tell you about another show and a whole new franchise. It's our first ever Campside Original series, and season one is called White Devil.

It's the culmination of two years of reporting that begins with a tragic shooting of a decorated cop on a pier in the tiny tropical nation of Belize and takes listeners on a twisty roller coaster ride that leads straight into the dark underbelly of a tiny tropical country few of us ever think about. Here's a little sample of episode one of White Devil. I hope you dig it. Now buckle up. Police Superintendent Henry Jemont was a father of five and a law enforcement veteran. His friends and family say they are Rockle up. in what they describe as an incident. The details disclosed that Jemont and a woman were drinking alone on the pier and both were fully closed.

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 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 1230 AM, a security guard outside of some luxury condos on Ambergus Quay, the largest island off the coast of Belize, heard a gunshot. These condos are adjacent to a brand new luxury resort called Alaia, 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 and 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 seed just off the pier was the body of a large black man who turned out to be a cop named Henry Jamat.

And not just any cop either. Henry Jamat 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 Jamat 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. was dead. 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 29th 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. and the dead black cop. 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. Jamut 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 Hartin. Jasmine Hartin.

A socialite accused of killing a police superintendent in Central America is behind bars tonight. Jasmine Hartin 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 little preview of White Devil, my new series, and the first ever Campside Original. To hear more, all 12 episodes of this new show I'm really proud of, search White Devil wherever you get your podcasts and click subscribe. I really appreciate your

support.