OAKLAND — Roseanna Caret was not about to let the man with a 9 mm handgun kill her daughter after he kicked in the door of their house Wednesday night and shot the daughter in the shoulder.
“I beat the crap out of him with a bat,” Caret said in an interview Thursday morning. “With all my might, I did everything I could. He came here to hurt my daughter, and I was going to defend it. I was going to take care of my daughter.”
Jasmine Caret, 33, was at MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta on Thursday suffering from serious injuries, according to a hospital spokesman.
Around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jeremy Clement, 36, of Fairfield, the ex-boyfriend of Jasmine Caret, drove a four-wheeler onto the lawn of the house where Caret and her daughter live with Caret’s mother, May, 80. Clement and Jasmine Caret have a 3-year-old son together, and the son was taken away from Clement because the home was not safe, according to Roseanna.
Roseanna Caret said she, her mother and her daughter had a safety plan in place because they knew Clement was violent and would come and cause trouble. Caret, 53, kept a baseball bat her late son, Paul, had made when he was in the ninth grade, and she planned to use it if Clement got into the house.
“He (Clement) said he wanted to talk to Jasmine, and I said, ‘No, you aren’t coming in here,'” Roseanna recalled Thursday morning.
The enclosed porch and breezeway to the house on Thursday morning was splattered with blood — on the walls, recycling bins, a chair, newspapers — and a bullet hole was visible through Mae Caret’s black Eastern Star gown hanging in the corner. Two large pools of blood were still on the floor where the fracas took place.
“He kicked the door in, and I just commenced to swinging it,” Roseanna said of the bat. “Jasmine came out and he wrestled her to the ground. I commenced to hit him. He shot her in the shoulder and we wrestled some more and I hit him with the bat. … I just went right after him.”
The shooting was reported at 8:26 p.m. at 230 Oak St., Oakland police Chief Michael Tracy said Thursday morning. Though Tracy did not identify Roseanna, Jasmine or May Caret by name, as they are victims, Roseanna and May Caret said the whole family said they want their names and story told so no other family has to endure such an attack. Tracy confirmed that Clement has a history of assault.
Clement and Roseanna Caret were taken by Delta Ambulance to Thayer Center for Health in Waterville. Jasmine Caret was admitted to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta with a bullet wound in her shoulder and a collapsed lung, according to her mother.
Roseanna suffered cuts to her left cheek and the left side of her head, the latter of which required stitches, and she said she was sore and tense Thursday.
Clement suffered an injury to his head and required stitches, Tracy said. Clement was arrested and charged with elevated aggravated assault and burglary and later taken to the Kennebec County jail in Augusta, he said, adding that the injuries suffered by all three were not life-threatening.
“It was a domestic situation,” Tracy said. “The ex-boyfriend went to the girlfriend’s house and kicked the door in and went in and they got into an altercation. He ended up shooting her in the shoulder.”
Tracy said police still are getting all the necessary paperwork together to forward to the Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office, so although Clement initially was scheduled to appear May 22 in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta, that could change. The charges against Clement also could change once the case is sent to the DA’s office, he said. Tracy said bail was not allowed for Clement on Wednesday night and he probably will have to appear before a judge at a hearing at which bail would be discussed.
Oakland police Officer Todd Burbank was the first official at the scene of the shooting, followed by Sgt. Peter Tibbetts, Tracy said. Burbank called for backup, and Maine State Police, Kennebec County sheriff’s officers and Waterville and Fairfield police went to the scene to assist.
Clement has an extensive criminal history in Maine, according to a statewide records check conducted Thursday. He pleaded guilty to numerous criminal charges from 2004 to 2009 and received jail sentences, fines and probation, including convictions for criminal threatening in 2005, assault in 2006, operating under the influence in 2006, assault in 2007, and domestic violence assault in 2009. He had no criminal convictions for the next four years or so, until 2015, when he pleaded guilty to operating under the influence with one prior conviction and to disorderly conduct involving offensive words and gestures.
Roseanna Caret said Clement had been causing domestic problems since January, and the state Department of Health and Human Services was helping the women to remain safe. A DHHS official visited the home recently and asked if they had a safety plan, according to Roseanna. She enlisted a friend who lives across the street — retired contractor David Grant, 62 — to help if Clement ever came to her house, and Grant readily agreed.
When Grant’s wife heard a gunshot and saw a flash of light Wednesday night, Grant ran across the road and met Jasmine, who was bleeding and pleading for him to help her, he said. Burbank arrived just after Grant did and they went inside the porch and Grant helped Burbank and Tibbetts, Grant said.
“I never see a person that far out of his head, as he always is,” Grant said Thursday of Clement. “This isn’t a one-time thing.” He said Clement is violent and should be put away for life.
Meanwhile, Roseanna Caret, who works as a hotel housekeeper and a certified nurse’s aide, said her late great-grandfather and her father were police officers and her father taught her how to defend herself. She said she had planned to get a protection order against Clement on Thursday, but Clement, whom she described as “Jekyll and Hyde,” was determined to make sure if he could not get Jasmine and their son, then no one would.
“Needless to say, this is the end result, and I’m pushing charges,” Roseanna said. “I hope he gets what he deserves. Enough is enough already.”
Clement and her daughter, who works in home health care, had lived together about five years before Jasmine Caret moved out, according to her mother. On Wednesday night, Clement drove a four-wheeler from his home on Norridgewock Road in Fairfield to their home on Oak Street, about a half-mile from Messalonskee High School. Clement does not have a driver’s license.
Jasmine Caret immediately called 911 and grabbed two croquet mallets, and Roseanna Caret got the bat.
May Caret said the incident was traumatizing. “You don’t expect it will happen to you,” she said.
Roseanna Caret said her son Paul died at age 26 in a car crash four years ago, and she was determined not to lose another child Wednesday night.
“This one was not being taken from me,” she said. “By my own free will it wasn’t happening, and I told the DHHS I’ll do anything in my power to make sure of that.”
Roseanna Caret believes her father and son were with her, her daughter and her mother during the incident.
“I swear they are our guardian angels,” she said.
State police did some interviews for Oakland police Wednesday night, according to Tracy. He said Burbank and Tibbetts are investigating the incident.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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