Many upstanding Americans are closely following the plight of five of their fellow citizens in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Thankfully there was more progress last week in getting the trapped travelers back home with their families.
An Oklahoma man became the third to plead guilty to possessing ammunition. All indications are that he will soon be reunited with his family, as two others already have.
Each of their vacations took a horrific twist in recent months when they were discovered to have a few rounds of ammunition inadvertently in their luggage.
The British protectorate in the Caribbean instituted harsh penalties for possession of guns or ammunition as it fought rising criminal gang violence.
Officials correctly worried that such activities could stymie the all-important tourism industry, but their reaction was over the top.
Conviction for possession of even one bullet meant a mandatory 12-year prison sentence. This even though American travelers are well within their rights at home to be armed.
And while no one disputes the right of Turks and Caicos Islands officials to decide their own laws, leniency was strongly urged by a bipartisan congressional delegation which recently visited the Caribbean to plead the case for the five tourists.
Ryan Watson of Edmond, Oklahoma, placed himself at the mercy of the court with his guilty plea. Two other men previously did the same and are now free.
A Pennsylvania resident received a one-year suspended sentence and a $6,700 fine, while a Virginia man was given time served and a $9,000 fine.
Watson and his spouse were on their way home from the islands in April after celebrating his 40th birthday. But security detected four ammunition rounds in his belongings, and he has been trapped in what would normally be a vacation paradise for nearly two months awaiting his fate.
Watson and fellow Americans Sharitta Grier and Bryan Hagerich were released on bail while waiting to be sentenced. The trio shared an Airbnb as they attempted to keep their sanity and find a way back home.
NBC News interviewed Watson and Grier, who both explained that they as U.S. gun owners made the simple mistake of overlooking these ammunition rounds in their luggage. They previously traveled while exercising their Second Amendment rights and did not know that loose rounds were present.
It came as quite the shock when they learned that they faced 12 years in prison.
Watson said his wife was also detained at Howard Hamilton International Airport because her makeup bag was in his luggage with the rounds. But she was eventually allowed to return home, and he asked that she make clear to their children “that their daddy’s not a bad guy.”
He said the rounds were likely present from a fall hunting trip.
Grier also expressed to NBC News her disbelief at being arrested and facing such a fate. “I was just so scared, like I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t grasp what was going on.”
The Florida resident said she was handcuffed to a chair for three days as the police did not have an empty cell to place her in. Grier was released on bail like the others, and when Watson learned of her plight, he set out to find her.
His mother located her fellow American, and the meeting was very emotional. Grier recalled, “Once we made eye contact, she was crying, I was crying. It was just like a big relief.”
Thankfully, all indications are that the U.S. citizens still trapped on the island will be back home soon.
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