PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — The airport was once traumatic as Ryan Watson and his spouse had been making ready to fly house to Oklahoma after celebrating his fortieth birthday on the archipelago’s white sands.
A seek of his duffel bag was once slowing issues down, however two of his pals who got here alongside had been ribbing him for it: He inadvertently left a couple of looking rounds in the bag — a rookie mistake, however no longer a large deal, he concept.
But a legislation enforcement officer confronted the vacationer and stopped his global from spinning, as government had achieved in fresh months to 4 different U.S. vacationers in the island country, informing him that ownership of ammunition is a major crime that would put years between him and the couple’s kids, a 7-year-old boy and 9-year-old lady, looking ahead to them at house.
Watson and Sharitta Grier, two of the 5 Americans who’ve just lately been detained in Turks and Caicos beneath a legislation that prohibits ownership of firearms or ammunition, spoke to NBC News on Thursday forward of the Friday sentencing of Bryan Hagerich, a U.S. citizen who was once detained in a identical state of affairs in February.
The 3 are former strangers who’ve shaped a close bond while residing in combination at an Airbnb on the island, out on bail and awaiting their sentencing.
‘An overly blameless mistake’
On April 12, at Howard Hamilton International Airport, Ryan and Valerie Watson had been nonetheless anticipating to jet house. The gravity of the allegations had no longer collided with the tropics in their thoughts.
“You guys just don’t get it,” the person with a badge, in plainclothes, stated, in keeping with Ryan Watson. “He was like, you’re both being arrested and you’re gonna go to prison for 12 years.”
That’s the minimal sentence for ownership of ammunition in the rustic.
For Watson, disbelief became to pleading and then just a little aid. His spouse confronted the similar case as a result of her make-up bag was once discovered in the duffle bag with looking rounds, he stated.
During an interrogation he instructed government the rounds had been his, most likely from a deer looking commute in fall. “Her makeup kit just happened to be in my bag,” he stated.
Valerie Watson was once unfastened to move house.
In conversations since, Ryan Watson stated his greatest request of his spouse has been to “do everything in your power to let them know that their daddy’s not a bad guy.”
“This was just a very innocent mistake,” he stated.
Another American detained
In the times and weeks after Watson was once detained he would come to depend on an not likely circle for toughen, together with the person he employed as a motive force right through his birthday commute, who put the identify of his car — his livelihood — up as collateral to bail out Watson.
And then he discovered Grier, the most recent American arrested after she stated Turks and Caicos government stated they found out a couple of rounds of ammunition in a bag.
“I was just so scared, like I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it,” she stated. “I couldn’t grasp what was going on.”
Grier made the native news, and Watson needed to to find her, even though it wasn’t transparent the place she was once being held. Grier was once touring together with her daughters on their first commute to the rustic, for Mother’s Day, when she was once arrested at Howard Hamilton Airport when she attempted to board a go back flight May 13.
Like Watson, she took the allegations calmly till their weight descended. She stated she was once handcuffed to a chair for 3 days as a result of there was once no empty mobile to be had.
“I couldn’t move,” she stated. “I couldn’t flip over.”
Watson stated he needed to to find her.
“I knew what she was going through,” he stated. “This situation is wildly overwhelming. The complexity of it. It doesn’t feel real.”
Grier prayed for God to ship her anyone, a father or mother. And there was once Watson’s mom, in tears, Grier stated. They discovered her.
“Once we made eye contact, she was crying,” Grier stated. “I was crying. It was just like a big relief.”
The Americans stated having a shared enjoy has made the darkness of the episode more straightforward to navigate as they awaited prosecution, along Hagerich, in their Airbnb.
“There’s a huge fraternity of us, and it’s the oddest fraternity I’ve ever been involved in but, you know, we all send prayers and support to one another,” Watson stated.
Ryan gave Grier his bed room, which had a rest room, and they’ve espresso in combination each day.
“We go over each day, what the day lies ahead,” Watson said.
Strict penalty
All of the Americans are out on bail and have pleaded guilty, except for Grier, who has not entered a plea, officials said, and none has been sentenced.
Michael Lee Evans, a Texas man who was jailed in December, has returned to the U.S. for medical reasons ahead of his scheduled sentencing next month.
A plea hearing for Tyler Wenrich, who was also detained in April, took place Tuesday. The judge’s decision is expected to be delivered within 7 days of the hearing, according to the Turks and Caicos Islands Supreme Court Registrar.
Watson is scheduled for a hearing in June. Grier’s next court date is in July.
U.S. lawmakers have tried to facilitate the Americans’ release, sending a delegation to the islands Monday. A statement from the governor’s office after their visit reiterated that the laws prohibiting firearms and ammunition are clear and the ”strict consequences are in position to serve and offer protection to all who live and talk over with the Turks and Caicos Islands.”
But it added that, “Where the court finds there are exceptional circumstances, the sentencing judge does have discretion, under a law, to impose a custodial sentence and a fine that are fair and just in the circumstances of each case rather than impose the mandatory minimum.”
Turks and Caicos Premier Washington Misick reiterated that point this week, and said no American has been sentenced to the full 12 years — a penalty that was increased from seven during the country’s 2022 crackdown on guns and ammunition, neither of which are made there.
‘That’s my brother out there’
The household awaits Hagerich’s sentencing, expected Friday, with some expectation that his sentence will tell them something about their own cases.
“That’s my brother available in the market,” Watson said. “I feel it’ll shed some mild on what may probably occur in our circumstances, however it’s no longer a ensure. So we stay making the comic story, that if he is going to jail, I wish to get in there as speedy as imaginable in order that we will be able to be mobile friends.”
For these compatriots, the people are better than the place.
“It’s the most unearthly factor to be in this pretty backdrop,” Watson said. “You know, you spot seashores and sand and palm bushes and it is now turn into my jail.”