PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos — The airport was buzzing as Ryan Watson and his wife prepared to return to Oklahoma after celebrating his 40th birthday on the white sands of the archipelago.
A search of his backpack was slowing things down, but two of his friends who showed up were teasing him for it: he’d inadvertently left some hunting bullets in the bag—a rookie mistake, but no big deal, he thought.
But a law enforcement officer confronted the tourist and stopped his world from spinning, just as authorities had done in recent months to four other American travelers in the island nation, informing him that possession of ammunition is a serious crime that could put years between him and the island country. the couple’s children, a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, were waiting for them at home.
Watson and Sharitta Grier, two of five Americans who were recently detained in Turks and Caicos under a law prohibiting the possession of firearms or ammunition, spoke to NBC News on Thursday ahead of Friday’s sentencing of Bryan Hagerich, an American citizen who was detained in a similar situation in February.
The three are former strangers who formed a close bond while living together in an Airbnb on the island, free on bail and awaiting sentencing.
‘A very innocent mistake’
On April 12, at Howard Hamilton International Airport, Ryan and Valerie Watson were still hoping to return home. The gravity of the accusations did not clash with the tropics of his mind.
“You guys just don’t understand,” said the man with the badge, in plain clothes, according to Ryan Watson. “He was like, you two are being arrested and are going to prison for 12 years.”
This is the minimum penalty for carrying ammunition in the country.
For Watson, disbelief turned to pleading and then a bit of relief. His wife faced the same case because her makeup bag was found in her backpack with hunting ammunition, he said.
During an interrogation, he told authorities the bullets were his, likely from a fall deer hunting trip. “Her makeup kit was in my bag,” he said.
Valerie Watson was free to go home.
In conversations since then, Ryan Watson has said that his biggest request of his wife was to “do everything in his power to let them know that their dad is not a bad guy.”
“This was just a very innocent mistake,” he said.
Another American detained
In the days and weeks after Watson’s arrest, he came to rely on an unlikely circle of support, including the man he hired as a driver during his birthday trip, who put up the title to his vehicle — his livelihood — as collateral for bail. off Watson.
And then he found Grier, the latest American arrested after she said Turks and Caicos authorities said they discovered some ammunition in a bag.
“I was so scared, like I was in shock, that I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I couldn’t understand what was happening.”
Grier made local news and Watson had to find her, although it was unclear where she was being held. Grier was traveling with her daughters on their first trip to the country, for Mother’s Day, when she was arrested at Howard Hamilton Airport as she tried to board a return flight on May 13.
Like Watson, she took the accusations lightly until her weight dropped. She said she was handcuffed to a chair for three days because there was no empty cell available.
“I couldn’t move,” she said. “I couldn’t turn around.”
Watson said he needed to find her.
“I knew what she was going through,” he said. “This situation is extremely overwhelming. The complexity of it. It doesn’t feel real.”
Grier prayed that God would send him someone, a guardian. And there was Watson’s mother, in tears, Grier said. They found her.
“As soon as we made eye contact, she was crying,” Grier said. “I was crying. It was a huge relief.”
The Americans said having a shared experience made it easier to navigate the darkness of the episode as they awaited the proceedings, alongside Hagerich, in their Airbnb.
“There’s a huge brotherhood of ours, and it’s the weirdest brotherhood I’ve ever been involved in, but, you know, we all send each other prayers and support,” Watson said.
Ryan gave Grier his room, which had a bathroom, and they have breakfast together every day.
“We go over every day what’s coming up,” Watson said.
Strict penalty
All of the Americans are free on bond and have pleaded guilty except Grier, who did not confess, authorities said, and none have been convicted.
Michael Lee Evans, a Texas man who was arrested in December, has returned to the US for medical reasons ahead of his scheduled sentencing next month.
A plea hearing for Tyler Wenrich, who was also arrested in April, took place on Tuesday. The judge’s decision must be made within 7 days of the hearing, according to the clerk of the Supreme Court of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Watson is scheduled for a hearing in June. Grier’s next hearing will be in July.
U.S. lawmakers tried to facilitate the Americans’ release by sending a delegation to the islands on Monday. A statement from the governor’s office after the visit reiterated that laws prohibiting firearms and ammunition are clear and that “strict penalties exist to serve and protect all who reside in and visit the Turks and Caicos Islands.”
But he added that, “where the court considers that exceptional circumstances exist, the sentencing judge has discretion, in accordance with law, to impose a custodial sentence and a fine that are just and equitable in the circumstances of each case, rather than to impose a mandatory sentence. Minimum.”
Turks and Caicos Prime Minister Washington Misick reiterated that point this week and said that no American has been sentenced to the full 12 years – a sentence that was increased from seven during the country’s 2022 gun and ammunition crackdown, none of which which are manufactured there.
‘That’s my brother out there’
The family awaits Hagerich’s sentencing, scheduled for Friday, with some expectation that his sentence will tell them something about their own cases.
“That’s my brother out there,” Watson said. “I think this will shed some light on what could happen in our cases, but it is not a guarantee. So we keep making the joke, that if he goes to prison, I want to get in there as quickly as possible so we can be cellmates.”
For these compatriots, the people are better than the place.
“It’s the strangest thing to be in this beautiful setting,” Watson said. “You know, you see beaches and sand and palm trees and now it’s become my prison.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
