American tourist facing possible 12-year prison sentence after ammo found in luggage in Turks and Caicos
Valerie Watson returned to Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport in tears on Tuesday morning in a drastic departure from how she imagined her long weekend trip to Turks and Caicos would end.
Watson is home, but her husband, Ryan Watson, is in jail on the island and facing a potential mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years behind bars after airport security allegedly found four rounds of hunting ammo in his carry-on bag earlier this month.
“We were trying to pack board shorts and flip flops,” Valerie Watson told CBS News. “Packing ammunition was not at all our intent.”
TSA found a record 6,737 guns at airport security checkpoints, and most of them were loaded.
“I can’t even begin to think that this very innocent, regrettable mistake would prevent me from being able to watch my son graduate or teach him to shave or take my daughter to dances,” Ryan Watson said. “It’s just unfathomable. I do not — I can’t process it.”
The Turks and Caicos government responded to CBS News in a lengthy statement confirming the law and reiterating that, even if extenuating circumstances are found to be present, the judge is required to mandate prison time.
Kris Van Cleave
Source: cbsnews.com