The fifth American arrested and charged with bringing ammunition in their bag to Turks and Caicos Islands avoided jail time and instead was fined $1,500 and given a 23 week suspended sentence on Thursday. Sharitta Grier, a grandmother from Florida, has remained on the islands since her arrest in May.
Grier, who lives in Orlando, was visiting Turks and Caicos with her daughter during a surprise Mother’s Day vacation when during a routine search at the Howard Hamilton International Airport, police said officials found two rounds of ammunition in her carry-on bag as she was trying to go home. After her mid-May arrest, she told CBS News: “they chained me to a chair by my leg. It’s cold, scared, it was awful, it was so awful, I couldn’t sleep. You have good days, bad days — mentally draining, like not knowing what’s going to happen or when it’s going to happen, if a court date’s going to be pushed back. It’s a lot, it’s a lot mentally.”
Grier pleaded guilty to one count of possession of ammunition; she had been released on $15,000 bail following her arrest and ordered to remain in the Caribbean territory until the completion of her case. Following her sentencing, Grier told ABC News that she was “very happy” to be going home, adding: “It’s been a long time coming.” She said she had been optimistic about her case after other Americans who were also arrested over ammunition found in their bags avoided prison time, but had to pay fines before they could return to the U.S.
Grier was the fifth American to be charged under Turks and Caicos’ gun laws in recent months and faced a mandatory 12-year prison sentence unless the court found “exceptional circumstances.” Three other American tourists who were similarly charged and detained on the islands after inadvertently traveling with ammunition have since been able to return home with the court citing “exceptional circumstances” to avoid the mandatory sentence. Amid pressure from U.S. lawmakers to show the Americans leniency, elected officials on the islands changed the law to give judges more discretion for sentences in firearms cases. Under the amended law, the court has the “widest possible breadth of discretion” and can impose either a fine, custodial sentence or both, the attorney general said in a statement.
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