In american tourists who faces more than a decade behind bars in the Turks and Caicos Islands after ammunition was found in his luggage, said Monday that he is trying to FaceTime his children at home as much as possible in case he eventually goes to prison.
“I’m told there’s quite a bit of restricted communication while you’re in prison, so I’m trying to absorb as much as I can from that,” said Ryan Watson, a 40-year-old man. father of two from Oklahoma, he told CBS News.
watson is released on bail, but said he cannot leave the country and has to report to a local police station twice a week. She faces a possible mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years behind bars.
Tourists are not allowed to possess weapons or ammunition in the Turks and Caicos Islands. They have been allowed to pay a fine in the past, but a February court order ordered the tourists face prison terms.
“It’s something I deeply regret,” Watson said Monday. “I completely respect their laws and, you know, I support what they are trying to achieve with their gun laws, but I still pray that it is considered that there was no intention behind this and that this was 100% a mistake and an accident. “
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Watson said he had no intention of breaking any laws while visiting the country with his wife earlier this month.
“I don’t see how putting me in jail is going to help them in any way, you know, but, yeah, unfortunately that’s not my decision,” he told CBS News.
Watson was arrested on April 12 when four rounds of hunting ammunition were found in his carry-on luggage while he and his wife Valerie Watson were trying to return home from a vacation in the British territory. Valerie Watson is not facing charges and returned with the couple’s 9-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter in Oklahoma last week.
Watson previously told CBS News that ammunition may have been left in his bag after he went to Texas on a hunting trip. The Transportation Security Administration acknowledged that its officials did not notice when the Watsons went through security in Oklahoma City at the beginning of their trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Watson is one of several Americans who have been detained in the territory in recent months in similar circumstances. Michael Grim, of Indiana, served nearly six months in prison after pleading guilty to having ammunition in his checked bag.
“There’s no clean running water. You’re exposed to the environment 24/7,” he told CBS News. “Mosquitoes and tropical diseases are a real concern.”
Watson hopes the U.S. State Department will help find a resolution for all Americans whose cases are pending in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“This is tearing families apart right now,” she said, “and I have two kids at home who…their little hearts don’t understand what’s going on.”
Kris Van Cleave contributed reporting.