{"id":106096,"date":"2024-06-24T12:04:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T12:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/a-prayer-answered-american-detained-for-ammo-in-turks-and-caicos-says-of-flight-home\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T12:04:10","slug":"a-prayer-answered-american-detained-for-ammo-in-turks-and-caicos-says-of-flight-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/a-prayer-answered-american-detained-for-ammo-in-turks-and-caicos-says-of-flight-home\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A prayer answered’: American detained for ammo in Turks and Caicos says of flight home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ABC News<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(NEW YORK) — As Ryan Watson, an American tourist who had been charged with bringing ammunition to Turks and Caicos in April, boarded a plane after his release, he had only one thought on his mind.<\/p>\n

“To know that I was on a plane headed home, that’s a prayer answered,” Watson said in an interview that aired Monday on ABC News’ Good Morning America<\/em>.<\/p>\n

A judge last week fined Watson $2,000 for four bullets discovered in his luggage as he landed in the country in April, with the judge citing “exceptional circumstances” to avoid a potential minimum sentence of 12 years in prison. Watson would face 13 weeks imprisonment if he commits a crime in Turks and Caicos in the next nine months, the court said.<\/p>\n

Watson, a father of two from Oklahoma, was arrested on April 12 while returning with his wife from a trip to Turks and Caicos to celebrate several friends’ 40th birthdays.<\/p>\n

There is no constitutional right to carry firearms in Turks and Caicos. The country prohibits anyone from keeping, carrying, discharging or using an unlicensed firearm or ammunition.<\/p>\n

Watson speaking on GMA <\/em>recounted his experience in Turks and Caicos, saying he would like awake at night, worrying about what might happen if he were put in prison.<\/p>\n

“Like if things did go sideways, what my kids would look like when I did come out,” he said. “As a parent, that\u2019s just not an easy thing to think about.”<\/p>\n

He said his kids had been the first thing he thought of as he learned that he was facing more than a decade in prison if found guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur kids first I mean, first and foremost, I initially and instantly think our kids aren’t going to have parents,” he said on GMA<\/em>. “That was really hard to imagine.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABC News (NEW YORK) — As Ryan Watson, an American tourist who had been charged with bringing ammunition to Turks and Caicos in April, boarded a plane after his release, he had only one thought on his mind. “To know that I was on a plane headed home, that’s aRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106096"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106096\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}