An American was sentenced on Thursday by a judge in Turks and Caicos. They are the fifth American to be caught there since the beginning of the year for having guns in their luggage.
Sharitta Grier, a mother and grandmother from Florida who is 45 years old, got a 23-week suspended term and has to pay a $1,500 fine. She should get back to her home in Florida on Thursday night.
“I was shocked. I was shocked. “I couldn’t believe it,” Grier told Wilkie Arthur of Magnetic Media, a local news reporter, after her sentencing hearing. She also said she was “afraid” she would get the required 12-year sentence for tourists caught with guns on the islands.
Because of the same crime, five Americans have been held on the islands since February. They are Bryan Hagerich, 39, of Pennsylvania; Ryan Watson, 40, of Oklahoma; Tyler Wenrich, 31, of Virginia; and Michael Lee Evans, 72, of Texas.
When Grier gets back to Florida, the first thing she plans to do is hug her grandchildren “and eat some soul food.”
When the five Americans were coming home from the islands, security found guns in all of their bags. Now, all five of them can go home because their sentences were halted and they had to pay fines.
Grier was caught in May for having bullet holes in the inside of her bag. This was after she bought a gun to protect herself. In May, she told Fox News Digital that her brother owns a store that she sometimes lets close late at night and that she wanted a gun in case of an emergency.
“I have no plans to hurt anyone or anything. I’m scared of it too. “It’s not something to mess around with,” Grier said, adding that she “had no other reason” to have a gun besides to keep herself safe while she closed her brother’s store.
She also said she had never fired a gun before.
Grier stayed with Watson and Hagerich in a rental home for a short time after she was arrested.
The three people talked to Fox News Digital together through Zoom and talked about how they had become friends while they were on the islands waiting for justice.
At the time, Watson told Grier, “It was important for her to have a room.” “It breaks my heart to hear her story and see what she went through, like being tied to a chair and having to sleep on the floor. We also wanted to make sure she had a safe place to sleep with a nice, soft bed and some privacy. And there was no doubt that bringing Sharitta into the picture was a good thing because we’re all here to help each other. It’s turned into a big family.
