One of the men, Ryan Tyler Watson, of Oklahoma, went to the Turks and Caicos with his wife and other couples to celebrate several people’s 40th birthdays, his sister, Jessica Byrd, said on a GoFundMe page she set up to raise money for his legal defense.As Watson and his wife were heading home in April, airport security found four rounds of ammunition that had been unknowingly left in a duffel bag from a deer hunting trip, according to the page. Watson’s wife, Valerie, was released and returned home. He made bail, but remains on the islands, with a hearing scheduled for June.
The Turks and Caicos government has identified the three other men as: Michael Lee Evans, 72, of Texas; Bryan Hagerich, of Pennsylvania; and Tyler Scott Wenrich, 31, of Virginia.
Evans had a court hearing in April and has pleaded guilty to possessing seven 9mm rounds of ammunition, and Hagerich pleaded guilty to possessing 20 rounds of rifle ammunition and was scheduled to be back in court on May 3, according to an April 26 news release from the Communications Directorate. The release said Evans and Hagerich were also on bail.
The fifth American, Sharitta Shanise Grier, 45, of Orlando, Florida, was arrested Monday during a routine search at the airport, the Royal Turks and Caicos Island Police said in a news release posted to X on Thursday. She was charged with one count of possession of ammunition and was due back in court in July, the release said.
Comments