An American tourist facing charges in Turks and Caicos Islands over ammunition found in his bag will have to wait another three weeks to learn what his sentence will be.
Pennsylvanian Bryan Hagerich and his wife, Ashley, appeared in a Providenciales court Friday. He's one of several Americans arrested under the Caribbean territory's strict guns and ammunition law, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence to 12 years and has prompted new travel warnings from state officials.
NBC10 Boston was the first to break the story, which is now making international headlines.
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Hagerich was arrested Feb. 13 while heading home from vacation with his family on charges he had ammunition — rounds from a previous hunting trip that he says he'd mistakenly brought with him. He spent eight days in prison before posting bail.
He's pleaded guilty to possession of 20 rounds of ammunition. He faces anything from time served up to 12 years in prison — judges overseeing the cases can take into consideration exceptional circumstances.
After hearing arguments in court, the judge overseeing the case scheduled another hearing for later in May.
The one-time Florida Marlin draft pick lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and two kids, but hasn't been able to leave Turks and Caicos Islands while the case is pending.
Three other American tourists are facing a possible 12-year sentence on possession of ammunition charges.
Michal Evans, of Texas, was arrested in December and has a sentencing hearing June 18.
Oklahoman Ryan Watson was arrested last month and will be back in court June 7. The Transportation Safety Administration has admitted it failed to detect bullets in Watson's bag when he boarded a plane in Oklahoma April 7. The agency was not monitoring Hagerich's case.
Tyler Wenrich of Virginia was charged two weeks ago, when he was trying to reboard his cruise ship. He was released from prison Friday after his family posted bail money.
The mother of another American who spent eight months in prison for violating the Turks and Caicos Islands guns and ammunition law, Michael Grim, told NBC10 Boston she thought U.S. embassy officials mishandled handled his case and communications with her, including delayed, incomplete and sometimes inaccurate responses from the embassy to her weekly emails.
Pfau said she relied on the U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas for help, but had trouble getting basic information from the staff, and that no one from the U.S. Embassy visited her son while he was held at His Majesty's Prison (HMP) on the Grand Turk Island, which local Turks and Caicos media outlets have reported was found not fit for human habitation and in breach of international human rights standards by the TCI Human Rights Commission.
Pfau said she included the head of the U.S. Embassy, Usha Pitts, on an email to embassy staff requesting information about her son's condition. She shared the following email response from Pitts with NBC10 Boston:
Please remove me from your emails. I do not involve myself in ongoing health-and-welfare cases, and I did not give you my email address. Nor will I provide you with details of my interactions with the Governor, which are not driven solely by Michael's case, but rather a broad range of security topics. Regarding Embassy services, I ask that you restrict your communications to the team in charge of American Citizens (Jessica and Lance). I am confident they are giving your son the same high-level service they provide to all American citizens traveling in the archipelago – over 6 million of them every year.
Pfau said the email left her feeling "very defeated, that the U.S. Embassy was not going to keep my son at the forefront of their conversations with the government."
When we asked Pitts about the email, she referred us to the U.S. State Department for comment.
"We apologize to the Grim family for the tone and substance of the emails. They were not in accordance with the high priority we place on care for Americans abroad," a State Department spokesperson said. "The U.S. Department of State and our embassies and consulates abroad have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. As permitted by law, we make every effort to share information with families in as timely a manner as possible."
The spokesperson added that whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, they seek immediate access to the individual.
