Arrests of US tourists in Turks and Caicos for carrying ammunition prompt plea from three governors

Five Americans are facing prison sentences of up to 12 years in the Turks and Caicos Islands on charges they illegally carried ammunition during recent trips to the popular, upscale tourist destination about 600 miles southeast of Miami. In a letter Tuesday to the islands’ governor, they said the three men charged from their states maintained they inadvertently took ammunition with them on vacation. 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. In gun and ammunition cases, courts have sentencing discretion for “exceptional circumstances,” but they cannot limit punishment to a fine with no prison term, the country’s Court of Appeal ruled in February.