American teenager prison In the Cayman Islands for violating it Covid-19 Her lawyer said on Tuesday that the restrictions will only remain for two months behind bars. Skyler Mac, a 21-year-old college student, was arrested on November 29 after breaking the quarantine for attending a surfing competition with her boyfriend.
Mac and her boyfriend, Vangay Ramjeet, were originally sentenced to four months in prison, but the sentence was reduced to two months in appeals court Tuesday, attorney Jonathan Hughes told CBS News.
Hughes said the appeals court agreed that the four-month prison sentence was “inappropriate” given the circumstances of the case. “While we hoped that Skyler would be able to return home to resume her studies in January, we accept the court’s decision and look forward to receiving her written reasons in a timely manner,” Hughes said in a statement.
Mac, a pre-medical student at Mercer University in Georgia, flew to Grand Cayman on November 27. Hughes said she was ordered to be quarantined for 14 days and was given a smart wrist and cell phone to track her movements. Mac signed a document agreeing not to leave her isolation without permission and not to take off her wrist.
Two days later, she is spotted in a surfing competition with Ramjet, who is a resident of the Cayman Islands. Mac was not seen wearing her wrist and they were reported to local police and taken to a mandatory quarantine facility.
Hughes said that on December 4, Mac was accused of leaving her home during the mandatory quarantine period and directed that Ramgate aide and abet her. Later that day, they were both awarded 40 hours of community service and a fine of $ 2,600 each.
Prosecutors appealed the ruling, describing it as lenient. The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands agreed, and the young couple was re-sentenced to four months in prison. Since she had already spent one week, she should be released in about 4 weeks, Hughes said.
Judge Roger Chapple explained his decision at a hearing on December 15th. “This was a breach as blatant as you can imagine; it was a result of selfishness and arrogance,” Chapple said. Cayman compass Newspaper. “This was completely intentional and planned, as evidenced by her desire to switch her wrist the day before to a looser bracelet that she then managed to remove.”
Her family condemned the four-month prison sentence, saying she was being unfairly treated and calling on the Trump administration to intervene. Her father, Dennis Mack, said he did not know why someone had taken “personal revenge” against his daughter. “We’re kind of at the mercy of another country,” he said. CBS Affiliate WGCL.
Cayman Islands has it mentioned 316 cases of coronavirus infection. More than 280 patients have recovered, while two residents have died.