Georgia college student sentenced to 4 months in prison for breaking Cayman Islands' Covid-19 protocol
An 18-year-old college student from Georgia has been sentenced to
four months in prison in the Cayman Islands after breaking the British Caribbean territory's Covid-19 protocol while visiting her boyfriend for a jet skiing competition, according to her family.
Skylar Mack, a pre-med student at Mercer University, left for the Islands November 27 after testing negative for Covid-19 at home, her grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told CNN.
When Mack landed, she was given another Covid-19 test, which came back negative and she was told to remain in isolation for two weeks. Instead, she decided to attend her boyfriend's jet ski competition two days later.
"In her mind, as long as she stayed away from everybody, she would be OK to go watch her friend's race, it was their big national finals race, the last race of the year, big deal," her grandmother said.
Race attendees, who knew Mack, reported her breach of isolation and officials arrested her.
According to her grandmother, Mack acknowledged in court that she had "screwed up." She was initially sentenced to 40 hours of community service and ordered to pay a fine to cover her mandatory quarantine accommodation.
According to the section about tourists' isolating upon arrival in the Cayman Islands' Covid-19 regulations, a "person who contravenes this regulation commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of ten thousand dollars and to imprisonment for two years."
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The Cayman Compass newspaper reported that the deputy director of public prosecutions of the Cayman Islands, Patrick Moran, then appealed the original sentence.
"These offences should have been met with far more stringent measures," Moran reportedly told the judge. "When it comes to a matter of deterrence, the sentences imposed are likely to have little to no effect on other like-minded individuals."
According to the Cayman Compass, Justice Roger Chapple heard the appeal in Grand Court on Monday and delivered the revised sentence Tuesday morning. He reportedly stated that he understood the need for a balancing act, but found that "the gravity of the breach was such that the only appropriate sentence would have been one of immediate imprisonment."
Jonathon Hughes, Cayman Islands attorney for Skylar Mack and Vanjae Ramgeet, confirmed to CNN that the couple had both pleaded guilty to breaching quarantine rules and been given four-month custodial sentences. Hughes said he plans to argue for a less severe sentence next week.
"We expect the appeal to be heard by the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal on Tuesday morning," he said.
Mack's grandmother told CNN that officials called Mack's actions premeditated, as she had called the public health department to have the location tracker bracelet loosened the day before her breach. But her family says Mack sent them pictures of the bracelet cutting into her skin.
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