*Skylar Mack was sentenced to prison in the Cayman Islands for breaking COVID isolation protocols. Now her family is pleading with President Donald Trump and the U.S. government for help.
The 18-year-old college student faces a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to breaking the Cayman Islands’ mandatory 14-day Covid-19 isolation for visitors.
Here’s more from NBC.com:
Skylar is a pre-med student from Georgia. She traveled to visit her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, who was in the Cayman Islands for a jet-skiing competition.
Mack did not isolate for the mandatory 14 days.
Instead, Mack said she isolated for two days and tested negative twice for coronavirus before abandoning her tracking device and leaving isolation to attend her boyfriend’s jet-skiing competition.
Mack, an American, was sentenced to prison last week.
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A US teen is facing a four-month prison sentence in the Cayman Islands for violating the territory’s COVID-19 quarantine protocols for visitors https://t.co/zY7ozQIpN0
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) December 21, 2020
“She just wants to come home,” Mack’s grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told the “Today” show on Monday. “She knows she made a mistake, she owns to up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now.”
Jonathon Hughes, the attorney representing Mack and her boyfriend, said prison would have “a particularly harsh effect on her.”
“They’re two young people who have never been in trouble before,” he said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “This is the first time they’ve had interaction with police, the courts, prison.”
BREAKING: The sentence for Skylar Mack and Vanjae Ramgeet has been reduced from four months to two months in jail. More details to follow…#caymanislands #skylarmack pic.twitter.com/zqUbLwxgAY
— Cayman Compass (@cayCompass) December 22, 2020
Initially, Mack and Ramgeet were each ordered to pay a $2,600 fine and serve 40 hours of community service. The Cayman Islands’ Director of Public Prosecutions Patrick Moran appealed the sentence because he believed the offenses “should have been met with far more stringent measures,” according to the Cayman Compass, per The Sun.
Her family has appealed directly to Trump, whose office said the case would be forwarded to the “appropriate” federal agency, likely the U.S. State Department, per the NBC News report.
The president’s son, Eric Trump said her incarceration is “infuriating.”
“This is infuriating. Skylar is an 18 year old girl who left her hotel to watch her boyfriend compete in a jet ski competition… 4 months in jail?!” he tweeted. Adding the hashtag of “FreeSkylar.”
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