Story at a glance
- Skylar Mack and her boyfriend were sentenced last week to four months in prison for flouting the Cayman Islands’s required quarantine period for visitors.
- But a panel of judges from the British territory on Tuesday reduced the sentence from four months to two months after Mack’s lawyer appealed the ruling and argued for a more lenient punishment.
- The two were the first to receive a sentence under the government’s strict coronavirus restrictions.
An 18-year-old college student from Georgia who is jailed in the Cayman Islands for violating coronavirus quarantine rules has had her sentence reduced.
Skylar Mack and her boyfriend Vanjae Ramgeet, a professional jet-ski racer from the Cayman Islands, were sentenced last week to four months in prison for flouting the Cayman Islands’s required quarantine period for visitors.
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But a panel of judges from the British territory on Tuesday reduced the sentence from four months to two months after Mack’s lawyer appealed the ruling and argued for a more lenient punishment.
“Whilst it was our hope that Skylar would be able to return home to resume her studies in January, we accept the decision of the court and look forward to receiving its written reasons in due course,” lawyer Jonathon Hughes said in a statement.
Ahead of the hearing, Mack’s grandmother pleaded for an early release and even called on the Trump administration to intervene.
“She cries, she wants to come home,” Jeanne Mack said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday. “She knows she made a mistake. She owns up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now.”
Mack, a pre-med student at Mercer University in Atlanta, was required to undergo a minimum 14-day quarantine following her arrival in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 27. Two days later, she removed a bracelet that allows the government to electronically track the location of those under quarantine orders after testing negative for COVID-19 and left her residence to watch Ramgeet compete in a jet ski event.
The court noted that Mack complained her wristband was too tight and government officials adjusted it, allowing her to later slip it off.
Both Mack and Ramgeet reportedly spent seven hours mingling with the public without social distancing or masks. The two were detained by police at the scene and placed in a government quarantine facility for a two-week quarantine.
Mack was charged with leaving her home during the quarantine period while Ramgeet was charged with aiding and abetting her.
Following their arrest, a judge initially said they were only required to carry out 40 hours of community service and pay a fine of $4,400, but the prosecution appealed that ruling, saying the punishment was too lenient.
A higher court later decided in favor of prosecutors and ordered the two be imprisoned.
The two were the first to receive a sentence under the government’s strict coronavirus restrictions. Under the rules, violators can be fined up to $10,000 and sentenced to up to two years in prison.
The Cayman Islands, made up of about 64,000 people, has more than 300 COVID-19 cases and two deaths.
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