Two boyfriends who violated the 14-day quarantine for those arriving in the Cayman were sentenced to 4 months in prison. It is the first sentence of its kind linked to anti Covid measures
They have violated the strict anti Covid measures and they were sentenced to four months in prison. Skylar Mack, 18 of Georgia, and Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, of the Cayman Islands, have been in jail since the sentence was passed in the Caymans on Tuesday. The two are engaged and have pleaded guilty to violating the rules but their lawyer intends to appeal following the sentence. Jonathon Hughes, the lawyer who defends the two young men, will argue for a less severe sentence next week. Asked by the Associated Press he said: “They are two young people who they have never had any problems before. This is the first time they have dealt with the police, the courts, the prison ”. Mack is enrolled at Mercer University at Macon in Georgia: he arrived in the Caymans on November 27 and was expected to remain in quarantine for two weeks as required by the government which electronically tracks anyone who arrives in the British Caribbean. However, the young woman stopped quarantine on November 29 when her boyfriend went to pick her up to attend a water sports event.
First sentence of this type linked to anti Covid regulations
After their arrest a judge ruled that the couple it was supposed to provide 40 hours of community service and pay a $ 4,400 fine. Ramgeet was also ordered a two-month curfew which would begin at 7pm. But the prosecution appealed arguing that the punishment was unduly lenient and would not discourage other possible offenders from breaching the quarantine. A higher court therefore decided in favor of the prosecutors, establishing that the couple would be jailed from 15 December. Judge Roger Chapple said during the ruling, as reported by Cayman Compass, that the decision to violate security measures was born of “selfishness and arrogance” adding that Mack would spend seven hours in public without a mask or social distancing.
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“This was entirely deliberate and planned, as yours shows desire to change her bracelet the day before with a larger one that she was then able to remove, ”she said, referring to electronic tracking device. This is the first sentence of its kind: before being tightened, the law provided for a fine of 2,400 dollars and up to six months in prison, while the recently amended one provides for a fine of 12 thousand dollars and up to two years in prison. Now the young woman’s family is worried: “She is in prison in a foreign country alone.” The girl’s grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told the AP she contacted the US president Donald Trump and received an email from a staff member saying the White House would look into the matter. “In her calls from prison, the moment she starts talking, she starts crying,” she said. “She is afraid that once she returns to the United States, everyone will hate her.” In the Caymans, over 300 cases of Covid have been reported in one population of 62,000 people, and 2 deaths.
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