A Georgia college student and her boyfriend are facing four months behind bars after violating strict COVID-19 quarantine restrictions in the Cayman Islands.
Skylar Mack, 18, arrived in the Cayman Islands on Nov. 27 and was required to quarantine for two weeks before interacting with others in the country, but two days after arriving, she snuck out to see her 24-year-old boyfriend Vanjae Ramgeet, a resident of the Cayman Islands and professional watercraft racer, compete in a Jet Ski event.
In order to leave her in-residence quarantine, Mack slipped out of a geofencing wristband used by officials to monitor her location during quarantine, the Cayman Compass reported. She reportedly switched her wristband to a looser one the prior day, making the device easier to remove.
Both she and Ramgeet are accused of interacting with others at the event for about seven hours while not practicing social distancing or wearing masks, according to People. Mack was later detained at the scene of the contest, which Ramgeet won.
“Anyone wishing to enter the islands is required to quarantine in an approved facility, or at residence using monitoring technology … Breaches of quarantine may result in prosecution and penalties of up to $10,000 KYD [approximately $12,195 USD] and two years’ imprisonment,” the Cayman Islands government said in a statement about the matter.
The two pleaded guilty to the offense and were initially sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a $2,600 fine, although the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the sentence, claiming it was too lenient. The judge, Grand Court Justice Roger Chapple, agreed and increased the sentence to four months in jail on Tuesday.
Chapple ruled that “the gravity of the breach was such that the only appropriate sentence would have been one of immediate imprisonment” and said that Mack’s violation was “entirely deliberate and planned, as evidenced by her desire to switch her wristband the day before” to one she could remove.
Jonathan Hughes, an attorney representing the couple, said they are filing an appeal to the harsher sentence.
“There is no way that it can be right that a custodial sentence is imposed for a first-time offense on an 18-year-old defendant, who entered an early guilty plea,” he said.
“Ms. Mack has paid her fine in full from her savings, which resulted in a significant portion of her funds being depleted,” Hughes told the court. “She has received hate mail, so far as to say even death threats. This has even impacted her father, who is also a professional Jet Ski rider and has now lost sponsorship because of it.”
The duo is reportedly the first people to be sentenced under the Cayman Islands’s COVID-19 regulations that include penalties of up to two years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.
Mack’s grandmother, Jeanne Mack, told ABC’s Good Morning America that Chapple’s sentence was too extreme and said that her granddaughter tested negative for COVID-19 regardless.
“Skylar is the last person we thought something like this would happen to, and the fact that this can happen to a kid like her is scary,” Jeanne Mack said. “Four months for breaching isolation when you are negative — why did she have to be the example?”
