An Athens man who was jailed during a vacation in Jamaica this week is expected to return home Friday, his wife said.
Steven Carter, 26, a pastor at the Church at Southside near Athens, spent two nights in jail, fearing that he could face several years in prison on a terrorism charge. But a judge freed him from jail at an 11 a.m. hearing Thursday, said Erin Carter, his wife.
"We have to wait 24 hours and then we can come home," she said in a brief telephone interview from the jail Thursday.
The couple had traveled to Jamaica to vacation at a resort in Montego Bay. While trying to depart at the airport Tuesday, they were stopped by an inspector who found a .22-caliber bullet in Steven Carter's bag, said a friend, Jeff Williams.
Williams said Carter was detained and was facing terrorism and ammunition charges. The terrorism charge might have brought at least seven years in prison, Williams said. He said Carter had relayed through his wife that he hadn't fire a gun since his squirrel-hunting days as a child and that he'd owned the bag at least that long. Williams said Carter didn't know how the ammunition had gotten into the bag.
U.S. Sen Johnny Isakson worked to help the Carters, but it's unclear what led to Thursday's decision.
A reporter in Jamaica, Rohan Powell of Radio Jamaica, told the AJC that the hearing resulted in the granting of release on bail.
"He has been offered bail in the sum of 250,000 Jamaican dollars," Powell said. That is equivalent to about $3,000.
But Erin Carter said the $3,000 was actually a "fine."
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