Athens man returns to Georgia after jail scare
The Athens man who was jailed in Jamaica when airport officials found a bullet in his bag was released and flew back to Georgia on Friday.
Steven Carter, 26, a married father of a baby girl, spent two frightening nights in a foreign jail after he was arrested on a terrorism charge. A judge freed him after a hearing Thursday, imposing a payment of $3,000. He had to wait 24 hours before he could leave the country, and wasted no time Friday, hopping onto a Delta Air Lines flight with his wife as soon as he could.
"It was very scary," said a tired-sounding, but elated, Carter around 6 p.m. Friday, just after he landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. He said there were "lots of intimidating times" while he shared an open jail cell with hundreds of other men.
Carter told his wife, Erin, that he didn't know how the ammunition got into his bag. She was with him on their Jamaican vacation and was a crucial link to the outside world, calling friends, family, officials and reporters back in Georgia. She told Athens Pastor Jeff Williams that Carter hadn't fired a gun since his squirrel-hunting days as a child and that he'd owned the bag in which the bullet was found at least that long.
Williams, the pastor at an Athens church where Steven Carter preaches, has told the AJC that Carter faced a minimum of seven years in a Jamaican prison had he been convicted on the terrorism charge. Williams said Erin Carter told him that she was told to pay the jail guards if she wanted to ensure that her husband received food and water.
The incident reached Congress. Steven Carter said Sen. Johnny Isakson and Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah helped gain his release.
Carter said the judge in his case offered him a choice between paying a fine or more time behind bars.
"I had a choice between a fine or six months imprisonment," he said, "so I obviously took the fine."
The jailing followed a stay at a resort in Montego Bay. The Carters had gone there to relax, leaving their infant daughter, Delaney, back in Georgia with family.
A contingent of sign-waving members of Carter's church, The Church at Southside in Athens, met the couple at Hartsfield. Family members bearing baby Delaney were there, too, for an emotional greeting that Carter said was overwhelming.
About the Author
Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.
