Mom of US tourist, 26, jailed for eight months in Turks and Caicos on ammo charges lays bare horror of life inside vermin-infested prison where her son was taunted with death threats

An American tourist who was sentenced to eight months in a Turks and Caicos prison after ammunition was found in his luggage served his time in a squalid prison where he received death threats from other inmates, his family has revealed .

Michael Allan Grim, 26, of Indiana, was arrested in August 2023 after a 9mm magazine containing 20 rounds of ammunition was found by airport officials as he prepared to return to the US after a family vacation.

He faced a months-long legal nightmare before being ‘made an example of’ by the courts and jailed for an ‘honest mistake’. In prison, Michael was held alongside rapists and murderers serving life sentences.

Michael, who accidentally left the ammunition in his luggage, returned to the US in February after serving six months before his parole for good behavior.

His mother, Teresa Pfau, has now told DailyMail.com about the ordeal. She spoke out as several other American men are currently awaiting sentencing for the same crime after unintentionally bringing ammunition into Turks and Caicos.

Teresa, who supported her son through the legal process and visited him monthly in prison, said the experience “changed our lives” and she now tries to help the other families in similar positions.

‘Michael made a mistake, he was careless, he should have known he was missing [an ammo] clip or it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. He broke the law and took full responsibility for it as soon as he knew it,” she said.

The family was on their third holiday to Turks and Caicos, a British Overseas Territory where gun crimes carry stiff penalties, and were preparing for their return flight on August 1 when Michael was detained at the airport.

Teresa recalled that a few hours earlier the family was thinking about their vacation and said to each other, “We want to come back here, we love it.”

At the airport, a security announcement summoned Michael to the customs area for a random baggage check. His sister had been subjected to the checks during their previous visits and the family thought nothing of it.

Teresa said: ‘We were actually joking about it. We said, ‘Okay, who’s going to be called this time?’

‘While we were waiting I texted Michael because our flight was called and we were getting ready to board. He replied, “I’m probably not going to fly,” and I said, “You’re really funny.”

As the family waited for Michael, they quickly realized he was serious.

During the bag check, a customs officer found the magazine in his duffel bag. He was initially told to expect a fine and would likely be allowed to catch a return flight the next day, but after police were called to the airport he was arrested.

“That’s when we realized this was a nightmare,” Teresa said. ‘I was very angry with Michael. Gosh, we always have this discussion [about checking luggage].

“The night before we left, I said remember, and he’s just like Mom, of course, I know.”

Michael was initially held at a police station while his family looked for a lawyer. His mother and her husband, Michael’s stepfather, remained in Turks and Caicos while the rest of his family returned to the US.

Teresa said the magnitude of the situation dawned on her after a lawyer told her, “Your son is completely confused. This is a serious crime in this country. There is a minimum sentence of twelve years.’

‘I was just in total shock. I felt completely numb. I didn’t really cry, I just felt like there was a whole pit in my stomach,” she said.

Michael was charged with possession of ammunition and his family posted bail. For almost two months, he lived with his mother in a small apartment in the Turks and Caicos Islands while awaiting sentencing.

During his initial police interviews, Michael admitted the ammunition was his, but insisted he did not realize it was in the bag.

Court records show that the judge who sentenced Michael, the Honorable Judge Chris Selochan, refused to accept his guilty plea unless he changed the statement to say he knowingly brought the ammunition.

The argument – which meant Michael essentially had to lie – was one of several during the legal proceedings that left his family with a sense of injustice.

Michael’s lawyer demanded a fine as punishment, but he was ultimately sentenced to eight months in prison. The maximum sentence is usually twelve years, but the judge accepted that there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ in Michael’s case.

“I wasn’t angry, I was just devastated,” said Teresa, who attended all of her son’s hearings.

Michael works for a member of Congress in the US and handles firearms as part of his job. His mother believes his treatment by the court and his sentence may have been influenced by his career.

“At that moment we felt like Michael was being made an example of because of his work and what he did,” she added.

Michael served his sentence in HM Prison on Grand Turk, a filthy prison without running water. There are bars instead of windows and the prison is teeming with tropical diseases and vermin, including cockroaches.

He spent the first week in solitary confinement – ​​a “Covid measure” that meant he was isolated 23 hours a day in a small cell about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide.

After being admitted to the general population, where inmate crimes range from theft to murder, Michael was subjected to an extortion attempt by another inmate who said Michael would be killed unless he paid $20,000.

His family and lawyer reported the incident and Michael was transferred back to the trustee wing for well-behaved prisoners.

Teresa returned to the US after Michael was in prison, but visited her son once a month during his sentence.

“He looked very tired,” she said of the first visit. ‘He was very scattered. I’d say he was quite scared.”

She said her son was often “covered in mosquito bites” and that the prison was “unbearably hot.” “I was very concerned that he wouldn’t do well with this if there was violence,” Teresa said.

Michael did not reveal every detail of the ordeal to his mother during her visits and it was only after he returned home that she learned the true extent of the hellish conditions.

He lived in a cell with a person who shot two people in a nightclub, and in the adjacent cells were murderers and rapists.

Michael was eventually released in February and flew back to the US with his mother.

“It wasn’t until we were flying home in the air that I felt like I could just breathe,” Teresa added.

“It was definitely a life-changing experience.

‘He does not have [criminal] record, he has no speeding ticket, he has nothing.

‘I’m still in therapy for the trauma and stress associated with it. My whole body is so tense. My body is still in fight or flight mode.”

Teresa and her son now “hug a little harder” and say “I love you” more than they used to, she added.

“The hardest part is not knowing, not being able to help,” she said. ‘The communication was the most difficult part. Every step did not have the result we hoped for.’