Fla. Grandmother Sharitta Grier Returns Home After Turks and Caicos Ammo Arrest: 'God Is Still Good'

Sharitta Grier has returned home following her May arrest in Turks and Caicos for having ammunition in her bag when traveling back to the U.S.

Grier returned home to Florida on Thursday, July 11, after being given a 23-week suspended sentence and fined $1,500, per CBS News.

According to the outlet, the mother and grandmother was away for a surprise Mother’s Day vacation with her daughter when airport security at Howard Hamilton International Airport found two bullets in her carry-on bag.

She pleaded guilty to one count of possession of ammunition, ABC News reported. Grier was released on $15,000 bail following her arrest, but she was ordered to remain on the island until her case had been completed.

Grier returned to Orlando International Airport on Thursday evening, where she was greeted by family and friends, per ABC7 Los Angeles.

“I’m just excited about everything, ready to get back home to my family and my grandkids,” Grier said after her sentencing hearing on Thursday, per CBS News.

“It’s been a long time coming, but, you know, God is still good. I’ve seen the hand of God move during this whole journey, so I’m satisfied,” she added.

Grier previously told Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV that she didn’t realize she had the ammunition in her luggage and was told the “serious” charge and could see her be handed a mandatory 12-year prison sentence.

When asked how the bullets wound up in her duffle bag, she said that she stores the ammunition away from her grandchildren when they visit and it must have somehow fallen into her luggage when moving items around.

“Only thing that I can think of was me putting it up in the top of my closet, the ammunition fell out the box inside of the, out the box inside of the suitcase, I’m gonna say carry-on and fell up under that flap in the carry-on,” she previously recalled, per CBS News.

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“It was no way for me to see it. I couldn’t just open the bag and see it in the bottom,” she added. “I would have to pull that whole flap out the bottom of that suitcase to see it. It was impossible for me to see it, hear it or anything in that bag.”

The mother and grandmother added that she found the process and possibility of a prison sentence “mentally draining,” but was hopeful that she would not be given any jail time.

Grier is one of several Americans to have been arrested for carrying ammunition in their bag while returning from the destination since February.

Tyler Wenrich was arrested in April for bringing hunting ammo to the island and returned home to Virginia in May, PEOPLE previously reported. Bryan Hagerich was arrested in February after ammunition was found in his luggage. He was held in Turks and Caicos for three months before being released in May upon his court case’s completion.

Ryan and Valerie Watson were also detained in April for after hunting ammunition was found in Ryan’s luggage. Valerie’s charges were dropped two weeks later and she was able to return home to Oklahoma, with Ryan later returning in late June, per Fox News.