A friend of a US lawyer cleared of gun charges by a jury has questioned why the case had to go to Supreme Court.

Gary Barket faced a minimum mandatory jail sentence of ten years if he had been convicted of importing two guns found in his luggage. The 61-year-old from Little Rock, Arkansas, was caught with the weapons in a garment bag intended for the hold luggage of a plane he was catching out of Bermuda in January after a business meeting.

He was acquitted at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, after a jury accepted his explanation that he had hidden he guns in the bag at his home months before for safekeeping, then forgot they were there.

The eight women and four men cleared his name by a unanimous verdict after 15 minutes of deliberation, having decided that they did not even need the Chief Justice to sum up the evidence for them. The decision to send the case to Supreme Court, where the mandatory minimum sentence would have applied, was made by Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field.

The Royal Gazette understands that this was despite requests by Mr. Barket's legal team from Mello Jones and Martin that it be dealt with at the Magistrates' Court, where there is no such mandatory punishment upon conviction.

Following the case, Mr. Barket's friend and supporter Roger Easterday, from Las Vegas, Nevada, e-mailed this newspaper to criticise what he described as "the prosecutor's lack of the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in bringing a felony charge with a mandatory ten year minimum sentence against Mr. Barket, rather than a misdemeanour charge in Magistrates' Court, given the facts of the case".

According to Mr. Easterday: "That decision has cost Mr. Barket nearly five months out of his life while stranded in Bermuda away from his family and friends, the heavy expense of mounting a defence, and loss of his livelihood as a lawyer, not to mention the emotional anguish he suffered."

He further complained: "Unfortunately, the Crown's prosecutor in Bermuda does not face the voters as District Attorneys or Attorneys General do in the United States. He faces no accountability as I understand it."

It remains unclear whether Mr. Barket's guns were identified by security checks on his journey to the Island from Little Rock National Airport via Newark Airport in New Jersey. However, the case heard evidence that it is legal to transport unloaded weapons in hold luggage in the US — although they are supposed to be carried in a secure box and declared at check-in.

During the trial, Mr. Barket's lawyer Saul Froomkin said that while those who bring guns into Bermuda are rightly dealt with seriously, he struggled to understand why someone would be prosecuted for taking them out of the Island. However, Mr. Field last night defended the decision to put the case before a jury as an indictable offence at Supreme Court instead of as a lesser summary offence at Magistrates' Court.

"The case could have been dealt with summarily. A decision was made after review of the circumstances of the case that it should be dealt with on indictment," he said. "Mr. Barket was found with guns and ammunition in his luggage. He claimed he forgot they were there. Possession of guns is a serious matter and against the law of Bermuda. In these circumstances there was a case to answer in court."

Mr. Barket, who flew home to Arkansas yesterday, could not be contacted and Mr. Froomkin declined to comment.