One of two U.S. Baptist missionaries still held on kidnapping charges in Haiti was released Monday, but the group's leader remained in custody, the Associated Press reports.
Charisa Coulter was taken from her jail cell to the airport by U.S. Embassy staff more than a month after she and nine other Americans were arrested for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after the earthquake.
Coulter, wearing a red tank top and sunglasses, declined comment as she quickly got into an SUV that took her to the airport.
Defense attorney Louis Ricardo Chachoute said she was released because there was no evidence to support the charges of kidnapping and criminal association. He predicted Laura Silsby, the leader of the Idaho-based missionary group, would be released soon as well.
"There are no prosecution witnesses to substantiate anything," Chachoute said.
Coulter, of Boise, Idaho, is a diabetic, and had medical difficulties during her confinement. She was treated at least once on Feb. 1 by American doctors after collapsing with what she said was either severe dehydration or the flu.
Silsby, the leader of the Idaho-based missionaries, was in another part of the city — in a closed hearing before the judge who had previously said he expected to release the two Americans.
Associated Press photo of Laura Silsby