American missionary expelled from Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- An American Protestant missionary was expelled from Haiti Monday following a conviction for illegally importing arms.

James Glenn White, 47, was arrested May 9 while waiting for a shipment from the United States. Police said they found an AR-15 assault rifle, a pistol and a machine to make bullets in a refrigerator that White was to pick up that day.

White -- who ran Sharing the Vision, an independent mission in north-coast Cap-Haitien -- pleaded innocent Thursday in court, saying he had told police before the shipment arrived it would contain weapons belonging to a friend who was planning to join his mission.

He said police told him he should apply for a permit after the shipment arrived.

But a judge found White guilty Thursday, ordering him to pay a fine of $1,000 and leave the Caribbean country. White had faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

White and his wife, Theresa, left Monday afternoon for Miami and plan to spend several weeks in Florida before deciding what to do next.

White, originally from New Castle, Ind., had lived in Haiti for seven years. He said Monday that he didn't know why his friend sent him the weapons, which came in a shipment of the man's personal belongings.