DENVER - A Colorado School of Mines student is finally back in Colorado after spending the better part of the last six months in solitary confinement inside a pair of Japanese jails.
Twenty-six-year-old Tim Wilson looked exhausted as he walked into the main terminal at Denver International Airport on Wednesday, just days after securing release from a Japanese legal system that is well known for its tough anti-drug stance.
"Eventually it started feeling like it was never going to end," Wilson said in his first media interview since his arrest in Japan in August of last year.
Wilson was an exchange student at the time, studying at Tohuku University in Sendai.
It was during the spring of last year when a friend in Colorado mailed, among other things, three cookies and four pieces of candy infused with marijuana. The package never made it to Wilson's apartment in Japan, as it was flagged by officials at Japanese customs.
In August, Japanese authorities arrested Wilson.
"Right from the beginning, my first lawyer said he thought there would be no trial, just a 20-day investigation. At the end there would be no indictment and I'd be released without any charges," Wilson said on Wednesday.
Six months later, a Japanese court decided to hand down a suspended sentence and allowed Wilson to go free.
He still can't believe just how many people back in the United States worked to get him out of jail. His parents contacted Rep. Ed. Perlmutter (D-Colorado) and his office to see if something could be done on a diplomatic level. They also contacted lawyers both in Colorado and Japan seeking advice.
Officials from Perlmutter's office were also at DIA to welcome Wilson home.
"I wouldn't know where to begin with trying to repay all of the people who helped me," Wilson said.
He spent most of his time in two detention facilities in the Sendai area.
"On weekdays, you'd get up and have breakfast around 8, then it was lunch at noon, dinner at 4, lights out at 9, and then up again at 8 the next morning," he said.
He says he never felt unsafe in any of the facilities and admitted to being quite bored.
"I tried to remember every song I had ever had in my head so I could provide my own soundtracks," he said.
He doesn't harbor any bad feelings for Japanese authorities. In fact, he says he deeply wants to return to Japan as soon as possible.
"I'm fascinated by the language. I'm fascinated by the history of the country," Wilson said. "I want to try as hard as I can to resume what was my goal was before, which was to live and work in Japan."
The nearly straight-A student says he'd like to pursue a career in theoretical chemistry, hinting he'd love to be a professor one day. He also says he doesn't blame the friend who sent the package.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)