A former combat Marine says he shouldn't be languishing in a Tijuana jail for crossing the Mexican border with three guns, because it was all a mistake: He was heading for a night out with his buddies in California, missed the last highway exit, and ended up Mexico-bound.

Via Stars and Stripes:

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, said he was headed to dinner in San Ysidro on March 31 when he mistakenly wound up at a border crossing point in Tijuana, U-T San Diego reported Sunday.

"I was going to call them after I drove off the exit, but I never got off the exit, I blew right past it," he told the newspaper in an interview from jail. "I wasn't paying attention, thinking I had way farther to go. I ended up in Mexico with no way to turn around."

Agents at the border found three guns in the vehicle, which he'd just driven from Florida to California to make a "new start," he said. The four-year Marine vet—who served twice in Afghanistan, where the photo above was taken—is being held without bail and faces up to 21 years in a Mexican prison.

U.S. officials are trying to get him released, but Tahmooressi might not be able to wait, judging from this detail:

After he was jailed, Tahmooressi tried to escape by climbing over a gate and heading up onto a roof, and then onto another one. He gave up when a guard opened fire, but the incident earned him the nickname "Spider-Man."

Semper fi, Spider-Man. Semper fi.

[Photo credit: DOD]