Florida couple found guilty of having sex on beach in front of families
A Florida couple faces up to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of having sex on a beach in public.
Jose Caballero, 40, and Elissa Alvarez, 20, were found guilty on two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior on Monday after the couple had been spotted having sex in public on Bradenton Beach near Tampa, Fla. on July 20, 2014.
Video played during the trial showing Alvarez moving on top of Caballero in a sexual manner in the middle of the day, according to the Bradenton Herald. Witnesses said that a 3-year-old girl had seen the couple engaging in the sexual activity.
Caballero and Alvarez will now be required to register as sex offenders. After the trial ended, family members expressed their support of the couple.
"He's a great person," Caballero's mother told the Bradenton Herald, declining to give her name. "There are other things out there we need to worry about, and they're still loose, people who have done worse stuff."
"She's an 18-year-old woman, with a 40-year-old man," Carlos Alvarez, Elissa Alvarez's father, told Bradenton Herald. "I always say women can be better than men...but they fall in love, and they make a lot of mistakes."
The defense argued that the couple weren't actually having sex but that Alvarez had been dancing on top of Caballero or "nudging" him to wake up. The prosecution struck down the claim that the Alvarez had been dancing on top of Caballero.
"She wasn't dancing," Assistant State Attorney Anthony Dafonseca said. "It's insulting your intelligence to say that she was dancing."
"Did they try to cuddle, or do it discreetly? Did they go in the water, where people couldn't see?" state attorney Ed Brodsky asked the jury. "Did Ms. Alvarez try to drape a towel over herself, or anything? They didn't care."
A sentencing date has yet to be announced. According to the ABC Action News, the convictions carry a sentence of up to 15 years.
