A Florida couple was found guilty on Monday of having sex on a public beach in front of families - including a 3-year-old child.
It took the Manatee County jury about 15 minutes to find 20-year-old Elissa Alvarez and her 40-year-old boyfriend Jose Caballero guilty of lewd and lascivious exhibition.
Video played in the courtroom showed Alvarez moving on top of Caballero in a sexual manner in broad daylight while several other families spent the day on the beach on July 20, 2014.
Both Caballero and Alvarez will now have to register as sex offenders, and face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Assistant State Attorney Anthony Dafonseca said that they will pursue a harsher punishment for Caballero, since he committed the crime less than three years after being released from jail for another felony offense.
Caballero spent eight years in prison for cocaine trafficking, while his girlfriend has no criminal record.
A sentencing hearing has not yet been announced.
Throughout the case, the couple maintained that they were not having sex.
Family members, a Bradenton Beach Police Officer and even Caballero testified in court that Alvarez was just dancing on top of him, 'nudging' to keep him awake, and not actually engaging in intercourse.
'He's a great person,' Caballero's mother said outside of court on Monday. 'There are other things out there we need to worry about, and they're still loose, people who have done worse stuff.'
The couple's defence attorney Ronald Kurpiers told the Bradenton Herald that the couple are 'devastated' by the decision.
Dafonseca said that the harsh punishment for the two is to set an example that their behaviour will not be tolerated on the county's public beaches.
'We're dealing with basically tourists, that came from Brandon and Riverview and West Virginia, and they're here on the beaches of Manatee County, our public beaches,' Dafonseca said. 'So you want to make sure that this isn't something that just goes by the wayside. And that it is well known to the community, what will be tolerated and what won't be.'
