A jury found Timothy Lee Wilson, 36, guilty of two counts of falsely imprisoning a child under the age of 13, three counts of aggravated violence against children with weapons, four counts of aggravated violence against children and one charge of neglect of children, and said in a statement the State Prosecutor’s Office.
The investigation revealed that the boy was kept away from his family in a hotel room used for storage, was regularly deprived of food and drink and was subjected to military-style training and other abuses, according to the report. Officers found numerous items used as weapons against the child, the statement added.
The 11-year-old boy and his family were at the Mrs. Potato in Orlando on January 1, 2021, when employee Flaviane Carvalho noticed that he was sitting alone with his parents and brother, deprived of food and drink and was bruised and scratched, CNN reported earlier.
Carvalho stood behind the boy’s parents and raised a note, asking the boy if he was okay. When the child nodded, she wrote a second note asking, “Do you need help?” She told a news conference.
After the boy nodded, Carvalho called his boss and then 911.
Wilson was arrested at the restaurant after police arrived and questioned the child, and the boy’s mother, Kristen Swan, was detained days later, Orlando investigators said.
Swan faces a number of allegations of abuse, including child neglect, aggravated abuse and refusing to report child abuse, according to records from the Orange County Secretary’s Office. She pleaded not guilty. CNN turned to Swan’s lawyer for comment.
Wilson will be convicted on August 19, 2022. CNN contacted his lawyer to comment on the sentence.
What the police found out after the arrest of the parents
When Swan and Wilson were arrested, another 4-year-old child was taken from the home and found not to have suffered any violence, according to Orlando Police Detective Erin Lawler at the time of the arrests. Lawler said the 11-year-old was Swan’s child and the 4-year-old was Swan and Wilson’s.
After Carvalho called 911, the boy was taken to hospital, where he was found to be 20 pounds under his age, according to Lawler, who added that the boy also had bruises at various stages of healing all over his body.
Investigators later found that the boy had been “tortured” and “maliciously punished”, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the boy was hanged upside down on his neck and legs and once handcuffed to a wheelchair.
“What this child went through was torture,” Lawler said. “I am a mother and I see what this 11-year-old child has to go through … It shocks your soul.”
“If Mrs. Carvalho hadn’t said something when she saw him, this little boy probably wouldn’t have been with us much longer,” she added.
“I was used as an instrument by God to help him,” Carvalho told WESH, a subsidiary of CNN. “We need to pay attention to those in need and move forward to do something to change the situation.
CNN’s Holly Silverman contributed to this report.
Add Comment