A couple is facing up to 15 years in prison after being found guilty Monday of having sex on a Florida beach, according to court records.
Jose Caballero, 40, and Elissa Alvarez, 20, were arrested on July 20, 2014, for having sex on Bradenton Beach, a Gulf of Mexico beach about 45 minutes south of Tampa, in front of other beachgoers, including children.
The pair denied they had been having intercourse, arguing instead that Alvarez had been "dancing" on top of Cabellero to wake him up, according to the Bradenton Herald.
The court was shown cellphone footage of Alvarez gyrating on top of Caballero. In the end, it took the jury just 15 minutes to convict the pair of second-degree felony charges of "lewd and lascivious exhibition."
"I don’t think the jury had any doubt that was sexual intercourse," Assistant State Attorney Anthony Dafonseca told reporters outside the courtroom.
"We're dealing with basically tourists," Dafonseca said. "They're here on the beaches of Manatee County, our public beaches. 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."
According to court records, a sentencing hearing has yet to be set, but the charges carry a maximum 15 years in prison.
Dafonseca said his office is considering asking the court to impose the full sentence on Caballero, who had previously served jail time for trafficking cocaine, according to public records.
"Ms. Alvarez, she has no criminal history, so we’ll be seeking a reasonable sentence in accordance with that," Dafonseca said. "But Mr Caballero, he went to prison, he had a prior criminal history, he was out within a couple of years, three years, committed another offense."
"We’ll probably be seeking some incarceration, but in terms of how long… 15 years, we’re still debating that," he said.
Such a sentence would be notably more severe than the two-year prison sentence a British couple received in 2008 for having sex on a beach in the United Arab Emirates.
Caballero's defense attorney Ronald Kurpiers told the Bradenton Herald that the judge will have no discretion in sentencing and is likely to impose the full 15-year sentence. BuzzFeed News has attempted to contact Kurpiers for more information.
Both Alvarez and Cabalerro will now also have to register as sex offenders.
Caballero's mother, who declined to be named, told reporters outside the court her son was a good man.
"There are other things out there we need to worry about, and they're still loose, people who have done worse stuff," she said.
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