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A Florida couple convicted of having sex on a crowded beach face up to 15 years behind bars and must register as sex offenders and for illicit public sexcapades.

A Manatee County jury on Monday deliberated for about 15 minutes, before finding 20-year-old Elissa Alvarez and 40-year-old Jose "Benny" Caballero guilty of lewd and lascivious exhibition.

The conviction came following a 2-day trial, during which the prosecution showed the jury a video filmed by a grandmother during a July visit to Cortez Beach in Bradenton. The video, according to The Associated Press, shows Alvarez moving on top of Caballero in a sexual manner.

The incident, the prosecutor said, was witnessed by several people, including the mother of a 4-year-old girl who told police her daughter “witnessed the couple having sex.”

The defense failed in their attempts to convince the jury Alvarez had been dancing on Caballero, something Assistant State Attorney Anthony Dafonseca mocked in his closing argument.

"She wasn't dancing," Dafonseca said. "It's insulting your intelligence to say that she was dancing."

Caballero's defense attorney, Ronald Kurpiers, told The Bradenton Herald his client has a prior criminal record for cocaine-trafficking. Because the charge in this case is a felony crime and occurred less than three years after Caballero's release from prison, the judge will have no choice but to give him the full 15-year prison sentence.

"That's what he'll get," Kurpiers said.

Dafonseca plans to ask for an unspecified jail term for Alvarez, the newspaper reported.

The prosecuting attorney told The Miami Herald the couple declined an earlier opportunity to enter into a plea deal, which have likely resulted in much lighter sentences.

"We gave them a reasonable offer, what we felt was reasonable, and they decided it wasn't something they wanted to accept responsibility for," Dafonseca told The Miami Herald. "Despite the video, despite all the witnesses."

salm wrote:Sounds like Saudi Arabia.

LaCroix wrote:
I get that they needed a slap on the wrist for being that public with their sex, but up to 15 years? Sex offender? Come on!

Because the charge in this case is a felony crime and occurred less than three years after Caballero's release from prison, the judge will have no choice but to give him the full 15-year prison sentence.

The prosecuting attorney told The Miami Herald the couple declined an earlier opportunity to enter into a plea deal, which have likely resulted in much lighter sentences.

Borgholio wrote:As far as the sex offender part, I agree that is too much in either case. We have discussed on this board several times how taking a leak on a tree in public is *somehow* as bad as raping a 10 year old girl in the back of a van.

Is there no grading system to the US sex offender registry? I had always assumed that "exposure to minors" or somesuch was filed in a way that threw up less red flags on a search than "raped a minor", even if it wasn't a distinction very visible to the general public.

Patroklos wrote:How would this be any different than flashing a playground? Sex offender is appropriate. This isn't an "I was pissing in a mostly concealed alley and a kid COULD have seen me do it if he happened to be roaming the bar district at 1am" situation. This is "I made a conscious decision to expose myself during broad daylight in a public fully open space in an unambiguously sexual manor while children were clearly present" situation.

Borgholio wrote:So the dude had a pre-existing felony record which makes this incident much worse than it would have been ordinarily for him.

Only because someone insane decided to make indecent exposure a serious crime. I could understand fines, community service, or other similar grade punishment, but 15 years is indeed in Saudi Arabia territory.

SilverDragonRed wrote:That, and overzealous prosecutors trying people again and again until they win just so they could add yet another notch to their records.

Irbis wrote: By 'broad daylight' you mean 'early morning in out of way corner' I saw in other articles documenting it?

Patroklos wrote:

LaCroix wrote:
I get that they needed a slap on the wrist for being that public with their sex, but up to 15 years? Sex offender? Come on!

How would this be any different than flashing a playground? Sex offender is appropriate. This isn't an "I was pissing in a mostly concealed alley and a kid COULD have seen me do it if he happened to be roaming the bar district at 1am" situation. This is "I made a conscious decision to expose myself during broad daylight in a public fully open space in an unambiguously sexual manor while children were clearly present" situation.

Tribble wrote:Doesn't the US have the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world? With things like this, it doesn't come as much of a surprise.