CNN
A stepfather in Florida has been convicted of child abuse after a restaurant employee last year noticed concerning signs and used a surreptitious note to ask a boy if he needed help, the Orange County State Attorney’s Office announced Monday.
A jury found Timothy Lee Wilson, 36, guilty of two counts of false imprisonment of a child under the age of 13, three counts of aggravated child abuse with a weapon, four counts of aggravated child abuse, and one count of child neglect, a news release from the state attorney’s office said.
An investigation revealed 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 exercises and other abuses, according to the release. Officers recovered multiple items used as weapons against the child, the release added.
The 11-year-old boy and his family were at the Mrs. Potato restaurant in Orlando on January 1, 2021, when employee Flaviane Carvalho noticed he was sitting secluded from his parents and sibling, was being deprived of food and drink, and was bruised and scratched, CNN previously reported.
Carvalho stood behind the boy’s parents and held up a note asking the boy if he was OK. When the child nodded no, she wrote a second note that asked, “Do you need help,” she explained at a news conference.
After the boy nodded yes, Carvalho called her boss and then called 911.
