An Orlando man has been convicted after a server noticed several harrowing things last year that indicated a child who was with him at the restaurant she worked at was being abused.
On Monday, Timothy Lee Wilson was found guilty of two counts of false imprisonment on 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, per a news release from the state attorney's office.
On New Year's Day 2021, Flaviane Carvalho, a waitress who worked at the Mrs. Potato restaurant in Orlando, called 911 after holding up a sign that only the young victim could see, which read: "Do you need help?"
She told police that a family of four arrived at the restaurant at around 11:00 PM and recalled how one child was secluded from the rest of the family. He was denied food and Carvalho noticed he had bruises.
Concerned for the boy's wellbeing, she wrote and held up a sign behind his stepfather, which read: "Do you need help? OK". When the 11-year-old boy nodded, she called 911 and days later, Wilson and the boy's mother, Kristen Swann, were taken into police custody.
Authorities later found that the child had been "tortured" and "maliciously punished," the attorney's office release said.
He was was made to do military-style exercises, and according to prosecutors, was hung upside down from a door by his neck and feet and was even once handcuffed to a dolly cart.
"What this child had gone through, it was torture," Orlando Police Detective Erin Lawler said. "I'm a mother and seeing what that 11-year-old had to go through ... It shocks your soul."
"If Ms. Carvalho would not have said something when she saw it, that little boy would probably not be with us much longer," she added.
"I was used like a tool from God to, to help him," Carvalho told CNN affiliate WESH. "We need to pay attention for the ones that [are] in need, and step forward to do something to change the situation."
Wilson is set to be sentenced on Friday, August 19, 2022.
