A 40-year-old Florida man convicted of having sex in a public beach in front of a four-year-old was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on 6 July, a state prosecutor announced.

According to Reuters, Jose Caballero was arrested last July at Bradenton Beach in west central Florida for having sexual intercourse with 21-year-old Elissa Alvarez.

The couple received complaints from fellow beach-goers after Caballero was found fondling and having sex with Alvarez in the middle of the afternoon. Police stated that the sex act, which reportedly lasted 25 minutes, was witnessed by a four-year-old child and was videotaped by another witness.

"I've lived here since 1978 and I go to the beaches, and I've never seen anything like this," the female witness who videotaped the couple said to reporters. As previously reported by IBTimes UK, the woman contacted police after the two began to have sex again after taking a dip and a nap.

"They laid on the beach and passed out for hours. We thought they were dead," she said. "But when they woke up, they cuddled for a while — then they started into the same thing they did before."

The child's mother reportedly asked Caballero to stop, to which he responded confrontationally, Assistant State Attorney Anthony Dafonseca said. Dafonseca said that Caballero's reaction to the mother was factored into the sentence requested.

"His judgment was pretty poor," he added.

Reuters reported the convicted man previously served nearly eight years in prison for cocaine trafficking. Caballero, who faced as much as 15 years in prison for his latest conviction, and Alvarez were both found guilty of lewd or lascivious exhibition in front of a child, a second-degree felony.

Dafonseca said Alvarez was sentenced to time served and is no longer in custody. The couple must both register as sex offenders, Reuters reported.

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