Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More

Get hyperlocal forecasts, radar and weather alerts.

Please enter a valid zipcode.

More than a year-and-a-half after an Orlando server's quick thinking helped rescue a boy from abuse, his father, the perpetrator, has received five life sentences in connection with the case.

According to court records, in June, a jury found Timothy Wilson, 36, guilty of two counts of false imprisonment of a child younger than 13, three counts of aggravated child abuse with a weapon, four counts of aggravated child abuse and a single count of child neglect.

He was sentenced Friday, and received five concurrent life sentences.

Police called the case a great example of how “see something, say something," can make a huge difference.

According to a Jan. 2, 2021, arrest affidavit, Flaviane Carvalho was serving a family of four at Mrs. Potato on Kirkman Road on Jan. 2, 2021, when she suspected something was wrong.

She told police the boy’s father wouldn’t let him order anything to eat or drink.

Carvalho also noticed the boy had multiple bruises on his arms and face, the affidavit said.

She told investigators she then wrote the boy a note, asking whether he needed help. At first, he said no. But when she asked again, he said yes.

That’s when Carvalho says she called police.

Investigators wrote in the affidavit that the responding officer asked Wilson, if he could speak with the boy in private. The father agreed, and the officer took the boy outside the restaurant.

That’s where the officer says he noticed a bruise on the boy’s face and “what appeared to be a healing wound on the bridge of his nose.”

In the affidavit, the officer said the boy claimed he fell out of bed and hit his face on a table, and he got the bruises on his arm “from wrestling with his dad.”

But the officer said the boy eventually described a pattern of ongoing abuse.

According to the affidavit, the boy told the officer that his father “has recently been beating him with a wooden broom, back scratcher and his closed fists … when he does something wrong.” The boy also told police his father “makes him do ‘exercises’ such as planks for punishments as well.”

"It was torture, there's no justification for it in any realm of the world," said Detective Erin Lawler Thursday. "I'm a mother, and seeing what that 11-year-old had to go through, it shocks your soul."

The father denied abusing his son or physically punishing him in any way.

Wilson was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse. The boy's mother was also arrested and charged with child neglect because police said she knew about the abuse but did not seek medical attention. 

On Friday, court records show that she pleaded guilty to neglect of a child, aggravated child abuse and failure to report child abuse by a household member. She is scheduled to be sentenced in the case on Sept. 16.

The boy was treated by Orlando Fire Department paramedics and taken to a hospital.

The owner of the restaurant, Rafa Cabede, says Carvalho wasn't supposed to be working that night, but came in after another worker called out. 

"We understand that this has to encourage other people, when you see something, say something," Cabede said. 

"We are 100% convinced that this saved the life of a child," then-Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said at the time. "And potentially, the future abuse of his sister."