WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Jupiter father accused of locking his adopted son in a box-like structure in the garage of their home has been found guilty on all counts.
Tim Ferriter was convicted on aggravated child abuse, child neglect and false imprisonment on Thursday afternoon.
Ferriter took a deep breath before the verdict was read and remained stoic as the clerk read the charges. His wife, Tracy Ferriter, sat behind him with her face in her palm.
WATCH: Tim Ferriter found guilty on all counts
Now it will be up to a separate jury to decide the fate of his wife, who is being tried separately. A start date for that trial has yet to be determined.
Jurors began deliberating Thursday after more than a week of trial, which included testimony from the teen and his adopted older sister, who noted how she rarely saw her brother during meals and recalled him being punished differently than the other children.
Tim Ferriter's son described in detail to the jury how he was forced to sleep in an 8x8 windowless room in the garage. Inside the room was a mattress, a desk and a bucket in which to defecate.
WATCH: Tim Ferriter's son on being locked in room: 'It's dehumanizing'
There was a light switch that could only be controlled from outside the room, which was kept locked except when the boy was allowed out to use the bathroom before school or at night before his parents went to bed.
"Did you like being in that room?" Assistant State Attorney Brianna Coakley asked him during trial.
"No," he said.
"Did you want to be in the room?" she asked him.
"No," he said.
He went on to say being locked in the room felt "dehumanizing."
During cross-examination, the boy admitted that he didn't think poorly of his adoptive parents.
"I don't have a bad image of Tim and Tracy," he testified. "They just made a mistake. They were just acting out of frantic surprise of my actions. They weren't – I believe that they weren't trying to do any harm."
WATCH: Tim Ferriter's son: 'I don't have a bad image of Tim and Tracy'
Defense attorneys put forth the testimony of Dr. Sheila Rapa to bolster their argument.
Rapa testified that the teen had been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder – a condition in which a child doesn't form a healthy emotional bond with his or her caretaker.
She also testified that the Ferriters' actions likely exacerbated the boy's long history of behavioral issues, but she didn't believe they were the cause of the problems.
WATCH: 'I don't believe that they were malicious,' doctor says
"I don't believe that they were malicious in so far as they were deliberately trying to abuse and hurt their child," Rapa testified. "I think that they were responding to behaviors that they were very concerned about. … Did they do something appropriate? No. Did they handle it appropriately? No. But I don't think it was just an arbitrary, 'I'm going to abuse this child, be cruel to this child, for no reason.' I think in their mind they were trying to contain some behaviors and keep everybody safe in the process."
Her testimony was a sort of rebuttal to state witness Dr. Wade Myers, who told jurors that the boy's parents were "malicious" and "cruel" and caused severe psychological trauma.
"It was a longstanding pattern of harsh, cruel and demeaning actions toward this child, as well as close to three years of essentially solitary confinement when he was not in school, as well as really sadistic punishments while he was locked away in the room," Myers said.
WATCH LIVE: Doctor calls treatment of Tim Ferriter's son 'severely harmful'
Prosecutors presented the jurors with hours and hours of Ring camera video documenting the Ferriters' interactions with their son. In many of the videos, Tim Ferriter could be heard berating and cursing at the boy.
Defense attorneys tried to portray Tim Ferriter as a frustrated father whose inability to control his son's bad behavior led him to make poor parenting decisions that, while inappropriate, were not criminal.
The jury apparently felt otherwise.
One person jurors didn't hear from was Tim Ferriter, who declined to take the stand.
Tim and Tracy Ferriter were first arrested by Jupiter police in February 2022, shortly after the teen ran away from home.
Tim Ferriter was remanded into custody, handcuffed and taken to jail as he awaits sentencing.
Judge Howard Coates set the sentencing date for Nov. 16 at 1:30 p.m.
