Lebanon County Man, 35, Found Guilty of Abusing Two Kids for Five Years

A Lebanon County jury has found 35-year-old Fernando Silva guilty of sexually and physically abusing two children over a five-year span, with the victims taking the stand to describe years of mistreatment that began when they were pre-teenagers. The verdict came down Wednesday, and Silva now awaits sentencing while held at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility.

Silva was convicted of indecent assault, corruption of minors, indecent exposure, and endangering the welfare of children, according to local21news.com. Trial testimony established that Silva beat the children with his hands, belts, and other household objects, and that he beat and groped them over the course of the abuse. The case was prosecuted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Child Predator Section, and the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General reported the convictions.

Attorney General Dave Sunday said the defendant repeatedly abused the children for years and that they later testified in court about what happened to them. Sunday commended the jurors for weighing the facts and returning what he called a just verdict, and he also commended the investigators and prosecutor who pursued the case to conviction.

Verdict Sets Up December Sentencing

The guilty verdict was returned in the Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas under docket number CP-38-CR-115-2025, closing out the jury trial phase of Commonwealth v. Fernando Silva, according to Lebanon County court records. Silva's sentencing is now scheduled for December 16, 2026, and he remains held at the Lebanon County Correctional Facility at 730 E. Walnut Street in Lebanon, a county jail that houses pre-trial detainees and inmates serving sentences under two years, per the Lebanon County Correctional Facility.

How much prison time Silva will ultimately face remains an open question ahead of that December court date, since the case involves multiple felony and misdemeanor counts each carrying its own statutory range. Under Pennsylvania's child endangerment statute, 18 Pa.C.S. § 4304, the charge is elevated from a first-degree misdemeanor to a third-degree felony carrying up to seven years in prison when prosecutors prove a continuous course of conduct, according to Fienman Defense, and trial testimony describing five years of repeated physical abuse fits that pattern.

What the Other Convictions Carry

Pennsylvania law also treats indecent assault of a victim under 13, or committed as a repeated offense, as a third-degree felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 per count, as outlined by Ciccarelli Law Offices. The children were pre-teenagers during most of the five-year period of abuse. Silva's indecent exposure conviction, meanwhile, is graded as a first-degree misdemeanor carrying up to five years in prison when committed in the presence of a minor under 16, according to Matthew R. Zatko Attorney at Law, while his corruption of minors conviction can be graded as either a first-degree misdemeanor or a third-degree felony depending on the circumstances, punishable by up to five to seven years, per the Bickerton Law Blog.

Beyond prison time, Silva's sex crime convictions will trigger mandatory registration under Pennsylvania's Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, known as SORNA, which the Bickerton Law Blog notes requires at least 15 years of annual registration for lower-tier offenses and can extend to lifetime registration for more severe or repeat offenses. That registry is monitored by the Pennsylvania State Police once Silva is released.

Part of a Broader Statewide Crackdown

Attorney General Dave Sunday, who took office in January 2025 as the Commonwealth's 15th elected Attorney General after previously serving as York County District Attorney, oversees the Child Predator Section that brought the case, according to PAcast. The Silva conviction follows another high-profile case this month, when the same section secured a life sentence without parole for a repeat child predator in nearby Schuylkill County under Pennsylvania's third-strike law, according to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. The state OAG regularly steps in to prosecute complex or severe child exploitation cases referred by local district attorneys.

The Silva verdict also lands amid a string of child exploitation cases moving through Lebanon County courts this year. Hoodline reported on an Annville arrest in July tied to alleged Discord child pornography uploads, part of a broader pattern of exploitation cases moving through the region's courts and task forces this year.